Accessible Text of: A Plan for Providing Accessible Class Content for University
Students Using the Universal Design for Learning
Presented to Society for Disability Studies Conference,
San José, California – June 2011
Jennifer L. Anderson, San José State University
Slide 1
A Plan for Providing Accessible Class Content for University Students Using the Universal
Design for Learning
Presented to Society for Disability Studies Conference,
San José, California – June 2011
Jennifer L. Anderson, San José State University
Presenter notes: None
Image: A computer keyboard key which says "Access". It is blue.
Slide 2
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires Federal agencies to give the disabled
access to information comparable to the access available to others.
Presenter notes: Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires Federal agencies to give
the disabled access to information comparable to the access available to others. University
teachers are faced with an “unfunded mandate” to make their classes accessible to students with
a variety of physical limitations, learning disabilities, and linguistic challenges. Regardless of the
policies and time tables instituted by various educational systems, Section 508 requires federal
agencies and, presumably, educational institutions accepting federal funds to give the disabled
access to information comparable to the access available to others—now! As an
anthropologist, I take this responsibility particularly seriously.
Image: A wheel chair ramp to a college portico. The building is made of sandstone and the area
at the end of the ramp is covering by a series of arches.
Slide 3
Offering full access to education to the disabled is a civil rights issue, and anthropologists have a
long history of commitment to civil rights.
Presenter notes: Offering full access to education to the disabled is a civil rights issue, and
anthropologists have a long history of commitment to civil rights. In July 1999, the American
Anthropological Association adopted a declaration on Anthropology and Human Rights which
includes this statement: “As a professional organization of anthropologists, the AAA has long
been, and should continue to be, concerned whenever human difference is made the basis for a
denial of basic human rights, where ‘human’ is understood in its full range of cultural, social,
linguistic, psychological, and biological senses.” The concept of disability encompasses all these
areas and by failing to do everything we can—as individuals—to provide our students with full
access to our teaching materials we are complicit in denying them access to education—a basic
human right. We cannot sit back and wait for our teaching institutions to provide us with
resources which will probably never materialize.
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Image 1: The cover of the book "Body Silent" by Robert F. Murphy. The book is an ethnography
of the author's experience with increasing paralysis. The picture on the cover is that of a man in a
wheel chair. Another figure stands behind him. The photo is grainy and stylized. The review on
the cover says "Very major indeed . . . It is the most powerful book of its kind. . . Extraordinary
powers of observation, generalization, and depth." The reviewer was Oliver Sacks. A header says
"The different world of the disabled."
Slide 4
Formula for an Accessible Class
• Post the syllabus in Word and PDF format on the web.
• Choose a text which is available in electronic format.
• Scan additional readings and handouts to PDFs or similar documents which can be read in
OCR (Optical Character Recognition) format.
• Provide links to readings from your online syllabus.
• Prepare your lectures in PowerPoint with complete presenter notes and detailed alt-tags.
• Convert your PowerPoint lectures to PDFs and post them online in password protected format.
• Print your PowerPoint lectures with presenter notes and put them on reserve in the library.
Presenter notes: I am part of a program called EnACT (Ensuring Access through Collaboration
and Technology) which seeks to improve accessibility in colleges and universities through a
variety of pedagogical initiatives. Central to our mission is the concept of a Universal Design for
Learning. Simply stated, we promote the use of multiple modes of presentation to make course
concepts available to all students regardless of their learning style or their physical and sensory
abilities. The system for making anthropology accessible which I have developed requires only
two pieces of common and relatively inexpensive software: PowerPoint and Adobe Acrobat. (I
should note that I have no personal or financial association with either company.) This is my
formula for creating an accessible class: (See Slide Content)
Image: No Image
Slide 5
• Post the syllabus in Word and PDF format on the web.
Presenter Notes: Post the syllabus in Word and PDF format on a website. In a recent evaluation
of student feedback by outside auditors of the EnACT program, two facts stood out. Students
want clear and detailed syllabi and they want convenient access to communication with their
instructors. What does a good syllabus look like? First, it is linear as in the example on the left.
Most screen readers have difficulties reading complex tables, as in the example on the right. The
screen reader would read the content straight across. For example, the cell for Weeks 2-8 would
read: Weeks 2-8 Intro Stats Chapters Do all parts of the sample 11, 12, 13 experiment starting in
surveys . . . A student using a screen reader would have to jump back and forth between column
headings and content, a real challenge for the visually disabled.
