21-Day Accessibility Awareness Learning Path

Learn how you can contribute to a welcoming and inclusive community where people with disabilities can thrive, have a strong sense of belonging, and achieve academic, research, and professional success.

Introduction

It’s impossible to work toward accessibility awareness without also talking about disability. Let’s begin with some disability statistics compiled by web.dev:

“The World Health Organization estimates that over 15% of the world’s population—or 1.3 billion people—self-identify as having a disability, making this group the largest minority group globally.

These findings align with a 2015 – 2016 study from the National Center for Education Statistics, which reported:

“19% of all enrolled undergraduates and 12% of all enrolled graduate students reported having a disability.”

Our community can only thrive if its entire population can participate, and digital accessibility efforts are an integral part of Northeastern’s commitment to creating a welcoming and inclusive community.

Northeastern University’s commitment to inclusion

Northeastern University has made a commitment to being inclusive, adaptive, and broadly accessible in our operations and technology. Northeastern is diligently working to expand resources and knowledge, and on crafting a sustainable, achievable roadmap for accessibility growth. As this work continues, it’s up to each member of the community to consider their impact on accessibility and inclusion.

About the 21-Day Accessibility Awareness Learning Path

This learning path is provided to help you understand the impact of accessibility and how you can improve the accessibility of your workplace, classrooms, and communities every day. Each day includes carefully chosen activities with additional activities for any topic that you’d like to explore further. The learning path is presented in 21 days, but explore the content at whatever pace or order is best for you.

All linked digital resources are publicly available or can be accessed with your Northeastern login. We’ve also suggested chapters from Demystifying Disability by Emily Ladau as an optional reading activity. If you’re interested in that book but can’t obtain a copy, please contact us.

Additional activities

  • Demystifying Disability, Introduction: “Why Do We Need to Demystify Disability?”

Table of Contents

Day 2: Intersectionality and Disability

Intersectionality is an important consideration in disability and accessibility. Get started with two videos introducing intersectionality, then consider requesting a learning, development, and action workshop from ODEI to spend more time critically analyzing intersectionality.

Additional activities

  • Learning, development, and action workshops
    Suggested workshop title: Distinguishing the Complexities of Identity through Intersectionality.
  • Demystifying Disability, Chapter 2: “Understanding Disability as Part of a Whole Person”

Day 3: Introduction to Disability Rights History

Explore the strides made by the disability rights movement, and begin thinking about disability rights as basic human rights.

Additional activities

Day 4: Introduction to Digital Accessibility

Words like accessibility, usability, and inclusion are used throughout this learning pathway. Here’s a description of those terms from the Web Accessibility Initiative’s Accessibility Fundamentals website:

Accessibility:
addresses discriminatory aspects related to equivalent user experience for people with disabilities. Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can equally perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with websites and tools. It also means that they can contribute equally without barriers.
Usability:
is about designing products to be effective, efficient, and satisfying. Usability includes user experience design. This may include general aspects that impact everyone and do not disproportionally impact people with disabilities. Usability practice and research often does not sufficiently address the needs of people with disabilities.
Inclusion:
is about diversity, and ensuring involvement of everyone to the greatest extent possible. In some regions this is also referred to as universal design and design for all. It addresses a broad range of issues including:
  • accessibility for people with disabilities;
  • access to and quality of hardware, software, and Internet connectivity;
  • computer literacy and skills;
  • economic situation;
  • education;
  • geographic location;
  • culture;
  • age, including older and younger people;
  • and language.

You will visit a video series titled UX Foundations: Accessibility, with Derek Featherstone several times in the learning pathway. Though the video series is written for User Experience (UX) professionals, its guidance for making websites accessible is equally meaningful for anyone learning about accessibility.

Today, we start with section one of that video series: What is accessibility? (11 minutes)

Additional Activities

Day 5: Bias, Microaggressions, and Identity

Video description: an intimate portrait of five disabled people living in the Pacific Northwest. They discuss microaggressions and implicit bias against people with disabilities, developing disability pride and identity, and how bias affects them every day. The film suggests how teachers, coworkers, health care workers, and families can become better allies to members of the largest minority group in the United States.

Additional activities

  • Demystifying Disability, Chapter 4: “Ableism and Accessibility”

Day 6: Introduction to Assistive Technology

Continue the UX Foundations: Accessibility course by exploring some of the ways that people with disabilities use and interact with technology.

Video Series: Assistive technology overview

Additional activities

Day 7: Disability Personas

Continuing the UX Foundations: Accessibility course, today’s activity is a more detailed review of several disability personas:

Video Series: Personas for People with Disabilities (20 minutes)

Additional activities

Day 8: Microsoft 365 Accessibility

In week two, begin reviewing accessibility best practices for the software that many of us use every day. Each of the document accessibility links in this section leads to the ITS Tech Service Portal. Publicly-available guides are provided in the additional activities section for each.

Additional activities

Day 9: Microsoft Word

Additional activities

Day 10: Microsoft Outlook

Additional activities

Day 11: Microsoft Excel

Additional activities

Day 12: Microsoft PowerPoint

Additional activities

Day 13: Social Media

Social media can be a fun way to unwind, a way to keep in touch with family, a tool for learning, or part of a person’s professional responsibility. It can also another meaningful platform where content can be successful or inaccessible. Review the accessible social media toolkit from Disability:IN and consider what you can do to make your social media posts more accessible.

Day 14: Virtual Meetings, Events, and Presentations

Virtual meetings have become an everyday activity for many. Today, explore what you can do to make your meetings, events, and presentations more accessible.

Additional Activities

Choose Your Own Adventure

For the next five days, our learning pathway will split into different paths for different interests or roles. For general guidance that is most applicable to all roles and types of content, choose the Accessibility for Designers pathway.

Day 15: Choose Your Own Adventure, Part One

Accessibility for Designers

Accessibility for Instructors

Accessibility for Leaders and Managers

Accessibility for Web Developers

Day 16: Choose Your Own Adventure, Part Two

Accessibility for Designers

Accessibility for Leaders and Managers

Accessibility for Instructors

Accessibility for Web Developers

Day 17: Choose Your Own Adventure, Part Three

Accessibility for Designers

Accessibility for Instructors

Accessibility for Leaders and Managers

Accessibility for Web Developers

Day 18: Choose Your Own Adventure, Part Four

Accessibility for Designers

Accessibility for Instructors

Accessibility for Leaders and Managers

Accessibility for Web Developers

Day 19: Choose Your Own Adventure, Part Five

Day 19: Choose Your Own Adventure, Part Five

Accessibility for Designers

Accessibility for Instructors

Accessibility for Leaders and Managers

Accessibility for Web Developers

Day 20: We’re Not Done Yet

Additional activities

  • About Judith Heumann (1947 – 2023)
  • Crip Camp Movie: Official Trailer
  • Crip Camp Educational Curriculum
    Curriculum Description: Crip Camp shared with insight, clarity, humor, and beauty the experiences of one group of disabled young people and their journey to activism and adulthood, and in doing so, provides an opportunity for all to delve into the rich and complicated history of disability activism, culture, and history. The goal of this curriculum is to extend the knowledge and understanding of disability and of disabled people offered in the film Crip Camp.

Day 21: Next Steps

Congratulations on reaching day 21! This learning path is just the start of your accessibility awareness journey. Continue the journey by exploring the guidance and tools provided on the digital accessibility website. Comments and suggestions are also welcome in the feedback form.

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