Gladhart; eLearning and Accessibility 185 Determining Faculty Needs for Delivering Accessible Electronically Delivered Instruction in Higher Education

The purpose of this study was to determine if a need exists for faculty training to improve accommodation for students with disabilities enrolled in electronically delivered courses at a statewide university system. An online survey was used to determine if instructors had students who had been identified as needing accommodation in their online courses, to identify which tools instructors used in electronically delivered instruction, and to determine how familiar the instructors were with strategies for accommodating students with disabilities in their courses. Over half the respondents reported identifying students in their classes with disabilities either by an official notice or through other means of identification. The respondents identified a variety of electronic delivery tools used to provide instruction in distance courses. A low percentage of the faculty surveyed reported they were aware of strategies to improve accessibility in their electronically delivered courses. In a report issued by the U.S. Department of Educa-tion, Setzer and Lewis (2005) noted that over one-third of public high schools offered distance education courses in the year 2002-2003 with 50 % of those courses of-fered as online or Web-based courses. In keeping wit