This document provides information about accessibility and compliance with legislation for online content. It begins with self-assessment questions for institutions to consider regarding their Section 504 coordinator, accessibility of purchases and resources, and adoption of quality standards. It then outlines recent legal cases and complaints related to accessibility. Recommendations are provided for policies regarding standards, reviews, and grievance processes. Guidelines also cover course design best practices like alternative text, captions, navigation without mice, and external link compliance. Resources for creating accessible content and evaluating accessibility are referenced.

1. Raymond M. Rose
Rose & Smith Associates
Port Aransas, TX
This work by Raymond Rose is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Avoid Jail: Bring Your Online Content
Into Concert with Current Legislation

2. Who are you?
• K-12
• Teacher/Instructional Designer
• Administrator
• Higher Ed
• Faculty
• Instructional Designer
• Administrator
• Government/Non-profit

3. Why are you here?

4. Background
• K-12 teacher, curriculum coordinator, counselor, adminstrator
• Civil Rights Specialist with Mass Dept of Education
• Civil Rights Specialist/Manager New England equity assistance center
• Virtual High School designer/manager
• 1st virtual school special needs policy
• 2007 1st publication access and equity in online education
• Faculty, Instructional Technology and Distance Learning Coordinator,
Huston-Tillotson U.
• Technical Working Group, Center on Online Learning and Students with
Disabilities
• 2014 Access and Equity for All Learners in Blended and Online Education

5. Self-Assessment Questions
• Who is your institution’s Section 504 Coordinator?
• Does your institution include an accessibility check for all
purchases?
• Has your institution conducted an accessibility audit?
• Has your institution adopted quality standards for online
resources/courses?

6. Evolving State of Legal Enforcement
• Kindle and Arizona State – June
2009
• Google Apps for Education (NYU,
NU) – March 2011
• Penn State – 2011 --suit
• Florida State University – March
2012 -- suit
University of Montana –
September 2012
South Carolina Technical College
System – March 2013
Lockhart ISD – July 2013
• Louisiana Tech University – July
2013 -- complaint
Crowley ISD – March 2013 –
complaint
Virtual Community School of Ohio
– November 2013
South Carolina Virtual Charter
Schools – March 2014
• University of Montana-Missoula –
March 2014 -- complaint
H&R Block – March 2014 - suit
U. Cincinnati & Youngstown State
U – December 2014
Key:  Website,  Compliance review,  Complaint

7. And in case you’ve missed it….
Dated April 2nd.
http://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/united-states-reaches-settlement-provider-massive-open-online-courses-make-its-content

8. Go to iNACOL.org and
find the publication
listed under Latest
News, Research and
Resources

9. OCR’s Operational Definition
“those with a disability are able to acquire the
same information and engage in the same
interactions — and within the same time frame —
as those without disabilities.”
OCR Compliance Review 11-11-2128, 06121583,
paraphrased from 11-13-5001, 10122118, 11-11-6002

10. Most Recent OCR Findings: UCincinnati &
Youngstown StateU
• Lack of Alternative Text on All Images
• Documents Not Posted in an Accessible Format
• Lack of Captions on All Videos and the Inability to Operate Video
Controls Using Assistive Technology
• Improperly Structured Data Tables
• Improperly Formatted and Labeled Form Fields
• Improper Contrast Between Background and Foreground Colors
• Frames Not Titled with Text that Facilitates Frame Identification and
Navigation (Youngstown only)

11. Access and Equity Checklist
•Policies
•Course Design
•Program and Course Monitoring
Rose & Smith Associates

12. Policy Recommendations:
Institution has adopted, as policy, a set of quality standards to
which all courses adhere.
All of the institution’s courses (including those from outside
profit and non-profit vendors) are reviewed to insure they
meet legal accessibility standards.
Institution has determined process, responsibility, and timeline
for retrofitting accessibility or replacing courses that are not
accessible.

13. Policy Recommendations:
Institution has a designated 504 Coordinator, Grievance
Policy, and conducts annual notifications. (Required)
Institution has policy and activities to ensure organizational
website meets accessibility requirements.

14. Policy Recommendations (K-12)
 Institution has created and promulgated a Special Needs
Online Learning Policy.
 Institution has no gateway exam/test where a specific score
is required to participate in online learning activities.

15. Course Design:
Color selection does not impede students with color blindness.
There is no use of graphical eye-candy.
All graphics have meaningful, learning-related Alt Tags.
All content in PDFs is searchable (if a graphic, follow
requirements for graphics).

