Digital Accessibility Badging Program

The University of Minnesota is home to nearly 90,000 people. In a community of this size, not everyone accesses digital content in the same way - but every member of our community must be able to navigate and understand that content.

The Digital Accessibility Badging Program teaches you how to create emails, slide decks, documents, and more in an accessible way, without using code.  In each self-paced online workshop, you will learn skills and apply them to your everyday work. You may choose to take as many workshops as you like. You will receive a digital badge highlighting the skills you demonstrated in the final project for each training.

This program is created as a collaboration between the Digital Accessibility Stakeholders Group, the Disability Resource Center, the Office of Information Technology, and many other University resources. It is an outcome of the Digital Accessibility Charge by Bernard Gulachek (VP & CIO) and Julie Showers (Interim Associate VP for Compliance).

Enroll now! 

You don't have to wait—start learning today!

• Enroll in Digital Accessibility: Foundations to begin your journey.

• Once you have taken Digital Accessibility: Foundations, you will be eligible for any of the other courses in the program.

Which courses can I register for? 

Currently available

• Digital Accessibility: Foundations
  Learn what digital accessibility means, why it matters, and how it can be incorporated into your daily work. This course is a prerequisite for the Digital Accessibility Badging Program, but it does not carry its own badge.

• Digital Accessibility: Web Content
  Learn many aspects of adding content to a Google Site, with an emphasis on making the site accessible to the largest number of visitors. Learners who have created web pages using Drupal Lite 8 can also submit their work in this course in order to earn the Accessible Web Content badge. Prerequisite: Digital Accessibility: Foundations

• Digital Accessibility: Slide Presentations
  Learn the specific skills needed to create accessible slide presentations for live presenting and for sharing afterwards, using either PowerPoint or Google Slides. Prerequisite: Digital Accessibility: Foundations
   

• Digital Accessibility: Documents
  Create a document that is accessible to the largest possible number of readers, using either Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Prerequisite: Digital Accessibility: Foundations
   
• Digital Accessibility: PDFs
  Create a PDF that is accessible to the largest possible number of readers, using Adobe Acrobat DC. Prerequisites: Digital Accessibility: Foundations and Digital Accessibility: Documents.
   
• Digital Accessibility: Create Accessible Canvas Course Sites
  Create a Canvas course site that applies accessibility concepts to the content, interactions, and assessment of your course. Prerequisite: Digital Accessibility: Foundations

What's in the digital badge? 

A digital badge is an image that carries metadata, validating the skills you demonstrated in a training. Digital badges are shared online through social media and other professional development platforms, such as LinkedIn. You can earn a digital badge that showcases your skills for each training course you complete after Digital Accessibility: Foundations.