The National Center on Accessible Information Technology in Education
Welcome to AccessIT
AccessIT promotes the use of electronic and information technology (E&IT) for students and employees with disabilities in educational institutions at all academic levels. This Web site features the AccessIT Knowledge Base, a searchable database of questions and answers regarding accessible E&IT. It is designed for educators, policy makers, librarians, technical support staff, and students and employees with disabilities and their advocates.
Popular Resources
- FREE Web Design Curriculum - This curriculum was designed for high school introduction to web design courses. It stresses standards-based and accessible design, and is vendor-neutral, project-based, and FREE.
- Video: Accessible Information Technology in Education: Building a Better Future - This video presents the voices of students with disabilities and experts in accessible IT as they discuss the importance of ensuring that information technology is accessible in educational settings.
- Video: Surfing the Web With a
Screen Reader
What's all the web accessibility talk about? Surf the web with a blind user and see for yourself! To find out more information, follow the above link. - Information Technology in Education
Accessibility Checklist
Use this on-line interactive tool to learn about IT accessibility, and to manage your educational entity's IT accessibility goals. - Accessible University Mock Site
Use this mock site for demonstrating web accessibility principles in presentations. Includes a Companion Guide tutorial which presents Web accessibility problems and solutions in an easy-to-understand way, using Web pages as examples. - Select Presentations
A small sample of slide shows from presentations by AccessIT staff are availalble.
Archived Training Events and Videos
AccessIT web-based training archives are provided either as Real Media files, or Windows Media files. Viewing these files requires the free Real Player or Windows Media Player respectively.
- Free Curriculum: Web Design & Development I -
Windows media
Curriculum co-author Terry Thompson describes the course curriculum and explores its organization and content.
- Making Web-Based Navigation Accessible -
Windows media
Includes a demonstration of various approaches to implementing skip navigation links and an in-depth look at the accessibility of dynamic menu systems. (05/06/05)
- PDF Accessibility - Windows media
Includes discussion of PDF accessibility issues and demonstrations of techniques for maximizing the accessibility of PDF files. (04/04/03)
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Access to Information through Technology in Education
This webcast covers both K-12 and post-secondary educational entities and features Tim Spofford, Attorney with the US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR), and David Stockford, Director of Special Services with the Maine Department of Education.
Are you new to accessible E&IT?
As a starting point for exploring accessibile E&IT, review answers to the following questions from our Knowledge Base:
Copyright © 2002 - 2009 by University of Washington. Permission is granted to copy these materials for educational, noncommercial purposes provided the source is acknowledged. For more information see the larger AccessIT Copyright Statement. AccessIT was funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the U.S. Department of Education (grant #H133D010306) through September 30, 2006; it is now maintained with funding from the National Science Foundation (grant #CNS-054061S). The contents do not necessarily represent the policies of the U.S. federal government, and you should not assume their endorsement.