Digital Accessibility Plan

INTRODUCTION

The North Carolina Virtual Public School believes in providing equity in access through the development and deployment of a variety of digital learning options as well as improving student achievement through the implementation of personalized learning. Students learn in different ways and have different needs and challenges. Our goal is to provide accessible resources that meet the educational needs of all stakeholders.

In 2019, NCVPS leadership established a commitment to digital accessibility with the formation of an accessibility team. The mission of the team is to ensure digital accessibility by creating and implementing a set of accessibility procedures. This team will ensure continuous improvement by meeting throughout the year as technology updates warrant, and will reconvene annually to assess and evaluate the following departmental guidelines.

CURRICULUM

Learning Management System: NCVPS uses Canvas for our Learning Management System. Canvas has been evaluated by Instructure and WebAIM according to WCAG 2.1 standards. Testing is regularly conducted using automated tools, assistive technology (such as screen readers, keyboard testing, etc.), and coding best practices. Third party accessibility evaluation occurs regularly with internal audits conducted with each release. Mechanisms are in place for logging and fixing accessibility defects. Canvas’ Accessibility Statement and VPAT

Master courses are built in Canvas and used to create the individual sections for teachers. Within the course masters, downloadable/printable versions of the instructional content, Canvas assessments, and assignment answer keys are made available to teachers via a Teacher Resources Module which is hidden to students. Teachers are able to share the downloadable/printable versions of the items with students who require mark in book, completed versions of notes, and other IEP specified accommodations. The same documents can be made available to students who experience limited or no Internet connectivity.

Blueprint is a feature that is available through Canvas that allows changes that are made to the course masters to be pushed out to all live sections throughout the course of each semester or academic year. From time to time, accessibility requests come in through the NCVPS Help Desk or via communication with Technology, Instruction, or Curriculum which require additional changes to be made to the live course content. In those instances, the Blueprint feature is used to push out updates to course content ahead of where students are working in the live courses.

UDOIT: NCVPS purchased the UDOIT tool which integrates directly into Canvas. The Curriculum Team runs UDOIT scans on all master courses to identify and address potential accessibility related issues. The UDOIT tool scans these areas in Canvas: announcements, assignments, discussions, files (i.e., HTML file), pages and module URLS. UDOIT looks for the following accessibility concerns: page heading structures, alternative text for images, table headers, color contrast and video captioning. 

For courses that were designed prior to 2018, the part-time Curriculum Specialists run the UDOIT scans. For courses designed after 2018 and all new developments, the part-time Instructional Technology Specialists who design the courses run the scans as part of the course development checkout process. Once the scans are complete, the Curriculum and Instructional Technology Specialists address as many of the concerns as possible. However, there are times where subject matter expert knowledge is needed. In those cases, the Curriculum and Instructional Technology Specialists connect with the Instructional Course Leads for additional information. Between the Curriculum and Instructional Technology Specialists and the Instructional Course Leads, multiple steps are taken to ensure NCVPS course masters meet or exceed WCAG 2.1 standards.

Google Shared Drive: NCVPS uses Google Shared Drive to house all documents and presentations that are integrated into courses. Google Shared Drive allows files to be shared with students so the documents can be accessed from a variety of devices. Students are provided with training on how to access and download and/or save Google Shared Drive files that are linked in the Canvas courses in the Getting Started Unit (student orientation). Additional directions are provided either on the actual documents/presentations or in the assignment/assessment directions in Canvas to walk students through the process of downloading the files (PC and MAC users) or save to Google Drive (Chromebook).

Grackle Docs: All documents in the Shared Drive run through the Grackle Doc Extension.  When the extension is enabled, the Grackle tool will scan for document accessibility issues including proper use of titles and headers, table formatting, alternative text, and contrast.  Curriculum and Instructional Technology Specialists review the results to ensure proper titles, headers, table formatting, alternative text, and color contrast is applied for student-facing and teacher resource documents.

Yuja: All NCVPS Curriculum videos are stored and streamed from the NCVPS-managed Yuja streaming service. Yuja allows videos to be auto-captioned, and as a part of the course design process, the Instructional Technology Specialists will correct auto-captions. For World Language courses, Subject Matter Experts (teachers) are recruited to assist with captioning videos that are presented in non-English languages.  Curriculum Specialists correct auto-captions for all active and recurring course masters.  The captioning service, 3play Media, is integrated in Yuja, and if there is an immediate captioning need, NCVPS Staff can request 3play Media professional captioning. Yuja does provide burn-in caption options (open captions)  in the event an .mp4 video is requested to be presented offline or directly in the learning management system.

