Digital Accessibility Series
The entire program is free and open to all Rutgers faculty, staff, and students. You can self-enroll, learn, and complete the series according to your schedule and needs. Earning a badge is optional; the resources in each course are here for you to explore and refer to at any time, right when you need them.
What You'll Learn
The Digital Accessibility Badge Series comprises of four self-paced courses related to creating inclusive and accessible experiences for students, specifically regarding digital content. These courses are designed to support faculty, staff, or students in creating more accessible courses and documents. This series provides practical strategies and hands-on skills using Word, PowerPoint, PDFs, Canvas, and Kaltura. These skills will also help course participants create more accessible social media posts, websites, etc. since the themes remain the same across platforms.
Digital Accessibility Foundations
Earn a digital badge to recognize your learning journey! A digital badge will be issued via Accredible after you successfully complete each of the three core courses. Digital badges can be shared with your personal and professional networks via LinkedIn or other social media.
Each course includes assignments and provides a micro-credential after successful completion. Participants who complete the two required courses and one elective course (three in total) will earn the Digital Accessibility Badge.
See course list below:
Required Courses
To earn the Digital Accessibility Badge, learners must complete both of the required courses listed here.
Intro to Accessibility
This course focuses on legal requirements related to accessibility and best practices for supporting disabled students. Participants will review the Americans with Disabilities Act, including Title II of the ADA, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, in preparation to implement supports that will meet these legal requirements, with a focus on best practices for teaching students with disabilities.
Accessible Digital Content
This course focuses on strategies for creating accessible course content to ensure an inclusive online learning environment. Participants will learn about best practices for designing content that is usable by all students, including those with disabilities. The course covers techniques for creating accessible documents, videos, and images, as well as how to use the Ally accessibility checker to evaluate your course accessibility and set goals for improvement.
Elective Courses
To earn the Digital Accessibility Badge, learners must complete one of the elective courses listed here. However, enrolling in both courses is recommended to gain access to the full range of resources.
Universal Design and Inclusive Learning
This course focuses on strategies for enacting Universal Design principles in teaching practices to ensure an inclusive online learning environment. Participants will learn about the concept of Universal Design as it applies to higher education teaching, approaches to identifying and resolving barriers to access, and strategies for proactively making teaching more inclusive.
Ally and Canvas Accessibility Tools
This course focuses on using Canvas accessibility tools such as TidyUP, Ally, Canvas Accessibility Checker, and Cidi Labs DesignPLUS Accessibility Checker to remediate and improve the accessibility of a course and course content. Learners will demonstrate that they can access these tools and explain their key functions and when to use them in a course.
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