New Faculty

Accessibility Overview

The Center for Effective Teaching and Learning (CETL), Information Technology Services (ITS), and the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) work together to satisfy accessibility requirements for instructional materials, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and individual student accommodations requests. This page provides an overview of accessibility resources and their interplay for new faculty members. CETL is the primary contact for accessibility best practices for faculty. On the CETL website, you will find resources around Ally for faculty along with workshops on creating accessible instructional materials.

Proactive Accessibility

When selecting articles, creating documents, or placing information within your course on Canvas you must be aware of accessibility best practices to ensure your material is accessible to all students. There are several accessibility resources available to faculty, in the Canvas LMS, the Ally tool provides feedback on the accessibility of digital content. If you require the remediation of inaccessible digital content, utilize the services below:

  • Video Caption Request: If you require captions for your in-class videos, you can request them via this service.
  • Document Remediation Request: If you discover inaccessible documents within your course, and you are not the author, you can utilize this service to have the document remediated.

Student Accommodations

If a student in your class requests an in-class accommodation, OSD will notify you prior to the start of the semester via email. This "Notification of Academic Support Services" outlines the specifics and has actionable items for faculty to follow. If a student asks you for accommodation you should refer them to OSD. Refer to the information page on the OSD website for more information. Ensure that you have an accommodation statement as part of your class syllabus, below is an example accommodation statement:

"This course is intended for all students. If you require an accommodation to fully participate in this course please contact the Office for Students with Disabilities via email at [email protected]."

 

CETL

The Center for Effective Teaching and Learning (CETL) promotes teaching as an area of practice and scholarship for all faculty, in fulfillment of professional growth and the broader university mission. By growing a culture of teaching excellence, CETL improves the lives of a unique population of Cal State LA students. Also, CETL provides a variety of programming that addresses accessibility, such as equity and inclusion, Universal Design for Learning, low bandwidth and asynchronous teaching models, etc.

The Center for Effective Teaching and Learning promotes teaching as an area of practice. The CSU is based upon the teacher-scholar model. CETL consults with Cal State L.A. faculty who want to broaden their teaching and participate in the scholarship of teaching and learning. By growing a teaching culture on campus, we hope to increase the quality of student learning.

CETL professional development opportunities include faculty learning communities (FLCs); professional development for chairs; Course Redesigns for departments; one-on-one coaching and technology support; and training workshops for instructional technologies, including the campus learning management system, Canvas. We encourage all faculty to email us at [email protected] for questions about teaching practice and [email protected] for questions about educational technology (Canvas, Zoom, etc.). 

The CETL Main Offices are located in Fine Arts 138. The CETL Annex is located at Library South, Room 3074.