Tools and Resources

This presentation by Roger O. Smith, PhD, OT, FAOTA, to a group of faculty at University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse includes an overview of Universal Design in Higher Education (UDE). This is the first video in a series of 4 and coverse the current system of individual accommodations and the A3 Model, a theoretical model of how campuses serve the needs of students with disabilities. The question, “Why universal design in education?” is answered with historical context and perspectives from current research.

Presentation on Universal Design in Higher Education is specific to universal design and testing, as presented by Tim O'Connor, Senior Administrative Program Specialist at the University of Wisconsin System - Center for Placement Testing. Tests are tools to measure behavior, knowledge or skills. Validity and reliability are key to good testing and applicable to appropriate test accommodations and universal test design.

Tim O’Connor discusses classroom accessibility in this segment as they are seated in a university classroom with a group of faculty members. Focus on the instructor, technology, and classroom set-up are included in this discussion which also attends to how universal design helps students with various special considerations, disability or other.

A lecture from the ACCESS-ed Conference 2008 presented by Virginia Chiaverina, of PEPNet, which goes in depth on the idea of captioning from its beginning to today and how it can be applied to classroom settings. The lecture is presented in five parts, each of which apply to captioning but all entail a different aspect.

"This video presentation shows how to create an inclusive postsecondary learning environment. It is ideal for use in professional development programs for college faculty and administrators. The presentation is open-captioned and audio-described to assure access to the content for viewers who are deaf or blind, respectively (Run Time: ~13:30 minutes)."

This webpage contains an excerpt of a podcast that addresses awareness, accessibility and universal design and the issues in higher education. The full podcast is available through a link on this page.

This short video demonstrates a poor application of automatic door accessibility considerations. The placement of operating buttons may fall within the minimal ADAAG standard, but is it really accessible? A service dog cannot "nose" the button to open the door. If a dog uses a paw to attempt to operate the button his nails scrape on the background surface (which in this case is metal), leading to scrape marks. How will a person with musculo-skeletal fare with this button?

This captioned video of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) hearing focuses on the importance of accessible technology and how this issue is impacting students with disabilities in K-12 and higher education. Multiple perspectives and compelling testimony were offered by the Department of Justice, National Federation of the Blind, Columbus, Indiana's Superintendent of schools and California State University's Center for Accessible Technology.

This hour long webinar, originally provided in April of 2011, covers a wide breadth of topics and is easy to follow for people who are not Information Technology experts. Topics include Legal Environment, User Perspective, Document and Web Accessibility, Multi-media - Captions & Transcripts, and Testing for Accessibility. Though the content and slides are very good, the Webinar is not fully accessible with captioning or a transcript.

"This video presentation provides guidelines for designing Internet-based distance learning courses to fully include all students and instructors, including those with disabilities." 11:55 minutes.

This website provides links, videos and information on how to make websites more accessible and addressing principles of accessible design.