The University Digital Accessibility Initiative (UDAI) is officially underway. This important work centers on keeping UW–Madison in compliance with the new federal requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which states that all digital tools and electronic resources used in a university program, service or activity are built in a way that is accessible to all.
Over the past few months, the UDAI team worked to procure three new tools that help instructors create more accessible course content. These tools are available in the Learn@UW suite of tools and can be used in conjunction with tools like Canvas and Kaltura to create and maintain accessible course content.
Explore the tools
The following applications have been integrated into Canvas and help make the acts of teaching and learning easier and more accessible.
- UDOIT: A course accessibility checker. Instructors and course designers can use it to scan an entire Canvas course to identify and remediate accessibility barriers.
- TidyUp: A file clean-up tool integrated in Canvas. Instructors and course designers can use it to scan an entire Canvas course to identify and remove unused files and pages.
- DesignPLUS: A group of three Canvas-integrated tools that help instructors and course designers easily build and style high-quality courses. These tools help make learning engaging and accessible for all students.
Commitment to the work
All of us at UW–Madison are stewards of the Wisconsin Idea; the fundamental belief that we must extend our expertise in a way that improves the lives of all Wisconsin state residents. With this in mind, making the educational materials that we produce accessible to all–be it PDFs, web pages, or Canvas courses–becomes imperative.
DoIT is rooted in these efforts and will continue to support tools that make teaching and learning accessible endeavors.
Resources
To learn more about Learn@UW, visit the Learn@UW academic technologies webpage.
To read the steps needed to make digital course materials more accessible, visit the course material accessibility webpage.