This month’s blog post was provided by Anne Marie Gruber, Liaison and Textbook Equity Librarian at the University of Northern Iowa.
One of the most important considerations when selecting, adapting, or creating OER is accessibility. We bear a responsibility to ensure that all students can use materials, whether they have a disability or simply have a learning preference. Many librarians and faculty have no training in this area, and ensuring accessibility can seem overwhelming at first. Fortunately, there are many helpful resources available to improve accessibility for course materials.
Resources to consult:
OER Accessibility Series and Rubric
This guide from Affordable Learning Georgia features practical, step-by-step ways to make open content in the most common authoring programs accessible.
Accessibility Toolkit
Now in its 2nd edition, the Accessibility Toolkit provides resources for authors to create truly open textbooks—ones that are both free and accessible for all students. The suggestions provided in this guide are intended for non-technical users.
Understanding Document Accessibility
This robust Pressbook provides suggestions for ensuring accessibility when using Google, Microsoft, and Adobe productivity software.
Designing for Accessibility with POUR Framework
Provided by the National Center on Accessible Educational Materials, this framework is a set of four principles creators can use to ensure their content is accessible. POUR stands for Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust.
Inclusive Learning Design Handbook
The ILD Handbook is “a free Open Educational Resource (OER) designed to assist in creating adaptable and personalizable educational resources that can accommodate a diversity of learning preferences and individual needs.”
Enhancing Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) in Open Educational Resources (OER)
Nikki Andersen’s 2022 book provides a framework for reviewing the accessibility of OER as well as tips for providing inclusive imagery, diverse examples, anti-racist pedagogy, and more.
What else can I do?
Commonly used tools for accessibility checking and remediation include Web Accessibility in Mind (WebAIM) and WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool. In addition, many learning management systems (LMS) have built-in accessibility checkers; for example, my institution uses Blackboard, and Blackboard Ally has some nice features that improve accessibility of a variety of file formats.
In addition to these resources, I recommend partnering with your institution’s accessibility experts and instructional designers/educational technology specialists to ensure you are working toward (and beyond!) Universal Design for Learning in your program.
Remember: open educational resources are only truly open if they are accessible and usable by all!