ACCESSIBILITY

FOR FACULTY & STAFF

FACULTY CENTER FOR LEARNING DEVELOPMENT

& ACCESS-ABILITY SUPPORT SERVICES
2015
RECENT NEWS: INSTITUTIONS ON NOTICE FOR RISK
OF EXPOSURE FOR INACCESSIBILITY

We don’t want
to end
up in the same
boat…
Harvard and M.I.T. Are Sued Over Lack of
Closed Captions, New York Times

8/14/15 2
 “
Accessibility means equal access. The
ability of all persons, regardless of special
needs or disabilities, to access, use, and
benefit from everything within their
“
environment.

Suzanne Anderson McNeil

Assistant Vice President, Student Health and Wellness
Dean of Students Office/Student Affairs

8/14/15 3
ACCESS
ABILITY

What is the University’s Official Position on Accessibility?

Disability Services at the University of Hartford

What accommodations can be made for students who

self-identify?

8/14/15 4
 THE AMERICANS WITH
DISABILITES ACT

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act

Section (1973) requires that all institutions that use
federal funds such as financial aid, are
504 required to comply with these standards to
make web content accessible.

Section 508 of the

Rehabilitation Act (1973)
talks about equal access
Section
to programs, opportunities 508
and activities.

8/14/15 5
BUT HOW DO WE DO THIS?

Seems overwhelming?

Some pointers to
quickly make
adjustments in your
courses to ensure
accessibility…

8/14/15 6
 1 ALT TAGS

The easiest and quickest

thing you can do, is to add
ALT Tags (alternative text) to
images in Blackboard (and <ALT>
In the name
any of your images in Word, of the law.
Excel or PowerPoint files.)

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 ALT TAGS in Blackboard
1. In your content
area, Create Item.
2. From the tool bar,
Insert/Edit Image.
3. Click Browse My
Computer and
attach file.
4. Input Image
Description and
Title to create
alternative text to
describe the image.
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 ALT TAGS in Office
1. Go to the Insert tab
and click the Picture
button, find your
image and insert.
2. Right click on the
image and Format
Picture.
3. Click the Alt Text
tab.
4. Insert a Title and
Description. Then
Close.
8/14/15 9
 2 CAPTIONS/TRANSCRIPTS

The second thing you can do

to make sure your courses are
in good order is to make sure
any videos or audio you use in
your courses are set up so all
students can access them.

8/14/15 10
 CAPTIONS &

Have you ever noticed the CC

symbol on YouTube videos?

Try to locate videos that already have Closed

Captions (CC). If they don’t have it, consider
contacting the creator to see if they can add it. If not,
consider providing a text transcript for students and
provide it next to your video link in your course.

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CAPTIONS &
YouTube has built in functionality to Create Subtitles and
Closed Captions on your own videos that you have created
and uploaded YouTube:

8/14/15 12
CAPTION SERVICE

Don’t have captions or transcripts?

Two options:
1. Transcripts:
• Consider using student workers to create a transcript by
typing word for word all the spoken text from the video into a
Word Document, attach next to any videos uploaded/linked in
Blackboard.
2. Captions:
• University of Hartford has employed a captioning service to
help caption videos. See Office of Disability Services.

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TRANSCRIPTS
Adding Transcripts to Ensemble (Uhart’s YouTube) Video embeds in Blackboard:

Upload to Ensemble &

then embed into
Blackboard.
1. In your Blackboard
course go to the
video, click the down
arrow next to it and
then click Edit.
2. Browse My
Computer to search
and attach for your
text transcript.
3. Your file will show up
as attached, then
click Submit.
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 3 TEXT & COLOR

Consider your
students when
uploading your media
or content documents
into Blackboard.

Vision impaired
students use screen
reader software to
read text to them.

8/14/15 JAWS Demo: Reading a Course Schedule 15

TEXT (FONT/SIZE)

Use a standard font and size

Browsers have built-in ability to
reduce or enlarge the text based
on the viewer’s needs (12 pt. text
for documents, 18 pt. for
PowerPoint)

In Blackboard, use the default

size. If you enlarge the font, your
browser may display it small, but
others may see it large depending
on their settings.
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TEXT STYLES

Use Styles to Separate Content

Styles, such as
paragraphs, headers, etc.
help students with screen
reader software to
navigate content easily.

