Description
This section examines Faculty practices around ensuring maximum curriculum accessibility.
Recommendations
1. Ensure Faculty are aware of resources and information to support their compliance with requirements around teaching disabled students and creation of accessible classrooms.
- Advise Faculty to review the content on DSP's Resources for Faculty and Teaching and Inclusive Design webpage and on DAC's Faculty Resources, Information and Training Materials webpage
- Advise Faculty to familiarize themselves with the Faculty/DSP Liaisons program where peers are available to answer questions and facilitate communication with DSP as needed
2. Ensure language is inserted into all syllabi stating that students requiring disability accommodations can arrange this with the Disabled Students Program
- Here is the recommended language
3. Ensure that all Faculty know how to make physical and digital (for example: web, PDFs, videos, etc.) curriculum materials accessible to disabled students, and comply with the requirement that ALL course video, per UCOP requirements, be captioned.
- Advise Faculty to review the Research, Teaching and Learning program's Accessible Course Content webpage and their Campus Resources for Faculty
- Advise Faculty to review the Disabled Students' Program's Accessibility Responsibilities and Faculty FAQ - Alternative Media
4. Encourage Faculty to complete the training on best practices for creating inclusive classrooms.
- The Disability, Accommodation and Access in the UC Classroom training, on our Learning Management System.
5. Ensure that faculty assess outside websites for accessibility prior to including them as part of the curriculum.
- Advise Faculty that the University recommends linking to public domain, library-license, or open-access content that is available online rather than uploading copyrighted materials to your course site when possible. Aside from the benefits of license support for copyrighted materials, Library resources offer formats that are already available in accessible formats.
- Advise Faculty to contact RTL at assistive-tech@berkeley.edu if they need support to ensure third party content is accessible.
6. Develop practices to ensure that, if students are required to engage in activities outside the classroom, that these activities are fully accessible to students with disabilities.
- Ensure faculty understand that in courses requiring field trips or internships need to work with their students and the Disabled Students' Program to be sure the students' needs are met. For example, the students may require assistance with accessible transportation, specific seating arrangements, an accessible environment, and/or frequent rest-breaks.
- Advise Faculty to review material on how to create Accessible Off-Campus Events
7. Ensure Faculty know how to respond to a student who requests a reasonable accommodation.
- Ensure Faculty always refer the student to DSP. DSP helps Faculty and students manage the interactive process required to secure reasonable accommodations for students.
- Advise Faculty to review the Disabled Students' Program Teaching and Inclusive Design webpage
8. Create a practice to ensure Faculty abide by the requirement to submit textbook adoptions seven weeks prior to the semester start;
- The requirement and the policy can be found on the DSP Accessibility Responsibilities webpage
Additional Resources
- Create and verify PDF accessibility (Acrobat Pro)
- How to Make Images Accessible
- PDFs from Microsoft Word
- Best Practices for Creating Accessible PowerPoints and Inclusive Presentations
- How can you make your presentation accessible?
- 508 Accessible Videos – How to Caption Videos
- WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool
- CynthiaSays.com Accessibility Website Scan