Digital Literacy and Accessibility
NTEN courses run for one week and are offered twice a year.
Course Overview
Awareness
Learn about the practices and technologies that ensure digital inclusion for people with a range of abilities.
Strategy Development
Develop strategies for successfully engaging people with disabilities, including creating accessible websites and documents.
Assessment
Examine current tools and spaces to identify potential barriers for people with disabilities and discover adaptive techniques.
Description
Digital literacy programs are designed to help participants overcome barriers to actively participate in a digital society. But what about participants with physical or cognitive disabilities?
To address the needs of all digital literacy participants, practitioners need to ensure that their programs and spaces include people of all abilities. This is possible when practitioners know the fundamentals of accessible communication, assistive technologies (both hardware and software), and adaptive spaces. And focusing on accessibility improves usability for all participants.
During this course, we’ll cover three key elements
- The fundamentals of accessibility within the context of digital literacy programs
- How to identify and implement new strategies for including people with disabilities
- Important considerations for evaluating and modifying the physical space for program delivery
You’ll leave this course with the key skills to make accessibility and inclusion a more central part of your new or existing digital literacy programs.
Presenting
Melissa Helquist
Director
SLCC Community Writing Center
Dr. Melissa Helquist is Director of the SLCC Community Writing Center and Associate Professor of English at Salt Lake Community College. Melissa is a community educator and a passionate accessibility advocate. She has helped to develop accessible publishing guidelines adopted by the Society for Disability Studies and University of Michigan Press. She is an accessibility trainer for higher education and is a founding participant of Utah Communities Connect, a digital inclusion initiative.
Earn While You Learn - Professional Credits
In addition to our own Nonprofit Technology Professional Certificate, NTEN is an approved provider for a number of other professional credentials programs. This course qualifies for the following credits:
