Week 1 Overview

Why Accessibility Matters 

In this first week, you will explore how students with disabilities often face barriers to academic access, success, and completion. You will learn about the various reasons why accessible design is important and understand why there is increased attention on this critical issue in higher education.  In this week, you will develop a deeper and broader understanding of some of the barriers to success that your current and potential students might be facing.

Please watch the introduction video for this week (1:01)

 Transcript: Download Week 1 Introduction - Why Accessibility Matters.docx

Course Competency

Recognize how students with disabilities often face academic barriers to access, success, and completion.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this week participants will be able to:

  • Recognize the importance of accessible design
  • Identify ways in which disability may impact students and their learning experiences.
  • Identify the assistive technology used and technological barriers for students with disabilities.

Learning Activities and Assessment

This week we have approximately 2 1/2 hours learning activities including content that you can read, watch, and/or listen to, as well as a discussion forum. You can also participate via social media using the hashtag #accessmooc and posting in the Facebook group. You can certainly spend much more time exploring the various websites and resources if you choose to do so, but we have designed the course so that the quiz can be completed from exploring the content we created for the week.

The primary activities are:  

  • Short readings
  • Videos
  • Discussions

The assessment for this week is a quiz. Successful completion with a 80% or higher is required to earn the Week 1: Accessibility Matters badge. 

Estimated time on this page: 10 minutes