Image 1: A page from a syllabus in which the class schedule is presented in a consistent vertical
fashion.
Image 2: A page from a syllabus which uses a complex table to present the class schedule. It
would require a lot of reformatting to be read in a meaningful fashion by a screen reader.
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Slide 6
Outline View
Presenter Notes: Second, in a model accessible syllabus the “headings” feature of Word is used
in a consistent manner making it possible to scroll down through the document in outline form.
This saves the visually disabled a great deal of time searching for information. It is also very
useful for students who store their syllabus on their phone.
Image 1: A screen shot of a syllabus from a college class. There is a red arrow pointing to the
area of the Microsoft Word bar. It shows where the user can find the "Headings" options. Using
the headings option allows the creator of the document to make an outline of the document
which makes searching easier for the visually disabled.
Image 2: A screen shot of the syllabus shown on the adjacent slide. This time the "Outlining" bar
is shown at the top of the page. Red arrows point to headings which have been designated "Level
2". The bar shows all levels in this shot but would show only level two if that option were
selected.
Slide 7
• Choose a text which is available in electronic format.
Presenter Notes: Next, choose a text which is available in electronic format. Give the students a
link to purchase the text online in hard or electronic format on your web page.
Image 1: Part of a web page for buying a textbook. The textbook is called "Our Sexuality". The
page shows the cover of the book and lists the authors and ISBN numbers for hardback and
paperback. It gives the buyer a choice of buying the textbook or renting it. Another option is to
buy the electronic versions of the text. It can be purchased by chapter.
Image 2: A web shot of Jennifer Anderson's faculty page at San Jose State. The page shown is
the course page for Anthropology 140, Human Sexuality. Under the listing for required text,
students are given a link to a page where they can purchase the electronic version of the text.
Slide 8
• Scan additional readings and handouts to PDFs or similar documents which can be read in
OCR (Optical Character Recognition) format.
Presenter Notes: Then, scan additional readings and handouts to PDFs or similar documents
which can be read in OCR or Optical Character Recognition format. Print readers are not
accessible. Furthermore, the copy houses which produce them seldom verify use of the material
with the copyright holders. They are, most likely, in violation of intellectual property rights law,
because they make a profit selling the material to students. They could not make a profit if they
went to the trouble to verify the rights.
Campus bookstores are formally charged by many educational institutions with the responsibility
of making class materials available in accessible format for disabled students. They strive to
honor intellectual property rights, but it is a long, expensive process. Disabled students often do
not receive their processed materials until well into the semester. Putting readings on line solves
the problem. If your class is taught by others, you can save time by setting up a single library for
the class.
Image 1: A web shot of a library of readings for the Human Sexuality course at San Jose State.
There is an alphabetical listing of readings. All the readings are available in OCR format. There
is a link to free Adobe Reader software. A visually challenged student can use the Read Aloud
function in Adobe Reader to listen to all the readings. This replaces hard copy readers.
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Slide 9
Presenter Notes: Instructors should also confirm that any PDF you post has been converted to
OCR. This is easily done in Acrobat by typing a word of the text into the search box and
checking to see if the word is highlighted in the text. If the document has not been converted to
OCR format, the text cannot be read by a screen reader.
Image 1: This is a web shot of what a teacher would see on the first page of a paper which had
been scanned to Adobe Acrobat. The word "patients" has been typed into the search box as
indicated by a red arrow. On the page of the scanned article, the word "patients" is shown in
blue. This indicates that the article is now in OCR format and can be read with screen readers or
the "Read Aloud" function of Adobe Reader.
Slide10
Instructors should also confirm that any PDF you post has been converted to OCR format.
Presenter Notes: If a document you have scanned or copied from the web is not available in OCR
format, teachers can easily convert it using Acrobat Pro or other PDF creation software.
Protecting all the PDF documents posted with a password guarantees that they are available only
to students for the duration of the class, thereby ensuring Fair Use.
Image 1: The same screen shot as the previous page showing an article on therapeutic strategies
with the word 'patients" highlighted. An arrow points to a drop down box with an option for
OCR recognition.
Slide 11
• Provide links to readings from your online syllabus.
Presenter Notes: Teachers should also provide links to readings from their online syllabus.
Students will really appreciate this feature and may be more likely to do the reading if it is easily
accessible. In the future, we may expect many of them to be doing their reading on their iPads!
