Did you know that 57 million Americans have a disability?
Let’s break that down a little bit more:
- Mobility - 19.9 million
- Cognitive - 15.2 million
- Vision - 8.1 million
- Hearing - 7.6 million
Because of this, the government enacted Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act—requiring agencies to give disabled employees and members of the public comparable access to information. Although the law was enacted in 1998, interpretation and implementation vary widely across organizations.
So how do you know you’re doing 508-compliance correctly?
In this week’s webinar, guest presenter Michelle Echevarria, M.A. joined us to share her extensive knowledge on complying with Section 508 guidelines to build accessible eLearning. Michelle is an Instructional Media Manager for JBS International, Inc.
This webinar covered:
- How to identify key questions that will align you and your clients’ interpretations of compliancy to avoid confusion
- How to address 508 compliancy issues that may conflict with instructional standards or technical limitations
- How to explore compliancy considerations for different types of training mediums, such as traditional eLearning outputs, video, podcasts, and mobile apps
Here are 4 key questions to ask your client (or internal stakeholder) before you begin development:
- Is the learning modality accessible?
- Which compliance standards should be adhered to—Section 508, WCAG 2.0, or EN 301 549 (primarily used in Europe)?
- Who on the client-side will be responsible for checking for compliance?
- Is the deployment environment accessible? For example, not all LMS are 508-compliant.
Michelle shared many more strategies, and a resources handout (download below), for efficiently developing accessible learning. Watch the webinar recording now:
Click here to download Michelle’s resources handout.
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