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University of Missouri-Columbia University of Missouri  

Educational Technologies at Missouri
A division of the Office of the Provost

Universal Design and the American Disabilities Act (ADA)

Overview

ADA. The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that U.S. programs and services be accessible to individuals with disabilities. There are a total of 11 laws that protect persons with disabilities. A 1996 Department of Justice ruling makes it clear that ADA accessibility requirements apply to Internet resources. An individual with a disability is defined by the ADA as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who has a history or record of such an impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as having such an impairment. The ADA does not specifically name all of the impairments that are covered.

Universal Design. Everyone from architects, product designers, engineers, and educators are exploring solutions that help all users, not just people with disabilities. According to the Center for Universal Design, the general principals include design features that contribute toward equitable use, flexibility in use, simple and intuitive use, perceptible information, tolerance for error, low physical effort, and size and space for approach and use. If designed effectively, the end result should be user-friendly and cost-effective.

What Educators Using Online Environments Should Know about ADA

The Web offers many educational opportunities for those with physical impairments. In addition to easier access, there are reports that the comfort level is much greater during group discussions where visual impressions and judgments are less likely to occur. Allowing time for course planning and preparation is one effective way that instructors can assist students with learning or physical disabilities.

Educators who utilize the Internet and/or the Web should be aware of the standards of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act that went into effect on June 21, 2001 (the Act of 1973 was amended in 1998). This law involves agencies that receive federal funding, and Missouri has passed a similar law regarding agencies that receive state funding. Previously developed Web sites do not have to change in advance of an accommodation request. However, when the request is made, the university must make reasonable efforts to provide access to the learning experience at a level equivalent to that of non-handicapped students. Therefore, Section 508 compliance should be taken into account as new MU websites are developed and existing websites are revised. The section “Common Sense Considerations…” provides recommendations of ways to avoid potential pitfalls for students with disabilities.

Resources for More Information

ADA

Universal Design

Common-Sense Considerations and Tips from Lessons Learned

Include information about students’ rights and responsibilities in your syllabus. Be aware of the rights and responsibilities of students with special needs. New students may not be aware of the requirements. Know the law for providing access, as well as the MU process required to accommodate special needs. The MU ADA Coordinator recommends that faculty include something similar to the following in their Web course sites:

If you need accommodations because of a disability, if you have emergency medical information to share with me, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please inform me immediately. Please see me privately after class or at my office.

To request academic accommodations, students must also register with Disability Services, 573-882-4696, http://disabilityservices.missouri.edu/. Disability Services is the campus office responsible for reviewing documentation provided by students requesting academic accommodations, and for accommodations planning in cooperation with students and instructors, as needed and consistent with course requirements. Another resource, MU's Adaptive Computing Technology Center, 573-884-2828 or 866-396-2380 (toll free), or actcenter@missouri.edu is available to provide computing assistance to students with disabilities. For hours, see the Center’s web site - http://doit.missouri.edu/help/adaptive.html

For more information about the rights of people with disabilities, please see http://ada.missouri.edu, call 573-884-7278, or e-mail hensonl@missouri.edu.

Following the principles of universal design, create a web page design that provides a simple, consistent layout throughout your site. Keep backgrounds plain and make sure there is enough contrast between background and font color. Use standard HTML and make links descriptive so they are understood out of context (i.e., when a student uses reader software). Design large, easy-to-view buttons, typically in the range of 64 to 72 pixels. It’s important that you give careful consideration to your use of images in general. Try to think about them from the user’s perspective. Does the image really add anything to the instructional content? If the answer is no, or you have trouble deciding, that’s a pretty good clue that this particular image is questionable. Provide alternative ways of supplying information from audio and video. Provide audio and/or video descriptions and captions. Provide transcripts for all audio information. (Feel free to contact ET@MO for more details on appropriate sizes or layout.)

Prepare your web pages for easy use by screen readers. The following sections provide specific information about how screen readers handle a variety of web issues.

