Designing accessible Web-based instruction for all learners: Perspectives of students with disabilities and Web-based instructional personnel in higher education

Although appropriate technological devices have been developed, students inadvertently face a new challenge because of inaccessible content and resources on the Web. Many students feel that some common Web-based Instruction (WBI) features make content inaccessible because designers do not consider accessibility at the beginning of the course design. If the issues of accessibility are not appropriately addressed, the potential of WBI cannot easily transfer into direct educational benefits for all learners, especially students with disabilities.; This study has three purposes: (1) to discover how students with disabilities and WBI personnel in postsecondary educational institutions perceive Web accessibility, an application of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), for designing accessible and usable WBI; (2) to reveal the Web accessibility issues students with disabilities and WBI personnel have experienced when either taking or designing WBI courses; (3) to suggest some feasible solutions for constraints and problems identified above, along with some effective instructional design strategies for designing accessible WBI for all learners.; Students with four types of disabilities (i.e., mobility, cognitive or neurological, visual, and hearing impairments), online educators and educational support staff in a Midwestern university were recruited for individual and focus-group interviews. Document and observation analyses were performed. Each individual case was analyzed based on disability type and concluded with cross-case analyses.; The results of the study suggest that most students with disabilities and WBI personnel were not knowledgeable about assistive technologies and also not aware of Web accessibility and related standards and guidelines. Most WBI personnel were not sufficiently prepared to make their WBI accessible. Some personnel even had negative attitudes towards students with disabilities. However, WBI personnel thought providing accessible WBI courses was the right thing to do: providing equality and quality of life to students with disabilities. They also thought that WBI personnel should provide all learners with various types of course delivery methods or technologies and should use appropriate instructional design strategies to address the learners' needs. Based on the findings of this study, practical instructional design guidelines for designing accessible WBI to all learners are suggested.