The purpose of this article is to present the main principles of accessibility for online learning. The first part of the article defines disability. The next section focuses on how to apply the framework of universal design for learning (UDL) to the online teaching context. The final section explains how to create or modify learning materials so…

The Accessibility Working Group (AWG) aims to create a collaborative culture of access within our group, our composition program, and our larger professional and pedagogical communities. To create a culture of access, participants need to be collaborative members of a community to continuously negotiate access needs that change over time. The AWG…

Accessible online courses enable learning and promote equity. This paper reviews seven national and statewide online course design instruments and identifies 14 recurrent accessibility themes that occur in two to six instruments. This paper then discusses how these recurrent themes address the accessibility guidelines from the Office of Civil…

Students with disabilities may experience barriers to curriculum when inaccessible apps are incorporated into the classroom. To support physical educators, this report offers guidance on identifying (section I) and using (section II) app accessibility features within physical education classrooms. Example applications and resources are shared that…

All students deserve access to effective, equitable physics education. Postsecondary faculty have been shown to be unprepared to support students with disabilities in their classes, and popular, research-based introductory physics curricula do not adequately plan for variations in learners' needs, abilities, and interests. It is urgent to address…

In early childhood education, ensuring that all students, including those with disabilities, can access and engage with learning materials is a pivotal aspect of educational equity and inclusion. Accessible Educational Materials (AEM) and Assistive Technologies (AT) are central to this endeavor, providing essential resources that accommodate…

Despite laws in the United States (e.g., Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and its 2008 Amendments), students with various disabilities continue to experience access barriers to instructional content and inclusion in course activities. Online learning environments can present especially…

Centers for teaching and learning (CTLs) have increasingly been attending to diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and access (DEIJA), offering myriad programs for instructors to learn how to make their teaching more welcoming and effective for all students. Yet considerations of disability continue to lag behind in higher education, and…

Social justice has gained momentum over the past decades with a surge of attention since March 2020. Among many seeking social justice, individuals with disabilities often are forgotten or excluded. Students with disabilities consistently scored below students without disabilities, in all age categories, on the 2015 National Assessment of…

The purpose of using technology in education today is to provide students with an opportunity to learn a given topic at their own pace and convenience. Integrating technology into education is of considerable value because using technology effectively has the potential to make learning meaningful (Kirschner, 2015). Within a decade, technology has…

The issue this paper addresses is the lack of attention to inclusivity of people with visual impairments in the maker movement. To capture major challenges which blind makers are faced with in makerspaces and to learn how to pursue a more accessible making ecology, three online communities for blind makers (The Blind Arduino Blog; Raspberry VI;…

The potential of ChatGPT is explored as an assistive technology tool within the framework of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to provide targeted support for college students with disabilities. As colleges and universities strive to promote inclusive practices, the implementation of UDL principles has gained significance. ChatGPT's interactive…

This essay describes the concept of access needs as a tool for improving accessibility in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education broadly, from the classroom, to research group meetings, to professional conferences. The normalization of stating access needs and creating access check-ins is a regular practice used in…

Approximately one-quarter of the adult population self-reports having one or more disabilities. Expanding adult and continuing education access for individuals with disabilities is an important dimension of striving to make our programs more inclusive. Thus, it is crucial that adult and continuing educators have a basic understanding of the types…

The 2016-2017 academic year at the University of Central Florida (UCF) confirmed that online learning is rapidly on the march to becoming the dominant modality in the student learning experience. A developing concern is whether this increase in online learning offerings and enrollment translates to more online accessibility barriers for students…