Image 1: A section of Jennifer Anderson's syllabus for Human Sexuality is shown. A required
reading is presented in blue type instead of black type. This indicates that the selection is a link
to the article itself. The student who is using the electronic syllabus can click on the link and go
straight to the reading.
Slide 12
• Prepare your lectures in PowerPoint with complete presenter notes and detailed alt-tags.
Presenter Notes: Most importantly, prepare instructors should prepare lectures in PowerPoint
with complete presenter notes and detailed alt-tags. Many people object to the use of PowerPoint
because they have suffered through so many bad presentations. Using PowerPoint to teach is an
art form. Think of yourself as creating a program for the Discovery Channel—not posting your
class notes or outline on screen. We learn about culture visually and most students are visual
learners. Moreover, there are few alternatives to using PowerPoint, if you want to make class
material truly accessible.
Every picture must have a detailed description behind it. This is the alt-tag. It is this feature that
makes illustrations accessible to the visually impaired. Each illustration, graph, or chart should
have a rich description. Imagine yourself describing the scene in the picture over the telephone.
This is the kind of detail that should be included.
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Image 1: This is a picture of the "Size and Position" box which is part of the "Format Picture"
option in PowerPoint. The tab selected is "Alt Text". The "Alt text" has been filled in with a
description of the picture. In this case, it says: "A captioner in a red shirt sits in front of the class
with her equipment. She types on a shorthand keyboard on a stand in front of her. To her right is
a laptop computer on a stand to display the transcription."
Image 2: A captioner in a red shirt sits in front of the class with her equipment. She types on a
shorthand keyboard on a stand in front of her. To her right is a laptop computer on a stand to
display the transcription.
Slide 13
Really write your lectures!
Presenter Notes: The most important part is lectures must be prepared in great detail! The
complete text of the lecture must be made available in the speaker notes. This is what makes
your teaching accessible to a great variety of students. A teacher should never test on material
which is not been made available to all students in the class! It is a lot of work but once done, the
instructor is completely prepared to teach, anytime or anywhere, and also well on way to
teaching online. Students will appreciate your degree of preparedness, and it will be reflected in
their teaching evaluations and the instructor’s enrollments.
Image 1: Note page view - A screen shot of the notes page for a PowerPoint presentation. It
shows a slide which features two penguins. The label on the picture says "Roy and Silo, Gay
Penguins". The text on the slide says "There are many cultural assumptions related to
homosexuality". Below the slide is the text of the speaker notes.
Image 2: Normal View - A screen shot of the PowerPoint page for a lecture in Human Sexuality.
It shows a slide which features two penguins. The label on the picture says "Roy and Silo, Gay
Penguins". The text on the slide says "There are many cultural assumptions related to
homosexuality". Underneath the slide is an area of PowerPoint where the creator of the
presentation can include speaker notes. A red arrow points to this area.
Slide 14
Dual Monitor View
Presenter Notes: Plus, teachers can use the dual monitor feature of projectors when they lecture.
The students see the slide. The lecturer sees the slide and the speaker notes. With a little practice,
lecturers can be delivered very naturally—newscasters do it everyday!
Image 1: A screen shot showing how the dual monitor screen appears when the presenter is
giving a PowerPoint lecture. There is a picture of the slide. This one shows an illustration from
an old travel book by Sir John Mandeville. It is entitled monsters of Siberia" and shows three
naked human figures in a pastoral landscape. One figure has no head and face on its chest.
Another has one leg and the third has one eye. Next to the slide are the speaker notes which talk
about the origins of ethnography. The slide also shows the time elapsed during the presentation.
A bar on the bottom shows eight of the slides in the presentation. The slide above is
distinguished with a yellow box.
Slide 15
• Convert your lecture PowerPoints to PDF and post them online in password protected format.
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Presenter Notes: The real return teachers will see on their investment comes when they convert
your PowerPoint to PDFs and post them online in password-protected format. A visually
disabled student using a screen reader will be able to listen to a rich description of each
illustration and the content of the slide. I have also found in online teaching, that students
without disabilities appreciate the alt-tags associated with the illustrations because it enriches
their learning experience and gives them an insight into why I chose a particular picture or
diagram. It is a good practice to post the lecture PDFs on a different part of your website and
give the lectures a separate password. If a student with a disability requests help, the teacher can
give him or her the password. This aids students with language and learning disabilities as well
as those with visual and hearing limitations. You can also give the password to a student who
has been sick or missed class due to a work obligation.
