Web Accessibility Improvements to CoursePlus
Making the web accessible to everyone is not only a public health issue, it's simply the right thing to do. The Center for Teaching and Learning has long pushed to make the content offered in online courses (and CoursePlus in general) accessible. From a core, accessible PowerPoint template used for all lectures to interactive captions on every online lecture, accessibility is an important part of the work that CTL performs every day.
The CoursePlus web application has long had basic accessibility features built in to make it easier for screen readers and other assistive technology to work with the site. Technology and accessibility standards keep changing, however, and CoursePlus needs to keep up with those changes.
You may have noticed a recent change to the color of links and some other items on the CoursePlus main pages. These changes were made to make the site more accessible to people with vision issues, and to meet more modern accessibility standards. Additionally, a lot of behind the scenes work was done to make pages — particularly those outside of an individual class — more accessible to those who navigate solely by keyboard.
There's always improvements to be made, and the CoursePlus team continues to work on improving navigability and accessibility throughout CoursePlus. While you may not see changes as obvious as link colors changing in the future, rest assured that the CoursePlus team continues to refine how the site works to make it a better experience for anyone using assistive technology.