Faculty Resources for Digital Accessibility
![Universal Design for Digital Accessibility addresses multiple needs such as visual, physical, auditory, and cognitive needs. We invite you to learn more below.](/techlearn/images/accessibility-banner.png)
Overview
While this page is intended for the faculty and academic support staff of Pepperdine University, we welcome everyone to learn about making information more accessible.
What is Digital Accessibility?
Digital accessibility happens when a person can easily navigate and understand the content of a website, application, electronic document, or media file. Put another way, something is digitally accessible when people can access and use digital content and tools through various devices like computers, mobiles, or assistive technologies.
Why is Accessibility Important?
As an academic institution, we have moral and legal obligations to make our content accessible to our community members. Not only is it federal law, but morally, it's the right thing to do. Accessibility also aligns directly with our University's mission to strengthen lives for purpose, service, and leadership.
Who Benefits from Accessibility?
Everyone! Digital accessibility helps a wide range of individuals, including those who may have hearing, movement, sight, or cognitive needs. Beyond that, accessible content makes information and resources more universally available for all people.
Who is Responsible?
We are all responsible. As the professor of a class, all of the content that you create for, require of, or share with students must be accessible. Refer to Pepperdine University's accessibility policy.
Core Elements of Creating Accessible Content
Instructor Resources
Is your syllabus accessible?
Are you using headings, tables, and images properly in your course syllabus document? Learn how to create or check your Word or PDF syllabus for accessibility.
Are your videos accessible?
Do you have captions and a transcript of your videos? Do the outside videos you select meet accessibility requirements?
Are your class sites accessible?
Learn how to use the built-in accessibility checker within the rich text editor of your Courses LMS class site to fix common HTML or image issues.
Are your Microsoft Office docs accessible?
Learn the fundamentals of making your Microsoft Office Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents accessible.
Are your PDF files accessible?
Check your PDFs for accessibility issues with the Adobe Acrobat Pro accessibility checker.
Are your Google Docs accessible?
Learn how to make your Google Workspace documents(Docs, Slides, or Sheets) accessible. (Coming soon!)
Additional Training
- Online Course Accessibility Training for Faculty
- Introduction to Web Accessibility (from WebAIM)
- Creating Accessible Content (from Portland Community College)