As more educational content, activities, and services are made available in digital formats and delivered online, the issues of accessibility continue to be in the forefront for educators in their efforts to close the digital divide while working toward educational equity for all students.

Use the tips and related resources below, to ensure your classroom and school websites and digital materials are accessible and meet the needs of all your students and families.

Enhance knowledge of digital accessibility. Creating accessible websites and materials is critical to leverage the potential of technology supports and foster equal educational opportunity for all students, particularly those with disabilities. Read and download the Digital Accessibility Toolkit, an all-inclusive resource that can guide your digital accessibility journey.

Keep accessibility in the forefront when selecting new content for your class. Choosing accessible materials from the start saves you valuable time and ensures that all of your students will be able to access the content without delay. Need some examples on how to do that? Check out our resource-infused guide, titled Making Content Accessible for all Students.

Revisit your current digital materials and website to check for accessibility. If you are like most teachers today, you are creating and using digital materials on a daily basis to provide practice opportunities for students, to provide instructions for project-based learning, and to enhance and extend the classroom learning.  Many teachers create classroom websites to post and share materials, while others are using learning management systems (e.g. Canvas) or the district website.  Are your materials and websites accessible?   Get started today with our blog post 10 Things You Can Do Today to Improve Accessibility, and explore our How to Create Accessible Microsoft Documents guide for step-by-step instructions for creating more accessible Word documents.

Provide accessible and universally designed instruction. To effectively provide accessible instruction means you are taking into account the variety of learners in your classroom and designing lessons that will have multiple access points for multiple people. Learn more about universal design for learning and explore our PowerUp strategy guides in ELA and Math for ideas on incorporating UDL into your lessons.

Work with a team to plan for system wide impact. Addressing digital accessibility takes a team-based approach. Listen to our panelists from Utah discuss accessibility challenges, how they worked across levels within the system to enhance their infrastructure, and the processes they have established to ensure that digital materials are accessible to all audiences.  Click here to listen to their story.