Accessing abilities: Creating innovative accessible online learning environments and putting quality into practice

This conceptual paper will discuss how faculty from The School of Library and Information Science at The University of South Carolina partnered with their university’s Center for Teaching Excellence. This partnership resulted in the facilitation of professional development workshops and online tools for peer educators to better serve distance education/online students who are differently-able (students who are medically or socially labeled as having disabilities). National-level online instruction standards, instructional techniques, as well as outcomes and future plans will be discussed