{"id":876,"date":"2015-11-24T18:20:52","date_gmt":"2015-11-24T23:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spsfaculty.commons.gc.cuny.edu\/?page_id=876"},"modified":"2026-04-24T13:49:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T13:49:39","slug":"accessibility","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/accessibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Accessibility and Universal Design for Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>To help make higher education available to as many students as possible, CUNY SPS supports course design that upholds the principles of accessibility and Universal Design in Learning (UDL).\u00a0 Also see the <a href=\"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/accessibility-online-courses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Level Up! Accessibility Project<\/a> for the OFDIT Team&#8217;s response to new federal regulations taking effect in <strong>April 2027<\/strong> that require institutions like CUNY SPS to ensure all online course materials meet <strong>WCAG 2.2 AA<\/strong> standards.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ttfmake-embed-wrapper aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 960px;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"UDL At A Glance\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bDvKnY0g6e4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong><em>See the links, quick guides, and video tutorials below for steps can you take to ensure that your course site and the course materials you post there are accessible to all.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<table style=\"height: 508px\" width=\"937\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"120\"><strong>Word<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"264\"><a href=\"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2025\/03\/Creating-Accessible-Word-Documents.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Creating Accessible Word Docs (PDF)<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2025\/03\/Accessibility-Checklist-for-Word-Documents.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Checklist Word (PDF)<\/a><\/td>\n<td width=\"240\"><span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Video Tutorials <a style=\"color: #ff6600\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aEBru6_rMr4\">Part 1<\/a> &amp; <a style=\"color: #ff6600\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=kqeFH7r-_Kg\">Part 2<\/a><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"120\"><strong>Excel<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"264\"><a href=\"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2025\/03\/Creating-Accessible-Excel-Documents.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Creating Accessible Excel Docs (PDF)<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2025\/03\/Accessibility-Checklist-for-Excel-Documents.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Checklist Excel (PDF)<\/a><\/td>\n<td width=\"240\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=76n-UT-73M4\"><span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Video Tutorial<\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"120\"><strong>PowerPoint<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"264\"><a href=\"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2025\/03\/Creating-Accessible-PowerPoint-Documents.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Creating Accessible PPT Docs (PDF)<\/a><br \/>\n<a style=\"font-family: inherit;font-size: inherit\" href=\"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2025\/03\/Accessibility-Checklist-for-PowerPoint-Documents.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Checklist PPT (PDF)<\/a><\/td>\n<td width=\"240\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=W-TB0-XjvG8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Video Tutorial<\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"120\"><strong>PDF<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"264\"><a href=\"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2025\/03\/Creating-Accessible-PDF-Documents.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Creating Accessible PDFs (PDF)<\/a><\/td>\n<td width=\"240\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"120\"><strong>Brightspace<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"264\"><a href=\"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2025\/03\/Accessibility-Checklist-for-Course-Sites.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Checklist for Course Sites (PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/teaching-guides\/2024\/08\/08\/setting-accommodations-in-brightspace\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Setting Accommodations in Brightspace (webpage)<\/a><\/td>\n<td width=\"240\">Student Accommodations: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=btVIhEq2_28\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Setting Special Access in Brightspace (video tutorial by D2L)<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Caption and Transcript Service<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>CUNY SPS faculty may use <a href=\"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/multimedia\/caption-request-form\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this form to request captions<\/a> for any video used in a course.<\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"120\"><\/td>\n<td width=\"264\"><\/td>\n<td width=\"240\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>CUNY-wide Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www2.cuny.edu\/accessibility\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CUNY&#8217;s Accessibility Website<\/a> (with links for faculty, students, and staff on the left)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cuny.edu\/accessibility\/distance-learning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CUNY&#8217;s Accessibility in Distance Learning site<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>UDL Collaborative at CUNY SPS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Want to learn more about UDL at CUNY SPS? <a href=\"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-udl-collaborative\/get-involved\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Join our campus resource group<\/a> on the OpenLab that brings together instructors, students, and advocates passionate about accessibility and UDL. We meet monthly during the fall and spring semesters where we explore best practices, answer your questions about accessibility and inclusion, and brainstorm solutions together. All faculty and staff are welcome!<\/p>\n<p>Also, browse the archive of our <a href=\"https:\/\/cunysps.wordpress.com\/tag\/udnosh\/\">Accessibility in Higher Ed series on the SPS Community Blog<\/a> introducing the principles of Universal Design as they apply to teaching and learning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To help make higher education available to as many students as possible, CUNY SPS supports course design that upholds the principles of accessibility and Universal Design in Learning (UDL).\u00a0 Also see the Level Up! Accessibility Project for the OFDIT Team&#8217;s response to new federal regulations taking effect in April 2027 that require institutions like CUNY &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-876","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7819,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/876\/revisions\/7819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}