Accessible Digital Classroom

Making the Digital Classroom Accessible for all Students

Edu­ca­tion­al access is the pro­vi­sion of class­room accom­mo­da­tions, aux­il­iary aids and ser­vices to ensure equal edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties for all stu­dents regard­less of abil­i­ty

• Ten ideas for instruc­tors for com­mu­ni­cat­ing, sum­ma­riz­ing and accom­mo­dat­ing learn­ers when redesign­ing your course for dig­i­tal deliv­ery. Top Ten Tips: NIC PDF
• Depart­ment of Acces­si­ble Learn­ing Ser­vices (DALS): Dig­i­tal Exams for Stu­dents with Dis­abil­i­ties: Web­page

For some of our stu­dents, the change to remote learn­ing and dig­i­tal learn­ing plat­forms may be empow­er­ing and pro­vide them with more oppor­tu­ni­ties to be suc­cess­ful, but for oth­ers the change itself may be just the begin­ning of new chal­lenges.

NIC’s Depart­ment of Acces­si­ble Learn­ing Ser­vices (DALS) are work­ing hard to advise and sup­port stu­dents with doc­u­ment­ed dis­abil­i­ties who wish to start or con­tin­ue their stud­ies at NIC. It is impor­tant for fac­ul­ty to be aware that, just like in the F2F class­room, they will be work­ing with stu­dents with diverse needs. The fol­low­ing tips are to sup­port fac­ul­ty in cre­at­ing a learn­ing envi­ron­ment that is acces­si­ble to all stu­dents.

For more infor­ma­tion and con­sul­ta­tion, please con­tact a mem­ber of the DALS team https://www.nic.bc.ca/student-services/accessible-learning-services/

Here are some key resources and infor­ma­tion:

Accom­mo­dat­ing stu­dents with doc­u­ment­ed dis­abil­i­ties falls under the Col­lege’s legal respon­si­bil­i­ty of Human Rights and Duty to Accom­mo­date	Stu­dents with doc­u­ment­ed dis­abil­i­ties are encour­aged to meet with a mem­ber of our DALS team. If it is deter­mined that the stu­dent requires accom­mo­da­tions, the instruc­tor will receive an accom­mo­da­tion let­ter. If you need sup­port in pro­vid­ing the accom­mo­da­tions, please reach out to a mem­ber of DALS.	Keep in mind that acces­si­bil­i­ty is everyone’s respon­si­bil­i­ty and is not just relat­ed to stu­dents with doc­u­ment­ed dis­abil­i­ties.
Ensure that any videos or lec­tures that you show are acces­si­ble to stu­dents with hear­ing impair­ments either by being tran­scribed or cap­tioned. Cap­tion­ing is avail­able for YouTube videos. For tran­scrip­tion or cap­tion­ing ques­tions, please get in touch with the DALS team.	When design­ing con­tent, use the fol­low­ing Check­list for Acces­si­bil­i­ty avail­able at BCcam­pus: https://opentextbc.ca/accessibilitytoolkit/back-matter/appendix-checklist-for-accessibility-toolkit/	Learn about acces­si­bil­i­ty fea­tures on Bright­space by going to the fol­low­ing links: Acces­si­bil­i­ty Acces­si­bil­i­ty Stan­dards Acces­si­bil­i­ty and Nav­i­ga­tion
Con­sid­er offer­ing choice and alter­na­tives for assign­ments and assess­ments. For more infor­ma­tion, check out these resources from BCcam­pus: https://bccampus.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Assessment.pdf	The Asso­ci­a­tion on High­er Edu­ca­tion and Dis­abil­i­ties pro­vides excel­lent resources for design­ing acces­si­ble cours­es. https://exploreaccess.org/accessible-online-course/	If you iden­ti­fy a stu­dent who is strug­gling, rec­om­mend and use the sup­ports avail­able: DALS, Coun­selling, peer tutor­ing, Library and Learn­ing Com­mons, and Ear­ly Assist

Adapt­ed from www.kpu.ca/learningcentres with thanks