  • Screen Readers and Acronyms - We are all used to seeing and using them, so they are an everyday occurrence for most of us. You may know what the acronyms NASA, USA, JFK, LBJ, IBM, IRS stand for, but a visually impaired user will have a tough time deciphering the screen reader when trying to read these “words.” So use acronyms sparingly. Since we read many common acronyms as individual letters, it makes sense to format them accordingly and provide a full version of the phrase the acronym abbreviates. You can accomplish this by simply putting a space between each letter of the acronym. Thus, USA becomes U S A, IBM becomes I B M, and so on. By using this tactic you retain the visual component of the acronym and allow the sight-impaired person to glean the meaning without inducing undo cognitive load.
  • Screen Readers and Data Tables - Presenting information in table form is common in most college courses, and the Web in particular. Screen readers generally work across the rows in a table, so try to orient your data to be read across in rows, rather than columns. (Note, for example that the Blackboard Grade tool reformats the columnar data into rows in the student view.) Because data points in a table frequently have specific relationships with each other, it’s necessary to enable a screen reader to supply that information in a way that is logically understandable without the visual aid of the table. Special markup in the HTML language is required to accomplish this task. Examples may be found at: http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10-HTML-TECHS/#identifying-table-rows-columns.

    Using the CAPTION tag, which typically provides a short description about a data table, will automatically place the text of your caption directly on top of the data table. Screen readers will read the word “caption” and then read the text of the caption, providing a verbal clue to the nature of the table.
  • Screen Readers and Hyperlinks - Try to use specific phrasing when sending someone to an outside link. Keep it as simple as possible and as descriptive as necessary. It is common practice to display links with the entire underlined URL—in all its complexity—as shown in the example above. An alternative method may use a word or phrase in the text to link to the information such as “You may find examples of table markup at the W3 Website.” Screen reader software will read an underlined link by speaking the word “link” and then speaking the underlined text. If it’s a complete URL, the screen reader will try to speak the letter combinations as actual words and will speak the punctuation marks as well. A linked word or phrase will be read as “link” plus the underlined words of the link. Again, being specific helps the technology work well in addition to providing clarification on the nature of the link.
  • Screen Readers and Graphics - Include appropriate, explanatory ALT attributes for graphical elements on your Web page. Many web editors provide opportunities for including ALT tags. ALT tags are captions inserted within the HTML code that explain what the graphic represents making an image usable for individuals with visual impairments. Computer reader software will provide the description tag where the graphic would occur such as:
    <img src=”images/sb17.gif” alt=”Press this button to go to the main page about Instructional Design and Teaching & Learning.” width=”29” height=”29” border=”0” align=”left”>

    In the above example you’ll notice there are additional optional attributes called width, height, border, and align. The img src attribute is not optional, as it specifies the path and name of the image being used. Everything else after that is optional. The ALT attribute allows you to attach a verbal descriptor to an image, giving you the opportunity to explain to users what the image is or does, or how it relates to the rest of the content in your Web page. Similar to ALT is the SUMMARY attribute. It allows you to include a longer explanation of the item you’re describing. Use SUMMARY when including a longer description. A NULL value for unimportant graphics, which consists of an empty pair of quotation marks. The NULL value should appear as an ALT attribute within the image tag and would be written as: alt=” ”.

Test your Web pages for ADA compliance. Use multiple browsers (i.e., Firefox, Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera); use one that is text-based and/or turn off the graphics and sound capability with multimedia browsers. Also try various computer platforms and test various sized monitors and resolutions. Try out the site’s accessibility with the computer keyboard only. There are also useful Web page testing software available for Web pages. (Note that these utilities do not work with pages already inside a Blackboard course site.) Examples include: o WAVE http://www.wave.webaim.org/index.jsp o W3C markup validation service http://validator.w3.org/

Stay current. Students may not understand that there are different options available. Know ways that MU might provide access to technologies that you require for your course. Different accommodation methods might include: a personal reader, Braille, large print for people with low vision, telephone relay services, real-time transcription, printing of Web pages, interpreter services, or captioning.