Guide to accessible courses
This tutorial is about how to plan, conduct
and follow up your courses in an accessible manner.
But first: What characterizes an accessible course?
In short: that all students can take part in it independently.
This includes that the event, the associated Moodle course
and the teaching material are designed to be accessible and well structured,
as well as the room being barrier-free.
11% of all students in Germany
have a study-relevant health impairment.
In a course with 30 participants,
on average around three students are affected.
For them, accessibility is essential
in order to be able to successfully complete their studies.
Not every kind of impairment is visible at first glance.
So be aware that your class consists of
a heterogeneous group with different needs
e.g. because of impaired mobility,
hearing and seeing impairments,
chronic or mental illnesses.
Of course, not all students have
the same preconditions for learning.
Step 1: preliminary considerations
In addition to the content and didactic planning of your course,
you should also think about the issue of accessibility right from the start.
View it as an opportunity to restructure
your teaching content once more
and to thereby improve its comprehensibility.
This not only increases student satisfaction,
but also contributes to the improvement of teaching as a whole.
It is not always possible to meet all requirements.
One basic requirement for accessible teaching
is first of all, that the seminar room or the lecture hall are barrier-free.
This means that access is possible without any steps,
or, if necessary, with a ramp.
That there is an elevator and the door is at least 90 cm wide.
There should also be a wheelchair-accessible toilet nearby
and sufficient sockets for technical aids available.
Often though, you won't have any influence on the allocation of rooms from the university.
Information on structural accessibility
can be obtained from the Hochschul-Gebäudemanagement Potsdam.
Inform the students as early as possible about the accessibility
of the room, ideally, in the introductory text
of your course in the course catalogue.
You should also point out the possibility of
communicating individual requirements in advance
and supply your email contact.
For students with certain impairments, this information is necessary
to determine whether they can attend the course at all.
The same goes for excursions.
Find out as early as possible about
the accessibility of the excursion location.
Accessibility also includes an understanding attitude.
For example, if someone is not attending class,
it doesn't automatically mean that he or she is lazy.
A chronic illness,
psychological problems, a sick child or other reasons can be the cause.
If necessary, take this into account when applying the rules of attendance.
Step 2: Preparing the course
After planning the content of your course, you should ask yourself,
which materials, formats and platforms you would like to use.
Ideally, you should take into account the multiple sensory principle.
By conveying the information through multiple channels,
e.g. in spoken and written form,
Students with different impairments will have less difficulty
to follow the content.
Alternate between different forms of learning, e.g.
the discussion in plenary sessions vs. in small groups.
This way, different learning styles are taken into account and students with disabilities
are able to avoid disadvantages that may arise with one learning method
by using others.
When using media or interactive applications, always check
their accessibility for the participants in your event.
If their unrestricted use is not guaranteed for everybody,
but you would still like to use the respective medium or tool,
you should provide the relevant information as well in a different form.
All documents provided (e.g. semester plans or seminar reading)
should be accessible PDFs.
So they are easy to read with screen readers and screen magnification software.
When designing your text documents, presentations, images and graphs
make sure to use a clear structure.
Always use Styles in text documents
and the Tools for tables and lists.
Add Alternate Text and a caption to images.
To ensure the best possible legibility,
use sans serif fonts, e.g. Arial, Calibri or Helvetica.
Use embolding or underlining instead of colors for emphasis.
If you use colors, they should have enough contrast to one another.
Careful: Avoid the complementary colors red and green,
because people with a red-green color blindness cannot see any difference.
To find out in detail how to create accessible documents, refer to the tutorials
"Accessible Word and PDF documents"
and "Accessible Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations".
When using visual or audio content, remember
to provide videos with subtitles and, if possible, an audio description.
Audios require an additional transcript.
Learn more about creating subtitles and accessible videos
with the tutorial "Accessible video recordings".
After you have planned your courses, create a Moodle course.
Make sure to structure it clearly.
At the top, place a section with general information about the event:
Lecture or seminar schedule, reading list, clearly defined performance requirements
as well as contact options (email and office hours).
The reading list should be available as early as possible
as well as the presentation topics.
This information is helpful for everyone,
but essential for blind and visually impaired students,
in order to be able to participate in the course meaningfully.
Because if the literature is not made available to them as an accessible PDF,
they must first translate this into a form that they can read.
