Digital Accessibility in Teaching

Digital accessibility is central to equity in studies – and not only in purely online teaching. Whenever an OLAT course is used or digital documents, links, audios, as well as videos are shared with students, barriers can arise that make participation difficult or even impossible.
The department Quality in Teaching will be happy to advise you on how to make your teaching accessible.

Enabling students with disabilities to participate on an equal footing – this is not only a democratic self-image, but also a legal requirement for state universities (e. g. nationales Hochschulrahmengesetz [German Framework Act for Higher Education] §2 para. 4 and rheinlandpfälzisches Hochschulgesetz [Rhineland-Palatinate Higher Education Act] §2 para. 4).

Approximately eleven percent of students at German universities have difficulties in their studies due to a physical, mental and/or sensory impairment (21. Sozialerhebung des Deutschen Studierendenwerks, 2017). Not all impairments are immediately apparent to outsiders – for example, dyslexia or sensory impairments such as hearing or visual impairments are often not immediately obvious. Accessibility should therefore always be considered in teaching.

Whether you have a general need for exchange on accessibility in teaching or a specific implementation question (e.g. how to create of accessible Word and PDF documents), we offer personalised advice.

We can also provide training on request.