Creating an Accessible Syllabus
Is your syllabus accessible? State law and the Chancellor's Office require that all California State University instructional materials be accessible to all students, regardless of ability. On our campus, TLP is supporting the Accessible Technology Initiative (ATI) in achieving the goal of course material accessibility beginning with each course's syllabus.
The syllabus is a perfect place to start evaluating your course materials for accessibility because it is most likely distributed to students in an electronic form and it usually contains information is a variety of forms including paragraphs, lists and tables. Making your syllabus accessible will familiarize you with most important features of an accessible document.
What is an Accessible Syllabus?
Whether you create your syllabus in word processor like MS Word or with a web page editing program like Dreamweaver, the following features are common to accessible electronic documents because they promote the ability of the reader to quickly find information whether reading it on the screen, on paper, or with an audio screen reader.
Is your syllabus accessible? Use our checklist to evaluate your syllabus document.
Learn More: Watch the TILT Video
At the Technology and Learning and Teaching symposium presented on February 13, 2009, three CSU, Chico faculty members presented their experiences creating accessible syllabi and display their finished documents. Watch the video archive (login as a participant).
Three Ways to Make Your Syllabus Accessible
1. Come to TLP's Workshop
Make Your Course Syllabus Accessible with MS Word is a one hour hands-on faculty workshop. Attendees are asked to bring at least one course syllabus in Microsoft Word format to be modified with the accessibility features learned. Sign up for a workshop now.
2. Read the Tutorials and Checklists
- Accessible syllabus checklist - contains links explaining each characteristic.
- Tutorial: Creating accessible documents with MS Office 2003 (CSU Faculty EnACT project)
- Tutorial: Creating accessible documents with MS Office 2007 (CSU Faculty EnACT project)
- Reference Guide: Differences between MS Word 2003 and MS Word 2007 in accessibility features (CSU Faculty EnACT project)
- Accessible instructional materials tutorials and guides (San Jose State University)
3. Use the Accessible Syllabus Template
Download the Accessible Syllabus Template for Microsoft Word. You can copy and paste your syllabus information from another syllabus into our Accessible Syllabus template or start fresh to achieve improved syllabus accessibility by preserving the formatting of the template and following the checklist guidelines above.