Enhancing Accessibility of Online Courses: Course Development Practices and Tools

Since 2003, Quality Matters (QM) has been a pioneer of best practices in the field of instructional design. Standards 7 and 8 of the QM Higher Education Rubric (6th edition, 2018) provide critical guidance on making online courses accessible to learners with disabilities. In addition, the Universal Design for Learning framework emphasizes an inclusive, proactive approach to course development for faculty, instructional designers, and support staff. This study examines the accessibility practices (i.e., color contrasts, document design, captioning, alt text) and tools leveraged by course developers when creating digital course materials. The presentation focuses on the results of a QM benchmarking survey measuring the impact and effort of common accessibility practices and applications.