Boise State University is committed to creating an atmosphere of inclusive excellence, one that ensures both equity and diversity. Part of inclusive excellence is the shared responsibility we all have to make digital information accessible — that is, usable by the broadest variety of people under the broadest array of circumstances. Efforts to ensure accessibility benefit everyone.
Consider this scenario: Javier, Angelina and Brooke are each enrolled in the same section of Introduction to Sociology, a course that relies heavily on educational video. The videos are all closed captioned, as required by law and university policy, primarily with the intention of making them accessible to people who are deaf or who have difficulty processing audio. Javier, Angelina and Brooke all benefit from the accessible, closed-captioned video but for very different reasons.
- Javier is hard of hearing; the closed captioning enables him to follow along with the video without having to repeat sections that he was unable to hear.
- Angelina is an English language learner; the captions reinforce her knowledge of English vocabulary, spelling and sentence structure.
- Brooke is a new mother; when she puts her baby down to sleep, closed captioning allows her to study without disturbing the baby.
While this scenario applies to a captioned video within a course, the same concept applies to all the content produced at the university whether it’s for the classroom, the web or other publications.
When we make our content accessible we also make it more inclusive by removing barriers and allowing users to interact with content in a variety of ways that works best for them. To learn more about Boise State’s commitment to accessibility, see Accessibility Campus Initiatives.