In another section you highlight the fact,
that accessibility is taken into account in this course.
Ask the students to pay attention to it
when preparing their own contributions,
e.g. by providing them in the form of accessible PDFs,
as well as sticking to conversation rules.
In the next section, you should point out that
you are ready to respond to individual needs.
You can also explain about other offers of assistance.
Each unit of the course should now be treated in a different section.
Include the date, a title and a summary
and upload the related literature as accessible PDFs, if possible.
Have the material for the upcoming session ready
at least three working days prior.
If possible, your lecture presentation as well.
Just before the event, you should check
the room once more and prepare it if necessary.
For a seminar, set up the tables in a U-shape.
This is not only beneficial for discussion and interaction among students,
but also enables lip reading,
because everyone can see each other while speaking.
If necessary, set up a space for wheelchair users (plus accompanying person).
Finally, check the lighting conditions and ventilate once more.
Step 3: Conducting the course
Let's start.
Pay attention to a clear presentation style at a moderate speed
and stay facing the students to enable lip reading.
If possible, use a microphone in the lecture hall.
This also enables the automatic subtitling of your presentation
through applications like Web Captioner.
The lecture can also be saved as text with the help of this application
and made available to absent students.
Please note: Web Captioner does not comply with data protection regulations
and is not supported by all browsers.
So you are responsible for its use.
At the beginning of the course, announce its structure,
in the first session also the structure of the seminar or lecture as a whole
and project it during your presentation.
If you use a blackboard or flipchart, write large and clearly and avoid speaking
when facing the blackboard, as lip reading will not be possible.
If you use graphs, tables, pictures or videos,
you should verbalize them.
This can also be done by students as a starting point for the discussion.
Conversely, you should visualize audios or spoken text in the presentation.
When presenting or discussing literature,
always mention the relevant page number.
At the beginning of your course, mention
that accessibility should be ensured.
Show your willingness to respond to individual needs,
verbally and in writing.
Do not present the various needs as a burden, but formulate in a positive manner.
Encourage sharing individual needs during or after the session
and signal openness to questions and suggestions for improvement,
in person or by email.
Also inform the students about the possibilities
of individual disadvantage compensation
to help with studying and examinations.
However, do not approach students proactively in class,
when you believe there is a need.
Not everyone wants to speak publicly about their impairment.
A tip: prepare a sample slide on the subject of accessibility,
which you can incorporate into your presentations and which can be displayed,
for example, before the course starts, during the break, or at the end.
This should include your contact details and information about offers of assistance and help.
If your students need technical aids,
e.g. hearing systems, a laptop with a refreshable Braille display
or access to an accessible computer workstation,
you can contact the Center for Information Technology and Media Management
or the Counseling for Students with Health Impairments
Ask the students to pay attention to the accessibility of their own contributions.
Please also refer to the quick guide for creating accessible PDFs,
which you provide in your Moodle course.
In addition, ask for observation of the following converstation rules:
Several people should not speak at the same time.
The desire to speak should be indicated by a visual hand signal
and others should be allowed to finish their sentences.
Mention your own name before speaking.
The pronunciation should be clear, with your face turned towards the others.
Address the students by name.
This is especially important for people with visual impairments,
otherwise they will not realise that you are adressing them.
If someone speaks slowly or with an unfamiliar
intonation because of an impairment,
be patient and never try
to complete sentences or words for the person concerned.
Find a student to take minutes for each session,
so that a transcript is available for everyone.
The content of the discussion should also be recorded.
The minutes should then be made available as an accessible PDF
or a plain text document on Moodle.
If necessary, you can also provide a template for the minutes.
For 90 minute events, plan to take a short break after 45 minutes
and ventilate the room.
summary
I will briefly summarize once again
what is important in an accessible course:
Provide information about the accessibility of the room.
Plan the accessibility right from the start and
signal to the students that you are ready to
respond to their needs.
Take into account the multiple sensory principle when designing the concept.
Make texts, presentations, videos and pictures
available in an accessible manner - as early as possible.
Establish clear conversation rules
and speak clearly, facing the students.
If you do run into technical difficulties, you are welcome to
contact the Center for Information Technology and Media Management
If you have any other questions, please contact
the Counseling for Students with Health Impairments / Chronic Conditions
of the University of Potsdam.