It is very important that information and materials that are delivered via the web are usable by a wide range of individuals. Online services and information including distance education must be accessible to people with disabilities.

The University of Alaska Office of Information Technology outines requirements for UA web sites.

The American Foundation for the Blind recently conducted a survey called Distance Learning: How Accessible are Online Educational Tools

Getting Started

In terms of local resources, Disability Support Services can offer information, training, and support for content designers who need to bring existing sites into compliance, or who are designing new sites and want to ensure accessibility from the beginning.

Click here for a handout from UAA web accesibility trainings

DSS invites web designers to test their sites and experience what it is like to surf the web when using assistive technology and/or adaptive software.

Sites can be tested at any of the DSS  maintained adaptive computing stations. If your department would like clarification on standards or guidelines to be followed you can contact this office at 786-4530 and/or follow the links below.

Disability Support Services has partnered with the State of Alaska ADA Coordinator's Office and others to push forward with an Alaska Web Access Initiative. For more information on this effort, or to request participation at an upcoming training please contact kaela@uaa.alaska.edu

AccessIT
This site from the National Center on Accessible Information Technology in Education features an Accessible University Mock Site which includes a companion guide to present problems and solutions.

Access E-Learning
This website offers wonderful detail regarding how to make flash, as well as other multimedia components accessible. The site offers ten modules. You have to create a login to use the site, but it is free. The ten modules cover the following topics:

• Issues for Accessibility in Distance Learning
• Planning for Accessibility in Distance Learning
• Making Microsoft PowerPoint Slides Accessible
• Making Animation Files Accessible
• Making Online Video Files Accessible
• Making Microsoft Word Documents Accessible
• Making Microsoft Excel Documents Accessible
• Making Adobe PDF Documents Accessible
• Making Common HTML Elements Accessible
• Making Scripts and Java Accessible

Designing More Usable Web Sites
This site is from the University of Wisconsin. It offers guidelines, tools, and a lot of really good background information. It contains links to pages describing how web users with disabilities navigate.

DO-IT
This site is from the University of Washington. It offers information on Technology and Universal Design in addition to looking specifically at web site design.

EASI - Equal Access to Software and Information
This site offers podcasts, free web seminars and much more. It is a fabulous source for those who are looking for guidance on the creation of accessible information delivery systems.

WAI - Web Accessibility Initiative
This is the site for the W3C page on the Web Accessibility Initiative. W3C stands for World Wide Web Consortium and it is where accessibility guidelines are set. There is a lot of information available from this site.

WebAim
This site has lots of great information as well as links to free downloadable toolbars for either Internet Explorer or Firefox that help designers test sites for accessibility.

Web Accessibility For All
This tutorial section is one of the best resources for those who are just starting to think about web accessibility.