Third-Party Vendor Course Content: Only a very limited number of courses are offered through a vendor (VidCode). Out of approximately 180 unique courses available through the NCVPS catalog, 1 course is provided by VidCode. 

Per the information provided by Vidcode Technical and Accessibility Specifications:  Vidcode Accessibility Guidelines Vidcode is committed to making its electronic and information technologies accessible to individuals with disabilities. If you wish to report an issue related to the accessibility of content on this website or to request access to any content that is currently unavailable, please contact us at info@vidcode.com. Vidcode is committed to continually improving the accessibility of our tools and aims to align with WCAG 2.0 Level A compliance. K-12 Curriculum will include a read-aloud function for instruction sets and references available to all users, feature a high contrast theme throughout the platform to optimize text and provide the ability to use the platform without a mouse.

INSTRUCTION

NCVPS provides highly qualified teachers that support student success. Our program provides both asynchronous and synchronous learning along with opportunities for synchronous support. Teachers are provided with a Canvas course that is copied from the course master. The master courses that are used to create the individual live sections are thoroughly reviewed for accessibility related concerns and those concerns are addressed as outlined in the Curriculum section of this plan above. NCVPS teachers interact with students to support the three instructional pillars that form the foundation of our mission which include providing positive, specific, and directive feedback to students, instructional announcements, and individualized/whole-class communication. As teachers work to meet the requirements outlined by the three instructional pillars, they design and push out new content in their Canvas courses via the announcements, messaging, and feedback features. To ensure the content being designed and shared by teachers meets accessibility requirements, NCVPS provides professional development opportunities for teachers on how to use the built in Accessibility Checker in the Canvas Rich Content Editor and provides teachers with a basic checklist that addresses formatting for text, hyperlinks, images, videos, and tables. 

Exceptional Children Accommodations 

If a student with an IEP or 504 plan is enrolled in a North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS) online course, it is the responsibility of the local school system to ensure the school system meets all requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education (IEP) Act and Section 504. NCVPS will follow all modifications and accommodations documented on the IEP or 504 plan as appropriate. There are some instances in which accommodations listed in the IEP or 504 plan are not conducive to the online environment and may not be provided. In this case, the local school system will be responsible for providing such accommodations in order to help the student to be successful in the online course.

OUTREACH & SUPPORT

Website 

NCVPS is committed to making its website [https://ncvps.org]accessible and usable for all visitors, including those with disabilities. We follow the standards set by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA, developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

We build and update web content using the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines and the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM).

Our content is written in clear, plain language and organized using proper heading structures so that screen readers and other assistive technologies can easily navigate the page.

To further support accessibility, we’ve added the Divi Accessibility Sidebar, a tool that gives users the ability to customize their on-site experience. This includes options to adjust font size, contrast, spacing, and more—empowering visitors to tailor the site to their needs.

Ongoing Accessibility Practices

• All new content undergoes accessibility checks as part of our publishing process.
• A full website review is conducted annually to address any gaps or improvements needed.
• Visitors can report accessibility issues through a clearly labeled link on the site.

Social Media –

NCVPS is committed to making all digital communications accessible and inclusive. We apply the same WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards used on our website to our social media content.

Across platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, BlueSky, LinkedIn, and YouTube, we use built-in accessibility features to enhance usability. This includes:

• Adding alt text and image descriptions to graphics

• Captioning all videos

• Using descriptive link text

• Writing hashtags in CamelCase for better screen reader recognition

Our goal is to make sure everyone can access and engage with our content—no matter the platform.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

Teacher Training Initiatives – NCVPS has developed and shared comprehensive information and resources with our teachers, staff and teachers in training (TnT). An accessibility training plan for teachers was developed in 2020 and has been implemented. All PL full time staff and Instructional  Leaders for PL and TnT have been trained on accessibility practices.

