With thousands of fonts to choose from, selecting a font with accessibility in mind is no easy task. Several fonts have been developed specifically to address the needs of individuals with reading-related disabilities such as dyslexia. Examples include OpenDyslexic, Dyslexie, Read Regular, and Lexie Readable.
Skagit Valley Colleges (SVC) offers online (eLearning) courses that are academically rigorous and equivalent to traditional face-to-face courses. Courses offered online are the same in terms of credits, learning objectives, competencies, content, and transferability. They are also the same when it comes to policies concerning admission requirements and accessibility assurances.
In order for students with disabilities enrolled in postsecondary institutions to receive disability-related accommodations, typically they must first register with the institution’s office of disability services for students. Procedures and documentation requirements vary from institution to institution so it is important that students contact disability services early to ensure their accommodations will be in place prior to the start of each academic term.
Common accommodations students with disabilities request in online courses include the remediation of inaccessible PDFs and other documents into accessible formats, captioned videos, and extra time on assignments and tests. Accommodations should be requested in the same way they are requested for onsite courses. To receive accommodations from a postsecondary institution, students should contact the campus disability services office for information about documentation requirements and procedures.
The AccessCyberlearning 2.0 Synthesis and Design Workshop, a project funded by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Cyberlearning and Future Learning Technologies program of the Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (#1824450), aims to inform the design of the next generation of digital learning environments for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) content.
Many different curricula are used to teach Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science Principles (CSP). Most of these curricula are not fully accessible to students with disabilities, largely because the programming tools that they utilize are not accessible to students who are blind or visually impaired and typically use screen readers to access content presented on the screen. Screen readers can read text aloud to users but cannot interpret content presented in images.
Code.org’s Hour of Code activities are one-hour tutorials designed to expose K-12 students to coding and other aspects of computer science. Although there are numerous Hour of Code projects, many are not accessible to students who are blind and visually impaired. However, there are two that utilize the Quorum programming language and are accessible.
The Cyberlearning Community Report: The State of Cyberlearning and the Future of Learning With Technology was published by the Center for Innovative Research in Cyberlearning (CIRCL) in 2017.
“Cyberlearning” is the term used by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in its Cyberlearning Program. The Center for Innovative Research in Cyberlearning (CIRCL) works with projects in the NSF Cyberlearning Program and cyberlearning-themed projects across NSF to support, synergize, and amplify their efforts. CIRCL defines cyberlearning as follows,
The Alliance for Access to Computing Careers (AccessComputing) leads activities to increase the participation of people with disabilities, including veterans, in computing and information technology (IT) postsecondary education and career fields. Activities for educators and employers are designed to build awareness of universal design and accommodation strategies, and to aid in recruiting and supporting students with disabilities through the development of inclusive programs and education on promising practices.