Accessibility Made Easy: An institution's approach to empower faculty to create accessible electronic instructional materials

During this best practice session we will discuss and demonstrate how Academic Technologies support office at Southern California four-year university continues to support and assist faculty in creating accessible electronic instructional materials. This four-year institution shares a commitment to equal access for all faculty and students. Throughout the past 8 years the academic technologies support office has implemented a variety of solutions to assist faculty in the area of accessibility. Ingenuity and creativity was needed as our state faced difficult budgetary challenges. With little and at times no resources, the office with support from a statewide accessibility initiative and its on-campus subcommittee was able to provide a wide range of tools and resources for faculty. Our approach was simple; “Accessibility Made Easy” was our slogan and the driving force behind the initiative. Session Objectives After attending this session participants will learn about our approach to creating accessible electronic instructional materials, included but not limited to Microsoft Office Word and PowerPoint files, Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF), and multimedia. Also, participants will learn about our strategic approach to empower faculty by providing up to date resources, guidelines, and tutorials that focus on minimum requirements in small chunks that are easy for faculty to learn and implement. Finally, participants will be able to learn and access a myriad of resources for creating accessible electronic instructional materials made available free to use to all participants interested in implementing these solutions.