Benefits

Adhering to accessibility guidelines while developing your online course will benefit all students, including those with visual, hearing, mobility and learning disabilities.

Accessibility Guidelines

The NOVA ELI Accessibility Guidelines for your on-line and campus Course Content are based on the internationally accepted Web Content Accessibility Guidelines AA standards (WCAG 2.0).* This handbook is a reference guide for ELI faculty, but is applicable to any NOVA course using on-line course content, media, applications or electronic files shared with students. * Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, W3C World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation 12 Month Year (Original, Latest version.)

Why? Required by Federal Law

"Requiring use of an emerging technology in a classroom environment when the technology is inaccessible to an entire population of individuals with disabilities... is discrimination prohibited by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) unless those individuals are provided accommodations or modifications that permit them to receive all the educational benefits provided by the technology in an equally effective and equally integrated manner."

Source: 6/29/2010 Dear Colleague letter sent to every college and university president