Project:  Capella Courseroom ADA Guidelines for Quality Matters 

Date:  August, 2009

LINKS TO ADA INFORMATION

• There is a link in the courseroom to a statement of Capella’s commitment to accommodating needs of learners with disabilities.
• A link to Disability Services is provided in the courseroom.
• A link to Blackboard’s “Commitment to Accessibility” is provided in the courseroom.

FONT SIZE & READABILITY

• Font is standard size of 13.5pt with a high-contrast background.
• There is a font size-changer at the top of each page in the courseroom that allows learners to change size of text from 13.5pt to 22pt to 28pt.
• Whenever possible, periods are used after text to signal a pause for screen readers.

MULTIMEDIA

• Our current standard is that all media pieces developed in the course development and design process contain transcripts.
• Podcasts that are added by individual faculty after the course has begun have been problematic as these typically do not have transcripts. We are working on a process to resolve this issue and ensure that all media pieces have transcripts.
• Alt tags are used to identify all images and icons.

ACCESSING SUPPORT MATERIALS

• URLs are avoided except as part of an APA reference
• All links are titled according to the document/page to which they link.
• Our current standard is that all PDFs must be readable by a screen reader.
• Previously developed courses have PDFs that may not be accessible. An effort is underway to identify and replace these PDFs with accessible versions.

TABLES

• We don’t use tables for page layout. Tables are only used when tabular data is being presented.
• Tables include column and row heads to aid learners using screen readers.
• Row and column headings are available in each cell for reference when using a screen reader.