Course Development – A majority of the courses offered through NCVPS are developed in-house through a variety of individuals who are employed by the Curriculum Team. Each Course Development team generally consists of one Outliner, one to four Content Writers, one to three Content Reviewers, and one or two part-time Instructional Technology Specialists. All individuals who are hired to serve as the Outliner, Content Reviewers and Writers are required to complete the Course Development Training course that is reviewed and revised annually by the full-time Curriculum Staff. Within the course, there is a lesson dedicated specifically to addressing Accessibility in Online Content. Additional tips, tricks, and strategies are shared with members of the Course Development Teams throughout the duration of the draining which includes information on how to create accessible videos, providing detailed alternative text for instructional images, providing transcripts for audio files, etc. 

Inservice teachers – NCVPS has developed an Accessibility, Exceptional Children, and ELL Program Resources page that is available to all NCVPS teachers and staff through the internally developed Professional Learning Hub. Through that page, tutorial information is provided on how to turn on the accessibility features on Apple devices, Chromebooks, and Windows. Information is also provided on how to use the Grackle web-based tool to scan for and address accessibility-related issues with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Information is presented on the page which walks teachers through the process of using the built-in Accessibility Checker in the Canvas Rich Content Editor to scan for additional accessibility issues. Another resource on the page provides teachers with information on how to create transcripts using Microsoft Dictate.  Just in time- short professional development trainings have been created and shared on making text, audio, video, images and tables accessible. These trainings are also housed in the above mentioned Hub in a searchable database.

Beginning Teacher, Teacher in Training program – To teach for NCVPS, all potential teachers must complete a 15-week coursework & practicum experience known as the Teacher In Training (TnT) program. Similar to a college-level teacher preparation program, the TnT requires all participants to complete 7-8 weeks of coursework and 7-8 weeks of a student teacher-type experience. During the student teaching experience, potential teachers shadow current NCVPS teachers and eventually spend some time as the lead teacher in the courses. Training is provided in the TnT coursework that introduces potential teachers to the importance of addressing accessibility in online and blended courses. In the Course Orientation, information is provided for  tools that are available for teachers to use to provide read-aloud support for all students. Other topics that are presented in the course  include Universal Design for Learning, creating accessible course announcements, the IEP/504 Process, additional procedures, dyslexia supports, and English Language Learner supports. During the live sessions, additional information is presented by the NCVPS Instructional Designers on how to develop accessible digital content. The Instructional Designers also answer any questions that potential teachers might have in the accessibility live session. 

Beginning in the 2021-2022 academic year, a Teacher Refresher Course was created to update previously certified teachers on newer NCVPS processes and procedures. One of the modules contains a lesson titled IEP/504 Information that provides additional information on supporting the unique needs of diverse learners.

TECHNOLOGY

Virtual Support Center –NCVPS currently uses OS Ticket as our Virtual Support Center management platform. OS Ticket is a help desk ticketing system designed to manage customer queries in one central location. It can track and report client requests and save time by automating some repetitive work. OS Ticket is locally hosted and currently does not have a VPAT to demonstrate WCAG conformance. NCVPS is working to procure a third-party vendor to assist with compliance with our Digital Accessibility Plan.

Registration System –NCVPS is currently using a custom-coded program for our Registration System. The system is antiquated, and we are in the process of moving to Infinite Campus. The current system has no Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) to demonstrate that its product is WCAG conformant, and as of October 2024, there are no plans to develop one. The latest Infinite Campus VPAT can be found at: https://www.infinitecampus.com/pdf/Infinite-Campus-Accessibility-Conformance-Report-2022.pdf.

Technology Tools Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPATs):

Below is a list of all tools and resources that may be found in our courses. As new tools are added to courses, we will add the accessibility information for those tools to this list. As we sunset tools, we will remove those tools from the list.

LMS
Canvas’ Accessibility VPAT

Third-Party Vendor Tools
Articulate Suite (Rise, Storyline, etc.)
Brainfuse
Online Closed Captioning
Explore Learning (Gizmos)
Google Suite Accessibility
h5p Content Types
Infobase Classroom Videos on Demand
ReadSpeaker

Microsoft Word and Excel
Accessibility Resources (Includes specific guides and documentation for vision, hearing, speech, mobility, and learning)

Yuja
Accessibility of the HTML5 Media Player
Managing Accessibility Options
Zoom