The CETCI Digital Accessibility Toolkit
The CETCI Digital Accessibility Toolkit is designed to support anyone at Pacific University who creates or shares digital materials for teaching and learning. Whether you use Moodle, Google Workspace, or Box to share resources, such as documents or videos, or to develop and deliver learning activities, this toolkit will help you create materials that are accessible to all students. The toolkit includes practical guides, checklists, and tutorials to help you improve the accessibility of your course materials and meet institutional accessibility requirements.
What Is Digital Accessibility?
Digital accessibility is the practice of creating digital content that can be used by everyone, including individuals who use assistive technologies such as screen readers, captioning tools, alternative keyboards, or other accessibility supports. Accessible materials help ensure that students can:
- Read documents and presentations effectively
- Access audio and video content
- Navigate websites and online courses
- Engage with course materials regardless of ability or technology needs
While accessibility is often associated with formal accommodations, accessible design frequently improves the learning experience for all students.
Why Create Accessible Materials?
Many of the digital platforms used at Pacific—including Moodle, Google Workspace, and Box—are built to be accessible and meet or exceed most accessibility guidelines. However, the accessibility of a course ultimately depends on the materials that an instructor uploads, links to, or creates within those systems. If an instructor creates or uploads an inaccessible document into an accessible system, someone who needs assistance will not be able to access it, regardless of how accessible the system is overall. For example:
- A scanned PDF may be unreadable to a screen reader.
- An image without alternative text may not be understandable to someone who is unable to fully see the image.
- A video without captions may be inaccessible to someone who is unable to listen to the audio track.
- Poorly structured documents can be difficult to navigate using a screen reader or other navigation aids.
This toolkit provides practical guidance for identifying and addressing these issues.
Getting Started
You do not need to make every course material accessible all at once. Begin with the courses and materials that will have the greatest impact, and improve accessibility gradually as you create, update, and reuse content.
Choose Where to Begin
Start with a course that enrolls many students, is taught frequently, is required for a program, or is likely to be offered again.
See Prioritizing Course Accessibility Tasks for detailed guidance on choosing courses and materials to address first.
Make New Materials Accessible
Build accessibility into your work whenever you create, revise, or add course materials. Use the tutorials in this toolkit to create accessible documents, presentations, Moodle activities, readings, PDFs, and videos.
See Prioritizing Course Accessibility Tasks for guidance on which new course materials to address first.
Review and Remediate Existing Materials
As time allows, review materials that you plan to reuse. Remediate inaccessible content or replace it with an accessible alternative whenever possible.
See Prioritizing Course Accessibility Tasks for guidance on which existing materials to review first.
Get Support
CETCI and the Office of Accessibility and Accommodations (OAA) can help you at any stage of the process to address accessibility concerns.
Accessibility Web Resources
CETCI maintains a suite of online help resources and tutorials to support you as you create accessible resources. They are:
- Prioritizing Course Accessibility Tasks
- Creating Accessible Documents
- Creating Accessible Videos
- Creating Accessible Moodle Activities and Resources
- Creating Accessible Presentations
- Creating Accessible PDFs
Workshops, Seminars, and Office Hours
CETCI and OAA have partnered to create a series of workshops, seminars, and structured work time to support you as you create accessible course materials. You can find the schedule for upcoming workshops and other sessions on the CETCI Website.
Accessibility Is an Ongoing Process
Digital accessibility is not a one-time project. The most sustainable approach is to build accessibility into the way materials are created and updated moving forward. Small improvements made consistently over time can significantly improve access for students and reduce the need for future remediation.