Image 1: A slide from a PowerPoint Presentation entitled "The Anthropological Approach to
Human Sexuality". It shows a fresco from sixth century India that is located in a cave. Two
figures are involved in a romantic embrace. The cursor was placed over the image so the
description could be read. The description talks about the mural and describes the lovers in
detail.
Slide 16
Presenter Notes: There are other advantages to posting lectures in PDF format. The presenter
notes used in an in-class lecture can also be accessed by students with special needs when a
PowerPoint is converted to PDF format. The student roles the cursor over a balloon on the slide
to access the text. A hearing- disabled student can bring a laptop to your class and follow a
lecture in this way. This eliminates the need for a captioner or sign-language interpreter, if the
teacher sticks to the script. There is one drawback in that the Re-Aloud function of Adobe reader
will not read the presenter notes. I hope this situation will be rectified in future versions of the
software.
Image 1: A screen shot of a PowerPoint slide which contains a mural by Diego Rivera which was
created in 1931. The mural shows the artist working on a fresco showing the building of a city.
Various sections of the fresco contain steel workers, planners, architects, etc. The mural is houseshaped and the artist's scaffold is part of the image. The legend on the slide reads
"'Anthropology' means 'the science of mankind.'" In the upper left hand corner of the slide is a
small orange balloon. The cursor has been rolled over the balloon so that the presenter notes can
be read. They talk about how anthropology is different from other social sciences.
Slide 17
Conversion from PDF to Accessible Text
Presenter Notes: Nonetheless, with one further click of the mouse, instructors can convert the
PDF of a PowerPoint to fully accessible rich text format. A visually disabled student can now
use the built-in Microsoft Narrator function to listen to your lecture with a description of your
illustrations. The problem with this conversion is that presenter notes must be added.
Image 1: A screen shot of a PowerPoint slide from a lecture called "Introduction to
Anthropology". It shows a man seated at a table writing. He is seventeenth century
physiognomist John Lavater. The screen shot shows the drop down menu from Adobe Acrobat.
The user has clicked on the file tab. On the file tab, he or she has chosen the "Export" option. A
further drop down menu allows a choice of formats including the "Text" option. This has been
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selected. The user is then given a choice of plain or accessible text. A red arrow points to the
accessible text version of the same slide.
Image 2: A screen shot of the text of the PowerPoint lecture shown in the adjacent image. It
includes the text of the slide, the alt text description of both images on the slide. The presenter
notes can also be included.
Slide 18
• Finally, the teacher should print the PowerPoints with presenter notes and put them on reserve
in the library.
Presenter Notes: Finally, the instructor should print the PowerPoints with presenter notes and put
them on reserve in the library. This practice is extremely beneficial for “English-as-secondlanguage” students or students with learning disabilities such as ADD. The teacher should
choose an area or conference room at the library where students can share the notebooks in the
time immediately preceding the midterm and the final.
Image 1: A photo of the library notebooks for one of Jennifer Anderson' classes. These are the
notebook for Emerging Global Culture. One of the notebooks is open to a page which shows a
PowerPoint slide and the presenter notes from one lecture.
Slide 18
Students really appreciate an accessible approach to teaching!
Presenter Notes: Students really appreciate an accessible approach to teaching! Instructors’
investment in lecture preparation will pay off in great teaching reviews, but this approach to
pedagogy is not without controversy. Fundamentally, many teachers are reluctant to prepare
lectures in such detail, and they fear a certain loss of spontaneity in their teaching. Nonetheless,
my experience has been that students love this approach. They are part of a generation that gets
most of its information from the web and they expect a rich visual experience. We teachers need
to do a little ethnohistory of our teaching methods. Our culture is heavily invested in
communicating information in the way that it was communicated to us—by a teacher standing in
front of a chalkboard. If we are going to continue to attract students to our profession, we need to
change with the times and offer our class content to everybody—not just students who can learn
the way we did. That means, meeting the legal requirements for accessibility and using all the
technological resources available to us to draw students into a new world of digital learning.
Image 1: An image showing sections from student teaching evaluations of Jennifer Anderson' s
classes. One says "This is a fantastic class, don't change a thing." Another says "I really enjoyed
your method of teaching. If I notice another course she is teaching, I would definitely take it." A
third says "This class was fun, easy to understand the material and all around enjoyable." The
last says "I really enjoyed this class. Lectures were worth coming to class for."
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