Designing for Accessibility

📘 TLC Guide Available
This topic includes full-length TLC Guides for deeper exploration.
► Creating Accessible Course Materials
► Designing Effective & Accessible Group Work

Making Courses Accessible

Learner variability and difference is the norm, rather than the exception, in any learning environment (UDL on Campus). Proactive, intentional approaches to course design ensure that individuals with disabilities can access the same content and demonstrate their learning as those without disabilities, with similar ease and speed.

While our aim is to make classes more accessible from the start, students with disabilities may still require additional or different accommodations. For any questions about how to ensure accessibility for specific students’ accommodations, the course instructor should contact the Disability Resource Center (DRC). The DRC also provides this Faculty resource page and FAQs for faculty.

The Value of Accessible Course Design

By prioritizing accessibility in the creation of course materials, instructors can reduce barriers and make their materials more inclusive for all students.
Adding universal design principles like flexibility, simplicity, and clarity into the creation of course materials can make the materials more accessible to all students, including students with various disabilities.
Use of open education resources (OER) can also improve accessibility and reduce the need for students to request accommodations.

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Framework

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework can guide all aspects of course development and delivery to maximize accessibility and reduce barriers to learning. The UDL framework invites educators to consider how we can provide students with:

Multiple means of representation (the “what” of learning, including access to course readings, presentations, slides, and more; the section on “course materials,” below, can especially support you with this element of the framework);
Multiple means of action and expression (the “how” of learning, including providing options for how students demonstrate their learning on assignments)
Multiple means of engagement (the “why” of learning, including supporting students to see the relevance of what they are learning in their daily lives, and increasing their agency by giving them some choices in their learning).

Learn more about the UDL perspective on learning goals, assessment, and adapting to online learning environments.

Support from the Accessibility Team

The Accessibility Team is a group of skilled and knowledgeable student workers who can provide assistance to instructors seeking to make their courses proactively more accessible for all students. From document remediation to captioning assistance, this team provides flexible services to help improve the accessibility in your course for all students without the need of accommodation.

The Accessibility Team can assist with:

Caption creation/editing/review of your pre-recorded lasting materials
Review of material(s) for accessibility and document remediation
Review of existing courses for accessibility
Consultation for designing for accessibility

Email TLC’s Education Specialist Dana Conard (dconard@ucsc.edu) for more information.

TLC Guides on Accessible Design

Creating Accessible Course Materials
Designing Effective & Accessible Group Work

Additional Resources on Designing for Accessibility

The Accessible Syllabus page provides further support for instructors in building a syllabus that plans for all student abilities.

The UCSC Resources for Affordable Textbooks page contains information about library and campus resources for making course materials accessible and available for all students.