Digital literacy and accessibility

MEMBERS $125/NON-MEMBERS $250
Registration Dates

NTEN courses run for one week and are offered twice a year.

I loved the resource links, as well as examples. They were really helpful to take back to our agency.
– Former course participant

Course Overview

Awareness

Learn about the practices and technologies that support 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 your current tools and spaces to identify potential barriers for people with disabilities and discover adaptive techniques.

Description

Digital literacy programs are designed to help people overcome barriers to participate actively in a digital society. But what about participants with physical or cognitive disabilities?

To address the needs of all digital literacy participants, you need to ensure that your organization’s programs and spaces include people of all abilities. This is possible when you know the fundamentals of accessible communication, assistive technologies (both hardware and software), and adaptive spaces. As a bonus, focusing on accessibility improves usability for all participants.

In this course, you’ll study three key elements of digital literacy and accessibility. First up, you’ll dive into the fundamentals of accessibility within the context of digital literacy programs. Next, you’ll learn how to identify and implement new strategies for including people with disabilities. Finally, you’ll examine important considerations for evaluating and modifying the physical space for program delivery.

You’ll leave this course with the skills you need to make accessibility and inclusion a central part of your new or existing digital literacy programs.

Presenters

Melissa Helquist

Director
SLCC Community Writing Center
Profile Photo

Dr. Melissa Helquist is Director of the SLCC Community Writing Center and 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.

Blended courses run for one week and offer a mix of self-paced and live events to offer both the flexibility you need with the personal connection you want.
Pre-Work (Readings & Quiz)
Homework
Sun
Mon
Tues
Wed

Live Event

Recording Available
Thur
Fri
Sat
Sun
20-30 mins (Self-Paced)
90min
20-30 mins (Self-Paced)

Pre-Work

Several relevant articles will establish key concepts and ideas as a primer to the live event, and help you to identify questions and topics you want to explore further.

Knowledge Check

A brief quiz will reinforce what you've learned so far. Don't stress - it isn't pass/fail - it is just to help you remember and distill the concepts you read in the pre-work.

Live Event

This is a 90-minute live captioned online training with opportunities to interact with the presenter and your peers. And if you can't make the live session, you'll be able to access a captioned recording.

Homework

Faculty, themselves experts with a wealth of nonprofit experience, have created exercises that will reinforce what you've learned and give you actionable steps to improving your organization.

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:

1
3
1.5

NTEN Professional Certificate

CFRE

CAE