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BLINKING TEXT

Avoid blinking text – Why do we do this?

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TEXT UNDERLINES

Avoid underlines –
In the digital age, indicates a hyperlink

Some random
underlined text… am
I a link?

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TEXT/COLOR CONTRAST

Text/Background Color Contrast

Some color combinations are very difficult to see… Here’s a chart to help you.

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COLOR

Minimal Use of Color

Too much color can be overwhelming,

distracting and detract from the purpose of your text.

Do not use ONLY color to emphasize

Use bold/italics. Screen readers cannot “read” color.

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 4 DOCUMENTS

Documents and content

embedded in Blackboard or
shared with students should
follow prior suggestions for
Media, Images, Text and
Color and Layout

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 OFFICE DOCUMENTS

Word Excel PowerPoint

• Alt Text • Alt Text • Alt Text
• Table Headers • Table Headers • Table Headers
• Standard Font Size • Chart Labels • Standard Font Size
• Styles • Don’t use color to • Styles
• Minimal Use of emphasize • Slide Titles
Color • Captions/Transcripts
• Narrate in Notes

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ACCESSIBILITY CHECKER

Run Office Accessibility Checker

File  Info 
Check for Issues
(Prepare for
Sharing) 
Check
Accessibility

8/14/15 24
PDFs & OCR

Text-Based PDFs or Scan to OCR

• PDFs
– Use PDFs created from word documents or text
programs that convert to PDF (able to highlight text in
PDF), include a text file with PDF
• OCR
– scan documents from photocopies/books so it converts
to text.
• Library copy machines scan to OCR
• Create OCR from scanned documents FREE online
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 COMMON QUESTIONS FROM FACULTY

“Doesn’t this seem like a lot of

work for one student?”

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 COMMON QUESTIONS FROM FACULTY

“What about all the work I’ve

already done for this course?”

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 COMMON QUESTIONS FROM FACULTY

“Who’s going to pay for it?”

(money, extra time
commitment, etc.)

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 COMMON QUESTIONS FROM FACULTY

“Can’t I just wait until I have a

student with a disability in my
course that has requested
accommodations?”

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 COMMON QUESTIONS FROM FACULTY

“Where can I get help?”

Help us help you!

8/14/15 30
 RESOURCES
• New York Times - Harvard and M.I.T. Are Sued Over Lack of Closed Captions
http
://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/13/education/harvard-and-mit-sued-over-failing-to-
caption-online-courses.html?_r=0

• The World Wide Web Consortium which sets national & WCAG2.0 international
standards for the Web: http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/
• Americans with Disabilities Act http://www.ada.gov/
• Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act http://
www.hhs.gov/ocr/civilrights/resources/factsheets/504.pdf
• Web accessibility 508 standard: http://webaim.org/standards/508/checklist
• Wave – Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool http://wave.webaim.org
• See Priority 1 and Priority 2 as they are the most critical http
://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/full-checklist.html
• Web Accessibility Initiative – for those who are new to web accessibility
standards http://www.w3.org/WAI/Resources/
• Html code validator http://validator.w3.org
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 RESOURCES
• Accessibility Features. https
://help.blackboard.com/en-us/Learn/9.1_SP_12_and_SP_13/Administrator/
035_Accessibility

• Blackboard Course Accessibility Checklist http

://www.temple.edu/cs/training/accessibility/blackboard/CourseAccessibility
Checklist.pdf
• Making your content accessible in Blackboard http
://info.uwe.ac.uk/online/Blackboard/staff/guides/accessibleContent.asp
• Palacios, K. (2012, March 23). Adding Alt Text to Images in Blackboard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRdxvtT57qg
• Latest on Section 508 Laws http://www.section508.gov/section508-laws
• Guide to the Section 508 United States standards http://
www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/a
bout-the-section-508-standards/guide-to-the-section-508-standards
• Section 508 Of The Rehabilitation Act. http
://www.section508.gov/Section-508-Of-The-Rehabilitation-Act
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