ABSTRACT
Digital accessibility should be incorporated throughout the online course development process, as it is the legal and ethical responsibility of institutions, as well as a Quality Matters standard for best practice. This chapter covers six keys for accessible course development applied at The University of Alabama Online (UA Online). At UA, online instructional design services are provided to the entire university through UA Online. The UA Online team comprises multiple teams, including the instructional design team (IDT), the media team, the editing team, and technical support team. To establish responsibility for online course accessibility, UA Online appointed a senior accessibility instructional designer (SAID) from among the course development team members. The SAID provides accessibility training, job aids, and templates to the IDT and faculty to ensure that online courses are as accessible as possible. The SAID created an Online Course Accessibility Instructional Designer Internship offered to students in the Master’s of Instructional Design and Development Program at the Birmingham Campus.
