Providing Accommodations for UNL Students

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln strives to make all learning experiences as accessible as possible. For those students with disabilities, the classroom setting, whether online, face-to-face, and/or in a lab, may present certain challenges that need accommodations and consideration. Federal legislation mandates that the university provide reasonable accommodations that afford equal opportunity for all students. Achieving reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities involves shared responsibility between the students, faculty, and staff. The student knows their disability and can help the faculty member learn what has worked for them in the past. The faculty member has the course and disciplinary knowledge required to facilitate a class with accommodation and are responsible for putting forth good effort on creating accessible learning materials. And various staff play roles in things like training students to use assistive technologies, provide services such as sign language interpretation, and modifying course materials into specialized formats such as raised images or braille.

Accommodation Services at UNL

The office of Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) collaborates with the university community to create accessible educational environments. The SSD office determines appropriate academic accommodations after reviewing medical documentation and assessing the student’s functional limitations and specific needs. An Individual Accommodation Plan (IAP) is created providing a list of the academic accommodations for which the student is eligible. Students will distribute copies of their IAPs to their instructors and discuss the specific accommodations needed for their classes. SSD is available to consult with you on individual student situations and broader curricular issues.

As faculty or staff, you play a critical role in this work. To learn more about the SSD office and/or providing accommodations, visit the Services for Students with Disabilities website as well as review the information by expanding the Resources for Faculty accordion below.

Resources for Faculty

The Services for Students with Disabilities website includes various resources for faculty regarding accommodations including:

The SSD staff is always willing to meet with you, so feel free to contact them directly if you have any questions.

Portrait of Barbara Woodhead, SSD assistant director Barbara Woodhead
Assistant Director
Email barbara.woodhead@unl.edu

Testing Accommodations

Some accommodations described in the accommodation plan relate to test-taking. The Testing Accommodations page will provide you with information on special testing accommodations, the SSD Testing Center, the DLC (Digital Learning Center), and extending time on Canvas-based exams.

Testing Accommodations

Getting Started with Tips & Checklists

The accessibility checklists and tips linked below will help you to identify the content and materials in your course(s) where accessibility can be improved. The best practices found within the checklists and tips introduce you to the major accessibility considerations that apply to common digitally formatted materials such as Microsoft Word documents, PDF files, Google documents, Canvas Pages as well as a variety of video and media content.

Accessibility Tips & Checklists

Making Your Course Materials more Accessible

Accessibility is about designing or structuring an environment for maximum usability. For course materials, this means designing or preparing them in ways that everyone can use them, including students using an assistive technology like a screen reader. Making and selecting accessible course content creates an environment in which all students can learn at their best. We encourage you to proactively create and select accessible materials because it results in more inclusive environments and limits the need for individual accommodations. This resource can help you make and provide accessible content to all learners.

The accordions below provide information on easy-to-implement steps and best practices you can take that will improve the accessibility of course materials created using software and products such as Microsoft Office, Google documents, and VidGrid. The information provided throughout this resource will help you recognize the major accessibility considerations for each digital format listed. Remediating the common accessibility issues of the materials addressed within this resource will improve access to your course and course materials.

Microsoft Office: Word, PowerPoint, Excel

Course content is created, presented, and/or distributed in a variety of ways, such as in Google Documents, Adobe PDFs, Microsoft Word files, and Pages in Canvas, among other formats. In all of these applications, certain ways of producing and providing content are preferable, because they provide greater access for people with disabilities. The video titled Creating Accessible Documents (Links to an external site.) from the National Center on Accessible Educational Materials explains why it's important to create electronic documents that are accessible to all users.

The navigational buttons will direct you to steps for improving the accessibility of your Microsoft Word documents, PowerPoint slides, and Excel spreadsheets. Adopting these best practices will help you avoid common accessibility issues and improve access to your course materials.

Word Documents
PowerPoint Slides
Excel Spreadsheets

Video and Media: VidGrid, YouTube, Images, Zoom, Live CC

Course content is presented and provided to students in a variety of ways. Whether you distribute and/or post materials that are created in VidGrid, YouTube, or another format, there are steps you can take in order to ensure people with disabilities can access them.

The navigational buttons below will direct you to steps for improving the accessibility of your Zoom and Teams sessions as well as your multimedia materials and such as images, and videos using VidGrid and YouTube. Adopting these best practices will help you avoid common accessibility issues and improve access to your course materials.

VidGrid
YouTube
Images
Zoom
Live CC

PDF

Course content is created, presented, and/or distributed in a variety of ways, such as in Google Documents, Adobe PDFs, Microsoft Word files, and Pages in Canvas, among other formats. In all of these applications, certain ways of producing and providing content are preferable, because they provide greater access for people with disabilities. The video titled Creating Accessible Documents (Links to an external site.) from the National Center on Accessible Educational Materials explains why it's important to create electronic documents that are accessible to all users.

The navigational button below will direct you to steps for improving the accessibility of your PDFs. Adopting these best practices will help you avoid common accessibility issues and improve access to your course materials.

PDF

Canvas Pages

Course content is created, presented, and/or distributed in a variety of ways, including using Canvas Pages. As is true for all applications, certain ways of producing and providing content are preferable, because they provide greater access for people with disabilities. Canvas provides General Accessibility Design Guidelines (Links to an external site.) that are helpful for making your pages accessible to as many students as possible.

The navigational button below will direct you to steps for improving the accessibility of your Canvas Pages. Adopting these best practices will help you avoid common accessibility issues and improve access to your course materials.

Canvas Pages

Google: Documents, Slides, Spreadsheets

Course content is created, presented, and/or distributed in a variety of ways, such as in Google Documents, Adobe PDFs, Microsoft Word files, and Pages in Canvas, among other formats. In all of these applications, certain ways of producing and providing content are preferable, because they provide greater access for people with disabilities. The video titled Creating Accessible Documents from the National Center on Accessible Educational Materials explains why it's important to create electronic documents that are accessible to all users.

The navigational buttons below will direct you to steps for improving the accessibility of your Google documents, Google slides, and Google spreadsheets. Adopting these best practices will help you avoid common accessibility issues and improve access to your course materials.

Google Documents
Google Slides
Google Sheets

Back to Homepage

For additional help please contact us through our Instructor Support Page