Lecture slides developed to accompany ARTID 569A: Inclusive Environments, an Interior Design course offered at Iowa State University. These slides cover the history of disability rights in the United States, design standards, and more. Questions are included within the slides for assessment.

A free online course to assist all educators, including those new to the profession, in improving the accessibility of the materials their students use for learning...

Open Educational Resources (OER) offer opportunities for increasing equity and access to high-quality K–12 education. Many state education agencies now have offices devoted to identifying and using OERs and other digital resources in their states. To help states, districts, teachers, and other users determine the degree of alignment of OERs to the Common Core State Standards, and to determine aspects of quality of OERs, Achieve has developed eight rubrics in collaboration with leaders from the OER community.

This Guide details a variety of resources useful for evaluating and selecting appropriate and accessible OERs that will be usable by the broadest range of learners

This resource explains what accessibility means, why it’s important, who requires it, and how educational agencies can meet their responsibilities.

Digital accessibility skills are in high demand, as the world becomes more aware of barriers in digital content that prevent some people from participating in a digital society. These are essential skills for web developers, and essential knowledge for organizations that want to ensure their web content is reaching the broadest audience possible.

See the current research on how embedded comprehension checks impact students and teachers.

Find out about current research on fonts and ease of reading, especially for learners with dyslexia.

Resources to help TAACCCT grantees learn how best to design, evaluate, and remediate their Open Educational Resources (OER) to maximize the accessibility of the learning resources for all.

The National AEM Center at CAST has enjoyed collaborating with the #GoOpen Network on improving access to OER for learners with disabilities in your states and districts. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), one of our primary roles is to provide technical assistance to states and districts on how to select, procure, and distribute accessible educational materials (AEM), including OER. Accessibility in this context means that learners with disabilities are afforded the same opportunity for independence, participation, and progress in the curriculum as learners without disabilities. A common misconception is that inaccessible materials can be efficiently retrofitted by special educators or that alternatives can be readily acquired through special education services. The reality is that many learners with disabilities, who are estimated to represent 11% of the student population, experience delays or even full barriers to learning when materials are selected without consideration for accessibility. The good news is that resources and tools are available to guide states and districts on accessibility best practices. One of these is the newly released AEM Pilot.