Accessibility Main Page
Why create accessible web pages?
- Because it's the right thing to do.
- Because it's the law: Section 508, Section 504,
ADA, NC Senate Bill 866, UNC Web Accessibility Steering Committee Report,
ECU's IRCC Section 508-B Report, ...
- So all our students, parents, prospective students, faculty, staff, and administration can access all of our web pages and electronic information.
Universal Design
By adhering to Section 508 and the ADA, the principles of universal design will benefit not only individuals with
disabilities, but also individuals using non-standard devices such as PDAs, cell phones, etc.
The Universal Design Education Online Web Site (Center for Universal Design, N.C. State
University; IDEA Center, University at Buffalo; Global Universal Design Educator's Network)
defines universal design:
Universal design is an approach to the design of all products and
environments to be usable by everyone, to the greatest extent possible,
regardless of age, ability, or situation. It serves people who are young or old,
with excellent or limited abilities, in ideal or difficult circumstances. Universal
design benefits everyone by accommodating limitations.
Disability Types
- Visual — blindness, low vision, color-blindness
- Hearing — deafness, hearing impairment
- Motor — inability to use a mouse, lack of fine muscle control
- Cognitive — including reading disorders, learning disabilities, ADD/ADHD
Assistive Technology Commonly Used
- Blindness — Screen readers, Braille input/output devices, scanners/OCR/readers
- Low vision — Screen magnification software, large monitors, customized color contrast
- Deaf or hard of hearing — Visual signals that accompany computer sounds, Video & IP Relay
- Motor — Speech recognition, alternative keyboards, alternative pointing devices, word prediction software
- Cognitive — Word prediction software, speech recognition, scanners/OCR/readers
Create Accessible Content
Common Assistive Technology
- Windows — Basic information about windows. Need to know before using other programs
- JAWS — screen reader for blindness and low vision
- Kurzweil 1000 — document scanning, reading, and writing for blindness and low vision
- Kurzweil 3000 — document scanning, reading, and writing for LD and ADD/ADHD
- ZoomText — screen magnifier low vision
- Text-to-speech — basic reading out loud of text on the screen (integrated into many programs)
Common Services Provided by Disability Support Services
- Proctored testing
- Readers
- Scribes
- Low distraction environments
- Note takers
- General tutoring for students
- Interpreters for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Convert books and documents
- Braille
- Screen reading / Text-to-speech
- JAWS Screen reader installation on computers in labs and offices
- ZoomText installation on computers in labs and offices
- Kurzweil 1000 and/or 3000 installation on computers in labs and offices
- NaturalReader installation on computers in labs and offices
- CCTV
- Captioning of audio, video, and other media
- Webpage accessiblity checking (Section 508)
- Training about the disablities and on how to use assistive technology.
- Anything else on an as needed basis
Contact For More Information
Contact Disablity Support Services if there are any questions or you would like more information. Students must be registred with Disablity Support Services to receive accomodations based on their disability. Students must be approved for each accommodation to receive them.
East Carolina University
Disability Support Services
Slay 138
Greenville, NC 27858-4353
252-737-1016 (Voice/TTY/Relay)
252-737-1025 (Fax)
External Resources
Creating Accessible Information
Standards
Section 508 Information
Other
