As the Clarkson community celebrates Diversity & Inclusion Week (DIW), the Teaching & Learning Corner encourages faculty to consider the wide range of physical and mental capabilities that exist for students, and the challenges they present in both the physical and digital classroom.
Conditions vary with everything from intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, visual impairments, speech and hearing disorders, Cerebral Palsy, autistic spectrum disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and epilepsy, among others.
The following web simulations help give the viewer a sense for everyday life for people with these and other conditions:
- To better understand that needs for people are real and present even when we can’t see them, watch this video.
- Experience what it feels like in this simulator video for those who struggle with attention disorders.
- Take a walk as someone with low vision in this simulator experience website.
Here are two quick tips instructors can use to help improve the digital experience for others:
- Choose wisely when it comes to background and font colors. This applies to selections for digital slides, electronic publications and web content (including Moodle!).
- The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Success Criterion 1.4.3, developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), states that “The visual presentation of text and images of text has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1” with some exceptions. Most commonly you may need to worry about color contrast is within PowerPoint presentations, as they often have a background color other than white.
- Generally, if you choose very light on very dark backgrounds, or vice versa, you will be fine, however there are some additional considerations such as color combinations that are difficult for those with color blindness. To test out color combinations, try out one of these color contrast pickers:
• WebAIM’s color contrast checker – Web-based tool
• Accessibility color wheel – Web-based tool (adjusts in real time to show how text will look to various color deficiencies
- Link with purpose. Referring your readers to information at other websites is a powerful option. Best practices have evolved over time so it is recommended you adopt the current recommendations when linking to a website.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is developed through the W3C process in cooperation with individuals and organizations around the world, with a goal of providing a single shared standard for web content accessibility that meets the needs of individuals, organizations, and governments internationally.
WCAG’s Success Criterion 2.4.4 states that “The purpose of each link can be determined from the link text alone or from the link text together with its programmatically determined link context, except where the purpose of the link would be ambiguous to users in general.”
In short, this means that links should be descriptive instead of technical. A description or title of where the link is going should be the link, not the URL.
Note the examples below which are clear and unclear.
Unclear:
View https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/link-purpose-in-context.html.
View W3C’s WCAG Success Criterion 2.4.4 here: https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/link-purpose-in-context.html
Click here to view W3C’s WCAG Success Criterion 2.4.4.
Clear:
View W3C’s WCAG Success Criterion 2.4.4.
This message sponsored by the Teaching & Learning Corner in support of Diversity and Inclusion Week Jan 2019 at Clarkson University. For more information, contact Laura Perry, lperry@clarkson.edu, 315-268-6760 or helpdesk@clarkson.edu.