16. Course Design
All audio is accompanied by text transcripts.
All video includes synchronized captioning.
Course navigation is possible without the use of a mouse.
Content at all external links meets the same accessibility
standards.
Courses are reviewed with access by a screen reader in
mind.

17. Program and Course Monitoring (K-12)
 Disaggregated enrollment data is collected for all online
programs and courses.
 Enrollment data is analyzed for comparison with
sending population.

18. Resources
1 of 10
Access and Equity for All Learners in Blended and Online Education
• http://www.inacol.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/iNACOL-Access-and-
Equity-for-All-Learners-in-Blended-and-Online-Education-Oct2014.pdf
Higher Ed Accessibility Lawsuits, Complaints, and Settlements
• http://www.d.umn.edu/~lcarlson/atteam/lawsuits.html

19. US DoE Office of Educational Technology
Ed Tech Developers Guide
A primer for software developers, startups, and entrepreneurs
• http://tech.ed.gov/files/2015/04/Developer-Toolkit.pdf
Resources
2 of 10

20. Resources
3 of 10
FREE Video Captioning Apps
•NCAM.wgbh.org
•MAGpie
•CC for FLASH
How to add closed captions to YouTube
•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K4WJs94FfY

21. Resources
4 of 10
Adobe and Accessibility website (PDF info)
• www.adobe.com/accessibility.html
Creating Accessible Tables and Data Tables
• http://webaim.org/techniques/tables/
• http://webaim.org/techniques/tables/data
2014 Access and equity for all learners in blended and online
education
• http://inacol.org

22. Resource
5 of 10
Color Blindness Simulator
http://www.seewald.at/en/2012/01/color_blind
ness_correction_and_simulator
See through the eyes of your red, green or blue
colorblind student.
Android

23. Resources
6 of 10
Color advice for cartography
• http://colorbrewer2.org/
Vischeck simulates colorblind vision.
• http://www.vischeck.com/
Daltonize corrects images for colorblind viewers.
• http://www.vischeck.com/daltonize/
More Color Blindness Tools

24. Resources
7 of 10
FREE website accessibility testers
•http://CynthiaSays.com
•http://WAVE.webaim.org
•https://amp.ssbbartgroup.com/express

25. Browser Based Tools
Accessibility Evaluator for
Firefox 1.5.7.1*
WAVE Evaluation Tool for
Google Chrome
*2008 uses WCAG 1.0
Resource
8 of 10

26. Resources
9 of 10
10 Free Screen Readers
http://usabilitygeek.com/10-free-screen-reader-
blind-visually-impaired-users/

27. Resource
10 of 10
NVDA http://www.nvaccess.org/
NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) is a free “screen
reader” which enables blind and vision impaired people to
use computers. It reads the text on the screen in a
computerised voice. You can control what is read to you
by moving the cursor to the relevant area of text with a
mouse or the arrows on your keyboard.

28. April 22, 2PM ET - The Future of Video Player Accessibility
In this webinar, developers from YouTube/Google, JW Player, Video.js, and University of Washington will come together to discuss
video player accessibility. We will discuss the current capabilities, known shortcomings, and plans for future development.
April 30, 2PM ET - Creating Accessible PDFs with Acrobat: Requirements, Implementation, and Evaluation
This webinar will walk you through the requirements for PDF accessibility and how to provide textual alternatives for visual
elements. Explore various Acrobat tools that will make accessibility implementation as simple as possible.
May 7, 2PM ET - Quick Start to Captioning
Learn the basics of how to add closed captions or subtitles to make your videos fully accessible, searchable, and SEO-friendly.
Register for this webinar to learn about accessibility laws and compliance,how to create closed captions,getting the right caption
format and more.
May 21, 2PM ET - 10 Tips for Creating Accessible Web Content
In this webinar, Janet Sylvia, the Digital Media Professional Specialist and leader of the Web Accessibility Group at University of
Georgia, will walk you through 10 tips for creating accessible websites following the international standard WCAG 2.0.
Accessibility Tips for
Effective Teaching and
Learning
http://www.3playmedia.com/how-it-works/webinars/

29. Contact Info
Raymond Rose
• ray@rose-smith.com
• 512.791.3100
Presentation slides on this topic are
available at SlideShare.net under
RaymondRose
And at my blog: rmrose.blogspot.com