Access Check Process

An Access Check is a way for MSU Denver instructors to get an expert’s view on the accessibility of some small portion of a course. In the process the Instructional Accessibility Group will commit 3 hours of time, which includes time for coordination, preparation and then the following four steps: 

1. Prep. meeting: The instructor and Instructional Accessibility staff member meet for 30 minutes to make plans and decide what will be reviewed. They will agree on the following:
   1. The scope of the Access Check which should be small. Some examples would include:
      1. 1-2 Microsoft Word or PDF documents
      2. 1-2 Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations
      3. 5-10 minutes of video content
      4. 2 assignments or assessments in Canvas
      5. 1 External tool/website (extensive 3rd part tools may require a different process)
      6. The pages/content of a Canvas module (not including documents/assignments)
      7. How the material will be accessed by IAG staff
   2. A specific time for the follow-up meeting
2. Instructional accessibility work: IAG staff will spend up to an hour examining the accessibility of the item(s) in question. If the scope agreed scope could lead down rabbit holes (with external links, media players, attachments, etc.) the two should discuss which parts are high priority for the access check. Other parts will be checked as time allows.
3. Outlining results: IAG staff will spend 30 minutes writing up an outline of the results of the Access Check. Unique issues will be listed individually, while common issues will be illustrated with a few examples. Also included are recommended steps to fix the issues and relevant instructional accessibility resources.
4. Follow-up meeting: The instructor and IAG staff will have a follow-up 30-minute meeting to talk about the results.

For reference, here are some of the most common instructional accessibility issues: 

• Captions have errors and must be edited so that they are 100% accurate. 
• Canvas pages need structure and text coding. 
• PDF documents need to be converted to text (using Optical Character Recognition) and/or reading order needs to be adjusted. 
• Third-party tools and resources are not accessible and need to be replaced or removed. 
• Hyperlinks need to be displayed in ways that indicate their purpose.