Student Access Center

Creating an Accessible Online Environment

As an instructor, it is important for you to consider accessibility when creating materials for the online environment. Whether you are offering an online course; creating a course for Global Campus; or posting to KSOL, content needs to be accessible. Retrofitting is not a recommended practice, so the best time to implement strategies for accessibility is during the creation process.

The inherent issue concerning web accessibility is complexity. There are excellent resources available on the topic. The World Wide Web Consortium or W3C is the international standards organization for the World Wide Web. The Web Accessibility Initiative is the section of the W3C that is responsible for the strategies, guidelines, and resources to make the Web accessible to people with disabilities. However, as wonderful as these resources are, the information contained within the websites is daunting.

It is the intent of staff to provide faculty basic information in the area of web accessibility. Best practices, resources, and descriptions of "how to" are included under Documents and Presentations. For specific guidelines on creating an accessible course in Canvas, we recommend looking at K-State's Digital Accessibility in Canvas.

Online Testing

For assistance with using Canvas for exams, please reference the Canvas Instructor Guide.

Before a student is scheduled to take an online exam at the SAC Testing Center:

  1. Confirm that the exam will be open at the time scheduled with the Testing Center.
  2. Extend the time limit if extra time is an accommodation.
  3. Confirm that the exam is available for the entirety of the exam time.
  • SAC computers do not have Respondus LockDown or TopHat. If the online exam requires LockDown or TopHat, the students must bring their own laptop with the program installed.

Text-to-Speech and Proctorio

The literacy support tool, Read&Write, may be utilized during an exam/quiz on Canvas or McGraw Hill. If you are using Proctorio to proctor an online exam, a setting must be adjusted to permit the use of Read&Write or any text-to-speech program.
Please follow these instructions to adjust the Proctorio settings.
This setting must be applied for every exam/quiz on which students will use Read&Write.

If you have questions or concerns, contact the Testing Center at tst@k-state.edu or 785-532-5317. For any online issues, contact the K-State IT department.