Engaging Faculty in the Creation of Accessible Course Content

In spring 2018, we conducted a pilot of Blackboard Ally as part of a broader commitment to ensure the accessibility of our digital content. There were many positive results, including significant accessibility increases in the pilot courses. Valuable hands-on experience in making documents accessible empowered faculty, resulting in an unexpected but noteworthy benefit. We will discuss how we worked with faculty to address the barriers to creating accessible content: time, skills, and resources. We will also discuss how this pilot is driving course content accessibility and our plan for broader faculty engagement and development moving forward.

Outcomes: Identify challenges to faculty engagement in the creation of accessible course content * Explain solutions that result in faculty engagement in the creation of accessible course content * Understand the faculty perspective on creation of accessible course content that resulted from a well-supported tool