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The following table provides various website links that relate to universal design for learning, assistive technologies, and accessible online mathematics content.
| Website Link | Description |
|---|---|
| Cognitive Disabilities | This webpage, provided by Web AIM (Accessibility in Mind), provides information about cognitive disabilities that students may face, such as memory, problem-solving, and attention issues. It also provides design considerations to help develop accessible content for students facing these barriers. These types of disabilities and design ideas are important to consider in making accessible mathematical content for an online course. |
| Visual Impairments | This webpage, provided by the Center for Parent Information and Resources, gives valuable information about various visual impairments, such as strabismus, coloboma, and others. Vision barriers are especially important to consider when displaying mathematical graphics on a webpage, such as charts, plots, and graphs. |
| Types of Colorblindness | This webpage, provided by the National Eye Institute, describes the different types of colorblindness with specifics about colors that cause problems depending on the type of colorblindness. When designing a chart or graph, such as a bar graph, histogram, or pie chart, it is essential to consider the colors being used and to ensure there are alternate ways to interpret the graphs other than color alone. |
| Visual Processing Disorder | This webpage, provided by the Churchill Center and School, provided information about the eight types of visual processing disorders, such as sequencing issues, visual-spatial issues, and visual closure issues. Understanding the types of visual processing disorders can aid developers and designers in creating more accessible mathematical charts, plots, and graphs. For example, simplifying the graphic, showing the entire shape, and provided descriptions for the graphic may help. |
| Assistive Technologies for Math | This webpage, provided by Understood, gives an overview of the various assistive technology tools available to aid students facing barriers in mathematics. Understanding the types of assistive technology available can aid designers and developers in creating more accessible online content. Links to appropriate tools can then also be provided in an online mathematics course more readily. |
| Writing Image Descriptions for Graphs | This webpage, provided by 247 Accessible Documents, gives detailed information and various examples on how to write image descriptions for graphs, such as pie charts, line graphs, and bar graphs. Designers and developers can learn how to write short and long descriptions to best help students with visual impairments. This text can also be turned into audio descriptions using a tool like QuickTime. |
| Tools to Check Color Contrast | This webpage, provided by Digital A11Y, explains how to check webpages for color contrast and provides various tools to do so. Checking webpages for color contrast is especially important in mathematical course content if the charts, plots, or graphs are color dependent. For example, if a pie graph is shown and a question is asked: which color takes up the smallest percent of the graph? In addition to checking the contrast, the developer should also provide alternate ways to access the colors, such as describing the colors with text. |
| Alt Text for Graphics | This webpage, provided by Press Books, is an articles that describes the best practices in writing alt text for complex images on webpages and provides an example bar graph image with a short and long description. The method shown in this article is specifically for BlackBoard Learn, but the principles for writing the descriptions are applicable for any mathematical charts, plots, or graphs. |
| Create a Data Graph | This webpage, provided by Math is Fun, allows you to create your own data graphs including bar graphs, line plots, dot plots, pie charts, and histograms. Users can choose grayscale colors and type in their own data and labels. Using this interactive website could aid students who have trouble focusing on or accessing all of the information in a static image of a graph. |
| Practice Creating a Histogram | This webpage, provided by Khan Academy, gives an alternate way to practice, interact with, and learn about histograms. In a preformatted histogram, users can drag the bars to the correct height to create the histogram. This type of practice helps students to focus on one component of the graph rather than taking in all of the information at once. |
| Text Compactor | This webpage, provided by Text Compactor, is an online tool that can summarize written text. The user pastes the text into a box and chooses to what extent the text should be summarized. In create online mathematical course content, this could be a helpful tool to provide on lesson pages that are heavy with text. Students may benefit from a shortened version in simpler terms. |
| UDL Guidelines | This webpage, provided by Cast, gives a detailed description of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines, including engagement, representation, and action and expression. Using the ideas and resources provided on this website can aid in creating more accessible math content for numerous barriers that students may face, including interpreting mathematical graphics. |