What is Accessibility and Universal Design?

Accessibility and Universal Design are design goals meant to guide developers to create products, information, and experiences that all users can access, use, and benefit from via equal or nearly equal methods--regardless of socioeconomic status, temporary or permanent disability, or ethnicity.

Why Is Accessibility Important?

Accessibility is important because it benefits everyone. Without it, students are essentially being graded on their ability to access course materials in addition to being graded on the amount of knowledge they've gained as a result of the course. Additionally, if barriers to learning or to accessing course content are allowed to remain and a student with needs enrolls in your course, the student could file a lawsuit under the jurisdiction of Americans with Disabilities Act Links to an external site..

When Is Accessibility Important?

It is important to begin considering accessibility from the very beginning of your course design process. If you bake-in accessibility from the very beginning, your students will benefit from the very beginning and you'll have less to worry about later on. To put it another way, it's like building a house. If you make sure that your foundation, plumbing, and wiring are all up to code when you're constructing your house, then you will save yourself a lot of costly headaches in the future and can live happily ever after with your loved ones.

Why From The Beginning? Can't It Wait?

There is a common misconception that because there is an office tasked with helping students who have needs, there is no need to think about implementing accessibility in our course designs until we are informed that a student with needs is enrolled in our class. Unfortunately, there are three problems with this perspective:

  • Making courses retro-accessible can take even more time, effort, and cost than if accessibility was baked-in to the original design.
  • Students with disabilities may join your class too suddenly for you to have time to make your course retro-accessible.
    • Students with disabilities can enroll in your course at the last minute.
    • Students in your course may, in the middle of the semester, suffer from a sudden illness or accident that leaves them disabled (temporarily or otherwise).
    • Students may not realize they have a disability until something in their classes causes them to discover it.
    • Students who may be trying to get away from the stigmas of their disability may try to conceal their disability until the course work becomes too difficult.
  • Students with disabilities are not the only students who will benefit from a course that's designed with accessibility standards.

For More Information

Here are some additional resources about Accessibility and Universal Design.

Last Updated January 2017.
Clemson Online