ADA & COPYRIGHT COMPLIANCE

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and U.S. copyright law, including fair use provisions, are two bodies of law that have implications for the design and development of online learning experiences.

eLearning OHIO’s learning design team collaborates with other academic support units to stay abreast of federal laws, rules, and regulations related to online course design and development to ensure that the online learning experiences they create are in compliance with the letter and the spirit of the law.

How does ADA apply to my online course(s)?

Online environments must provide equal access and opportunity to learning for all students. As you develop an online course, you should be familiar with ways to support these learners. Generally, you will need to provide transcripts and/or captioning for audio or video presentations, and text descriptions for images or figures/diagrams used in your course.

The learning design team collaborates with the Office of Disability Services and faculty to ensure that students with disabilities are able to access course content and receive appropriate accommodations.
http://www.ohio.edu/disabilities/

I want to learn more about how to make my online course accessible to students with disabilities. Can you help me get started?

Review the resource, “Introduction to Web Accessibility,” for information on laws and standards as well as key principles of accessible design. WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind) is a non-profit organization based at Utah State University.
http://webaim.org/intro/

Visit K-Access. Created by the Office of Disability Support Services at Kansas State University to help faculty ensure course content is accessible, this website offers many useful resources.  

• An accessibility checklist and how-to documents you can use to ensure that content is accessible at a basic level.
• Examples of what makes content accessible and why accessibility is important.
• Resources for more information and best practices for accessibility.

How does U.S. copyright law and fair use apply to my online course(s)?

In relation to these complex issues you need to be mindful of your use of any content created by others in your online course. It’s especially important that you check with Ohio University Libraries about the terms and conditions of content you access via the Libraries or OhioLink. For example, it may be permissible for you to link directly to content, but not to download content and upload it in your course.

The learning design team collaborates with Ohio University Libraries and faculty to ensure that all content in online courses is in compliance with U.S. copyright law and fair use.

I want to learn more about copyright and fair use. Can you help me get started?

First, view “Copyright on Campus,” a 5-minute overview of copyright law from the Copyright Clearance Center.
http://www.copyright.com/content/cc3/en/toolbar/education/resources/copyright_on_campus.html

Second, learn about the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries.  Released in January 2012 by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the Code is a clear and easy-to-use statement of fair and reasonable approaches to fair use developed by and for librarians who support academic inquiry and higher education.
http://www.arl.org/fairuse

For a Video: Introduction to Fair Use
http://vimeo.com/34911526

FAQs for Faculty