What level of accessibility is available in QM professional development?

Quality Matters (QM) supports the provisions of Standard 8, Accessibility and Usability, in the QM Rubric. QM strongly supports reasonable accommodation for all participants.

Participants who require additional accommodations should contact their institution's disability services or access office or QM as soon as possible after they register for a QM course.

All QM courses are offered in Canvas. Canvas complies with all major international standards in the area of accessibility, including XHTML Strict 1.0. For more information on Canvas and its development, please visit the Canvas Accessibility webpage. QM uses Grackle Docs to check the accessibility of the Google Docs used in its courses and workshops.

QM's workshops and courses include the following:

  • ALT tags that contain appropriate information about the graphic and/or activity.
  • Appropriate color combinations that minimize color blindness effects.
  • Appropriate font and font-size combinations to improve readability.
  • Links to descriptions of accommodation features for the learning management platform (Canvas) and any additional third party tools, e.g., CourseArc.
  • Minimal use of bullets and/or charts that may be confusing to participants who use electronic readers.
  • Transcripts and/or closed captioning for video and audio clips.

The above features demonstrate QM's understanding of the importance of providing a learning environment that supports all participants. Participants who require additional accommodations should contact their institution's disability services or access office or Quality Matters at least 14 days prior to the start of their workshop or course.