>>> Create Accessibility

Beginning April 3rd, watch this space for daily challenge posts designed to improve the accessibility of your digital files, videos, or other online media. Each post will provide step-by-step directions on how to create accessibility, including an explanation of how the design choice improves accessibility, and some recommended lesson ideas to help your students create accessibility as well. Educators are encouraged to complete the challenge themselves along with their students. Daily Challenges will be posted Monday - Friday, starting April 3rd and continuing throughout the month of April with the weekends left for reflection and sharing of helpful accessibility tools.  Each week will follow a similar theme so feel free to jump in and out of the challenges as it makes sense for your context.

One model could be to engage in the daily challenges yourself and plan to engage your students the following week. Another model could be to save the daily challenges for the end of the week to complete. Do what works for you!  I hope you share your experience, reflections, and learning via twitter using the #CreateA11y hashtag and blogposts are encouraged!

We can't have inclusive, diverse communities without access. To borrow from Hamilton, we all want to be in the room where it happens but too often there are barriers that prevent that. In the digital room, these barriers can be removed by making accessible design choices during the creation process. For example, it it difficult for me to engage in a conversation about a video that lacks captions. For another user, it could be difficult to engage with a Google Presentation that lacks alt text tags. These design choices create barriers to access and prevent diverse users from being part of the 'room' or conversation. Let's work together building awareness and skills to improve access and create accessibility throughout the month of April and beyond.