Burgstahler, Sheryl. (2005). Steps Toward Making Distance Learning Accessible to Students and Instructors with Disabilities. Information Technologies and Disabilities Journal, 6 (1), Retrieved on May 7, 2007 from http://www.rit.edu/%7Eeasi/itd/itdv11n1/brgstler.htm.

Summary
This article discusses the process undergone at the University of Washington to "identify and implement systematic changes in policies and procedures to improve the accessibility of the UW Distance Learning courses." (para 1) While the goal of distance learning courses is to make learning more easily accessible, the use of technology actually ends up making it harder for students with disabilities (or disadvantages) to access the course. This is the problem that the UW hoped to alleviate.
The Distance Learning Accessibility Project decided that the only way to really improve accessibility would be through policy and procedure changes, rather than adjusting on a course by course basis. This would ensure that they were not just haphazardly modifying when it came up, but universally making online courses more accessible. They also found that this actually ends up being less work and expense than redesigning course by course or just dealing with it on a student to student basis.
The first step was to set a university policy about Web accessibility and to begin educating staff. The Distance Learning staff participated in training sessions, with follow-up trainings offered, and an "accessibleweb" discussion list was established for staff to discuss the topic and share ideas. Web page templates were also created that met accessibility standards, allowing designers to easily create an accessible web page for a course. New courses are all designed using universal design principles, and the Distance Learning staff is available to consult with other instructors. Periodic assessments by the DL staff test for accessibility.
Not only is class design changing, but how accessibility issues are addressed in technology class is changing as well. Now all introductory Web classes discuss these issues, and the final project for these classes must be created using accessible design.

Response
This was an interesting case study in making online learning accessible. I especially liked the mindset that they took--we have to change our policies and procedures or no big change will ever happen. Although that was probably uncomfortable and took some getting used to, I agree that it's probably the only way that a wide-scale change ever takes place. The best suggestion I saw in this article was the creation of accessible website templates, so that creating a site that all students can access becomes simple. This is great because I don't think that instructors don't want to help make their courses more accessible, I think they either don't know how or don't have the time. Having the templates would take care of both these issues.
This made me think about how we deal with "accessibility issues" in face-to-face classes...we tend to put out fires as we see them, so to speak, rather than thinking ahead of time about designing classes so that all of our students can get the most out of them. It's a good thing to keep in mind, distance learning or not.