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Accessibility

Making Leadership Development Accessible to Everyone

The Center for Leadership Studies is committed to making leadership development accessible to all learners. Accessibility relies on several components working together, including authoring tools, web technologies, web browsers and other user technologies such as screen readers.

Accessibility means that websites, tools and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them effectively.

Accessibility encompasses all disabilities that affect access to content, including:

  • Auditory
  • Cognitive
  • Neurological
  • Physical
  • Speech
  • Visual

Accessibility also benefits people without disabilities, for example:
  • People using mobile phones and other devices with small screens, different input modes, etc.
  • People with changing abilities due to aging
  • People with temporary disabilities, such as a broken limb or eye impairment
  • People with situational limitations, such as viewing content in bright light or in an environment where they cannot listen to audio
  • People with limited internet bandwidth
  • People for whom English is a second language (for nontranslated languages)

CLS offers the following accessibility options, listed by modality and course.

LEAD Assessment: Paper-Based

LEAD Assessment: Online

LEAD Profile

Digital Blended

Self-Paced

Instructor-Led

Virtual Instructor-Led

LEAD Assessment: Paper-Based

The paper-based LEAD Assessment is not accessible for learners with visual accessibility needs.

LEAD Assessment: Online

Accessibility options:

Visual:

  • Screen reader compatible
  • Keyboard navigation
  • Logical/predictable sequencing

LEAD Profile

LEAD Profiles are generated dynamically, and navigation order is dependent on user-applied settings in the PDF reader and screen reader. Click for additional information on navigating PDFs with a screen reader.

Accessibility options:

  • Visual:
    • Screen reader compatible
    • Keyboard navigation

Digital Blended

Situational Leadership® Essentials, Situational Performance Ownership®

Accessibility options:

Auditory

  • Videos with captions (Note: The accuracy of the automated captions during live sessions depends on many variables, including but not limited to background noise, volume and clarity of the speaker’s voice, and lexicons and dialects specific to geography or community)
  • Low background audio (e.g., low background music)

Cognitive

  • Asynchronous learning
  • Recordings of synchronous learning
  • Videos with captions (Note: The accuracy of the automated captions during live sessions depends on many variables, including but not limited to background noise, volume and clarity of the speaker’s voice, and lexicons and dialects specific to geography or community)
  • Clear instructions

Neurological

  • Content does not contain anything that flashes more than three times in any one-second period (seizures)

Physical

  • Keyboard navigation

Speech

  • Text-based collaboration in asynchronous learning
  • Chat-based collaboration in synchronous learning

Visual

  • Color and contrast optimized (color perception)
  • Alternative text for images (e.g., text description of a photo for screen readers)
  • Font size optimized
  • Screen reader optimized. Click for additional information on navigating the NovoEd platform with a screen reader
    • Keyboard navigation
    • Logical/predictable sequencing
  • Accessible PDFs
    • Optimized for screen readers
    • Alternative text for images
    • Functional hyperlinks and form fields

Self-Paced

Situational Leadership® Essentials, Situational Performance Ownership®, Situational Leadership®: Building Leaders Online, Situational Leadership®: Taking Charge Online

Self-paced courses comply with Web Accessibility Initiative standards (W3C: WCAG AA compliant) to meet the needs of a diverse learner population.

Accessibility options:

Auditory

  • Videos with captions
  • Low background audio (e.g., low background music)

Cognitive

  • Asynchronous learning
  • Videos with captions
  • Clear instructions

Neurological

  • Content does not contain anything that flashes more than three times in any one-second period (seizures)

Physical

  • Keyboard navigation

Speech

  • Text-based collaboration in asynchronous learning

Visual

  • Videos with descriptive audio and captions
  • Color and contrast optimized (color perception)
  • Alternative text for images (e.g., text description of a photo for screen readers)
  • Font size optimized
  • Screen reader optimized.
    • Keyboard navigation
    • Logical/predictable sequencing
  • Accessible PDFs
    • Optimized for screen readers
    • Alternative text for images
    • Functional hyperlinks and form fields

Instructor-Led

Situational Leadership® Essentials, Situational Performance Ownership®, Situational Leadership®: Building Leaders, Situational Leadership®: Taking Charge

Due to its in-person, real-time nature, the instructor-led modality is not recommended for learners with auditory or visual accessibility needs. These programs are available as fully accessible self-paced modules to meet the needs of all learners.

Virtual Instructor-Led

Situational Leadership® Essentials, Situational Performance Ownership®, Situational Leadership®: Building Leaders

Due to its real-time nature, the virtual instructor-led modality is not recommended for learners with auditory or visual accessibility needs. These programs are available as fully accessible self-paced modules to meet the needs of all learners.

Accessibility options:

Auditory

  • Media/facilitator/learner audio: The accuracy of the automated captions during live sessions depends on many variables, including but not limited to background noise, volume and clarity of the speaker’s voice, and lexicons and dialects specific to geography or community

Neurological

  • Content does not contain anything that flashes more than three times in any one-second period (seizures)

Visual

  • Color and contrast optimized (color perception)
  • Accessible PDFs
    • Optimized for screen readers
    • Alternative text for images
    • Functional hyperlinks and form fields
  • PPT: Streamed, no screen reader accessibility
  • Media: No descriptive audio
  • Polls: No screen reader accessibility, facilitators verbally announce
  • Chats: Screen reader accessibility
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If you have questions about accessibility or how to ensure all learners get the most out of courses from CLS, please contact us to discuss your specific needs.

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