What if your course requires video? Students with hearing impairments require video to be transcribed or captioned. If an entire course of 60 minute lectures needs to be transcribed or captioned it will end up costing quite a bit of money (up to $4,000) when transcribed in house or sent to an agency to be captioned. In planning your course think about the right balance and types of media: video, audio, text, PowerPoint, chatrooms, pictures, etc. Students watch about 10 minutes of video before moving on or they fastfoward through it at about twice the speed it is recorded. If you are going to use video think about minimizing the minutes and using it as efficient as possible. Remember that online students do not need all the in class social elements of a campus classroom; online social elements come from e-mail and other communication.

What about communication; how do you communicate best online? Chat rooms are a great way to communicate with students. I recommend learning about the use of text and voice chat and trying each to know how they work and how your students use them. Some students with disabilities are not going to be able to use the audio chat well. Others may be unable to use a keyboard and find it hard to communicate with text. Think about all possibilities and how you would engage students in each format and be willing to change.

What kind of files do you use? Check out our K-Access Quick Tips to learn about making text files, Word and PDF, accessible. You may want to convert any files you have before the semester starts if they are not already accessible. Accessible files are not only a must for many students with learning and visual disabilities, all of your students can benefit from having searchable text when it comes to studying for your tests.

Check your PowerPoint files. Again, look at K-Access Quick Tips for more information. Many of us use PowerPoint to post information online but we need to be aware of some of the faults that make PowerPoint inaccessible. Believe it or not, the easiest way to make accessible PowerPoints really is the simplest way to make a PowerPoint.

If you need any help, feel free to contact our office, Disability Support Services. Our phone number is 785-532-6441. Our e-mail address is dss@ksu.edu. If you have specific questions in regards to online coursework or students you can contact me directly at jasontom@ksu.edu. My phone number is the same.