With the university in a full distance-learning format, NDSU Disability Services is proactively helping faculty provide a quality educational experience to students with disabilities.
Disability Services staff members are working with instructors of deaf and hard of hearing students to ensure pre-recorded videos are appropriately captioned. They also are arranging transcribing services for real-time classes.
In addition, the team is working with instructors of visually impaired students to formulate accessibility strategies for lectures, documents and class activities.
“Our primary goal is to assure students are receiving appropriate testing accommodations through our learning management system,” said Mark Coppin, director of Disability Services, noting his office proctors 1,100 to 1,200 exams in a typical semester.
Coppin has a wealth of experience to rely on as NDSU’s remote learning continues. For more than 30 years, he was director of assistive technology at the Anne Carlsen Center in Jamestown, North Dakota, and he taught graduate courses on assistive technology at the University of Jamestown.
“This semester, we rolled out the Bison Accessibility Portal, which is an online management system,” Coppin said. “This allows students to manage many of their accommodations online, and faculty receive notifications about accommodations electronically. The students love being able to access and request their accommodations online, and staff and faculty have been very receptive to the change. The timing was perfect under the circumstances.”
Claudia Simon, disability specialist, is contacting students to ensure their accommodations are appropriate, while she also handles day-to-day requests. Beth Fiechtner, accessibility specialist, is ensuring digital materials are available to students and is providing captioning for videos.
“While this is a stressful time for students, faculty and staff, it is a good time for us to emphasize how important it is to make course materials accessible as they are being created,” Coppin said. “By making them accessible for online classes, all students can benefit, not just those with an identified disability.”
When preparing online educational material, Disability Services is asking faculty to consider these items:
· Use clear, consistent layouts to present content. Make instructions and expectations clear.
· Offer outlines, scaffolding tools and adequate opportunities for practice.
· When selecting new materials, use videos that are already captioned and articles available in a text-searchable format.
· Images can be made accessible to blind and low-vision students by providing captions or inserting alt text into the image. Use large, bold fonts on plain backgrounds and color combinations that are high contrast.
Disability Services remains open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Appointments will be conducted via phone or virtually until further notice. If you have a question, call 701-231-8463 and leave a voicemail, or email the office at ndsu.disability.services@ndsu.edu.
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