Faculty Increase Course Accessibility for Students

Published: November 19, 2021

College of Western Idaho (CWI) faculty participated in Accessibility Week Nov. 8 – 12, hosted by the College's Center for Teaching and Learning. Resources, training, and contests highlighted how small course changes help students learn by increasing course access and engaging in course content. Faculty were encouraged to raise the accessibility score on their course content provided by a technology called Ally. This tool provides faculty with just-in-time feedback on how to increase the accessibility of their content and provides students the ability to download alternative file formats from audio files to web-based formats and even braille.

Since CWI implemented this software in January 2020, more than 8,500 students have downloaded over 33,000 files, empowering each of these students to learn in a way that best meets their learning needs. 

Congratulations to the the following individuals who demonstrated the highest percentage of improvement over the course of the week. Additionally, congratulations to Kevin Platts, Director of Public Safety Programs, and the entire Department of Public Safety whose courses had the highest overall accessibility scores! 

Top 5 Individual Daily Greatest Daily % Change:

1. Holly Paquette, Biology – 10.67% 
2. Luke Yeates, Communication – 7.50%
3. Julia Bennett, Communication – 7.03%
4. Susan Aydelotte, Math – 5.81%
5. Christina Moore, Biology – 5.77%

Top 5 Individual Weekly Greatest % Change:

1. Denise Heald, English – 14.03%
2. Susan Aydelotte, Math – 11.14%
3. Luke Yeates, Communication – 10.80%
4. Holly Paquette, Biology – 10.55%

Trivia Winners
1. Chloe Howard
2. Amy Vassar
3. Lynne Tucker

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