Objective 1.1 Instructional Materials

College of t​he Desert (COD) faculty and staff receive dedicated training and ongoing support for choosing and creating accessible instructional materials

Objective 1.1 Current Maturity​ Status: Responding to Establishing

Level 1: Not Started to​ Learning

COD is providing information to faculty and staff about existing resources and training opportunities for creating and choosing accessible instructional materials.

  • 2018, Information ​Technology (IT) created and shared an Accessibility Resources web page with faculty and staff, including links to external training programs

  • 2019, College emailed all faculty and staff accessibility Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

  • 2019, IT updated accessibility training resource

Level 2: Learning to Responding

COD is dedicating resources and training support to faculty and staff to support them in creating and choosing accessible instructional materials.

  • 2017, College invited guest speaker to deliver workshop on Section 508 to train faculty and staff

  • 2018, Distance Education (DE) updated training for faculty and staff to support them in creating and choosing accessible instructional materials

  • 2019, College invited California Community Colleges Accessibility Center to provide training to IT, Human Resources (HR), and Disabled Students Program and Services (DSPS) staff

  • IT provides video captioning trainings

  • Faculty Development provides 3C Media Solutions instructional video captioning training

COD is implementing a regular, defined, and documented process by which faculty receive training in creating and choosing accessible instructional materials. Cadre of experts are being trained and supported to develop a community of practice capable of meeting institutional needs.

Immediate Next Steps

  • Educational Technologies and Distance Education Committee (ETDE) and IT will define an instructional technology approval process, including accessibility as a subset of the overall process

  • Working with instructional departments, IT will develop an inventory of instructional technology to review for accessibility conformance

  • The Curriculum Committee and/or other appropriate committees will work with faculty to include ​an accessibility compliance review of instructional technology in course outlines of record

  • The Curriculum Committee and/or other appropriate committees will work with faculty to develop a DE Addendum to document accessibility conformance of instructional technology in distance education courses

  • Professional ​Development will develop accessibility training for faculty not teaching online courses

Level 4: Establishing ​​to Optimizing

COD is regularly evaluating efficacy of training process by assessing student experience and making program improvements.

Next S​t​eps

  • College is surveying students to identify if they have a disability and determine if they have experienced challenges utilizing instructional materials

  • Retention, success, and completion are increasing annually for students with disabilities

Potential Blocking Issues

  • Differences between face-to-face and online courses

  • Differences between ​information and communication technology (ICT) and printed material

  • Variety of instructional technology requests

  • Lack of centralized method to review instructional ICT for accessibility compliance

  • Temporary short-term resources for initial remediation of existing materials

  • Training for faculty creating and choosing accessible instructional materials who are not teaching online

  • Enforcement of creating and choosing accessible instructional materials


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