Week 1 Overview

Why Accessibility Matters (February 22 - 28)

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 (1:10)

  Download Week 1 Welcome Video Transcript.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
  • Describe the 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

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 self-check quiz and an optional discussion forum. You can also participate via social media if you like using the hashtag #accessmooc and posting on the Facebook page. 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 peer assignment can be completed from exploring the content we created for the week. The primary activities are:  

  • Short readings
  • Videos
  • Self-check quiz
  • Discussion forum

Assessment

You will compose a brief memo to a supervisor/campus committee explaining in your own words: why accessible design is important, discussing some of the different types of disabilities a student may face, and what barriers we or the technologies we use impose on students with disabilities. Once you submit your assignment, you will review two of your peers' assignments. Please review the section again on how Peer Review Assignments work. Successfully completing this assessment with an average of 80% or higher from your peers will enable you to earn the Week 1 Accessibility Matters badge. 

Week 1 peer assignment due Feb 28 by 11:59 PM EST.

Peer reviews of 2 students work due one week later - March 6 by 11:59 PM EST.

Estimated time on this page: 10 minutes