Gina Londino-Smolar, Forensic and Investigative Sciences Program director, developed an online forensic science laboratory course at Indiana University Indianapolis that majors and non-majors take to fulfill a science requirement. In 2018, she noticed an increase in student accommodation requests related to visual impairments.

Tactile graphics, such as fingerprints, were created for an online forensic lab taught by Gina Londino-Smolar to help students with visual impairments. Image courtesy of Gina Londino-SmolarThis increase led her to rethink how she developed content for the course. As a result, tactile graphics were developed for the forensic lab, including a braille textbook with raised images of fingerprints, handwriting and crime scenes. The textbook includes descriptions and additional information, so visually impaired students can fully understand what others learn visually.

Even now, she considers how to improve activities in each of her courses so that all learners are well-equipped to succeed. Londino-Smolar also ensures that all videos in her courses include closed captions and descriptive text for digital images.

“I think students are appreciative of the various ways to interact with the material,” Londino-Smolar said.

“One thing I have noticed is that I feel that students are more comfortable asking me for help or clarity. I think that making my content accessible has made students feel a bit more comfortable.”

While some faculty like Londino-Smolar have already taken steps to ensure their course materials are digitally accessible, it will now be important for all IU faculty to do so. A new federal rule in Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires all public institutions serving more than 50,000 people to meet updated web accessibility standards by April 24, 2026. In response, IU has launched a digital accessibility initiative to help faculty with tools and training resources to meet the requirements.

Resources assist accessibility efforts

Londino-Smolar said it would be easy for a professor to feel overwhelmed making their course materials digitally accessible. She said it’s important to focus on the most important things the students should learn and use available resources, such as the teaching and learning centers for faculty on each campus.

Melinda Stanley, a senior lecturer in healthcare management in the School of Business at IU Kokomo, has been designing online courses since 2014 and is experienced in making materials digitally accessible. She said the work may initially seem daunting, but it gets easier with practice.

“I would also say to faculty that are building their courses, just concern yourself with accessibility as you go through. Don’t leave it all to the end,” Stanley said.

Stanley shared some tips she follows to make course materials digitally accessible:

• She uses the accessibility tool called Anthology Ally when she’s building a Canvas page, and she’ll check the percentage at the top right to see how accessible a page is and follow its recommendations.
• Tidy Up is a useful feature in Canvas because it will identify items that don’t seem to be used that could be removed, thus reducing the number of items that need to be made accessible.
• Stanley makes sure all her videos have correct closed captions when she uploads them to Kaltura.
• Graphs can be too complex to use image alt text for, so Stanley will use ChatGPT to summarize the graphic and include that transcript on the Canvas page.
• Stanley said she is sensitive to people who are color blind. She will make text bold-faced when she wants it emphasized instead of using a colorful highlight or font.

“Use the tools and front load the work,” Stanley said. “Trying to redo things afterward is rough.”