This document is currently a draft, authored 02/23/2026, submitted for feedback, and may change before final publication.
Purpose
Access to free and open educational resources (OER) goes beyond affordability alone; information within these resources should be accessible to all USG students, including those with disabilities. Affordable Learning Georgia is committed to making faculty publications supported by our program accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. All recipients of an Affordable Materials Grant receive training in creating accessible open educational resources, and we provide a series of open-licensed accessibility guides tailored specifically for faculty authors in making OER accessible.
This Accessibility Statement explains how Affordable Learning Georgia evaluates and remediates conventional documents-based OER for accessibility. The Affordable Learning Georgia website complies with the GALILEO Accessibility Policy and University System of Georgia policies and guidance on accessibility.
Evaluating Accessibility for Affordable Learning Georgia Open Educational Resources
As of Spring 2025, all resources submitted to ALG as deliverables for a completed grant project are first evaluated by ALG staff prior to publication to ensure the following accessibility features for conventional documents meet the current accessibility standards before they are hosted:
Alternative Text or Captions
When images or videos are used to convey information in a resource, there must be a text alternative to convey the same information. For images in a text document, either alternative text or captions must be provided: providing both generally creates a repetitive reading for screen readers.
When images are purely decorative and do not convey information, alt text is not required. Marking decorative images as decorative within the creation platform is preferred but not required.
Structured Text
When text is used to convey information in a resource and contains multiple sections and multiple pages, the text must be structured in a way screen readers are able to recognize. This allows screen readers to navigate between sections without reading the entire text.
Exceptions for structured text are made with small documents which do not require structural navigation by a screen reader. An example of this would be a one-page Word document containing a title and description for an essay assignment.
Reading Order
When information is divided into multiple sections on a page or a slide, this order of this information must be structured in a way screen readers are able to recognize. Without a correct reading order, screen readers are unable to read this information in the order intended by the author.
Color Contrast
When text is used to convey information in a resource, contrast between the background and the text must meet or exceed a luminance ratio of 4.5:1. Because this is a technical requirement, contrast is checked by an accessibility checker if this check is available. When this check is not available, contrast is checked visually by staff and will involve subjectivity in the evaluation. Contrast can be adjusted by the reader depending on the platform, such as the Immersive Reader in Microsoft Word.
Case-by-Case Issues
Less-common resource types can be reviewed for case-by-case accessibility issues based on the nature of the resource. These resource types include:
- Spreadsheets and tables
- Mathematics graphs and equations
- Music notation
- Audio-only resources such as podcasts
- Raw code files such as Python or R
- Non-English language text (see the WCAG guide on indicating non-English text on websites)
The extent of reviews and remediations of issues specific to these types of resources will depend on the capacity of the grant team and ALG staff. If a case-by-case accessibility issue is encountered, ALG adds a description of the issue to the entry's description or abstract field.
About Accessibility Evaluations
Evaluations of each set of resources are targeted rather than comprehensive due to ALG staff capacity. ALG staff evaluate a sample of each file type submitted by a project team for these four criteria: generally, if at least two of the same file type are evaluated and found to be accessible, the rest of the files of that type are likely to be accessible. There are instances where project teams are large and files are individually authored by different team members or mixed with adopted or adapted OER from external sources: in this case, more files are evaluated to account for various authors. Please contact affordablelearninggeorgia@usg.edu if you notice any inaccessible features that ALG may have missed during the review.
Accessibility Status and ALG Commons
Educational resources hosted by ALG (as listed in ALG Commons) prior to our Fall 2024 documents (added circa January 2025) were evaluated for the four criteria above in a 2025 accessibility audit by ALG staff. See the WCAG 2.1 AA Compliance Spreadsheet for a full list of evaluated pre-existing conventional documents. All entries in ALG Commons, including pre-existing resources, are being assigned an Accessibility Status based on these four categories:
Compliant
Resources are ADA Title II compliant.
Non-Compliant
Resources include pre-existing conventional electronic documents that are not ADA Title II compliant and should not be used to apply for, gain access to, or participate in an institution’s services, programs, or activities.
Third-Party
Resources are hosted outside of Affordable Learning Georgia. Authors must ensure that resources are ADA Title II compliant in order to be used to apply for, gain access to, or participate in an institution’s services, programs, or activities.
Report
This resource is a report which is provided by Affordable Learning Georgia for historical reference. This is not an educational resource and it is not intended for required access or participation in an institution's services, programs, or activities.
Accessibility Remediation
To increase the accessibility of pre-existing conventional electronic documents, Affordable Learning Georgia may remediate files in the “Non-Compliant” category to meet accessibility criteria. This remediation only occurs if the work required is realistic for the capacity of ALG staff and if it does not require subject-specific knowledge which could only be provided by the authors of the text or other subject matter experts. An example of realistic ALG remediation would be the assignment of headings to a textbook in Microsoft Word where chapters were originally discernible only by bold text. An example where ALG could not remediate would be adding alternative text to a series of molecular diagrams.
Affordable Learning Georgia may seek the help of subject matter experts for accessibility remediation in future projects.
Disability or Access Services Offices and Open Educational Resources
If you are a member of a Disability or Access Services office and you have remediated an Affordable Learning Georgia resource for accessibility, that resource can be shared beyond the boundaries of the Chafee Amendment, as these works are open-licensed and therefore able to be shared at a global level. Please contact us at affordablelearninggeorgia@usg.edu; we can host and share the newly-remediated version, crediting you and/or your department or office as the accessible version's remediator(s).
Students with Disabilities and Affordable Learning Georgia
If you are a student with a disability and have suggestions to make a resource more accessible, please contact us at affordablelearninggeorgia@usg.edu. While we aim to keep ALG resources compliant with the ADA, any suggestions for increasing accessibility beyond this minimum are welcome.
Third-Party Platforms
Affordable Learning Georgia has an index and repository created and hosted by third party vendors. Please check their Accessibility Statements for their platform's specific accessible functionality:
Generative AI Disclosure
The vast majority of this document was authored solely by Affordable Learning Georgia staff. A review of the document was run through Microsoft Copilot; we adopted a select few changes proposed by the review for clarification.