ACCESSIBLE ONLINE LEARNING:
DESIGN NOT REDESIGN
Beth Case
KCTCS- SO
OVERVIEW
• Introductions
• Background
• Specific Document Types
• General Accessibility Issues
• Questions
INTRODUCTIONS
• Introduce yourself
• Where do you work?
• How long have you worked in
disabilities?
• What has been your biggest challenge in
making online courses accessible?
• What do you hope to learn today?
SHOULD STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
TAKE ONLINE COURSES?
Pros
• Flexible schedules
• Can be done from anywhere
• Can review material as often as needed
• Asynchronous on-line discussions allow time
to construct comments before posting
SHOULD STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
TAKE ONLINE COURSES?
Cons
• Requires self-discipline
• Often more reading
• Lack of live, real-time interaction with
instructor and other students
WHY BE PROACTIVE?
• U.S. D.o.J. and OCR Joint “Dear Colleague”
Letter on Electronic Book Readers
• It’s easier and cheaper to make materials
accessible at the time of creation.
• Avoids last minute scramble.
• Accessible materials are generally better
products for everyone.
IS BLACKBOARD/MOODLE/OTHER
ACCESSIBLE?
• All major content management systems make
efforts toward accessibility. None are perfect.
• Even with a perfect framework, the materials
the instructor adds must be accessible, too.
• Some things simply cannot be made
accessible and other accommodations must
be made.
WORD DOCUMENTS
When creating a word
document, always use
formatting tags (i.e.
Heading 1, Title,
Subtitle) instead of
bolding or changing
font size.
This way, screen
readers can tell which
phrases are headings
or titles and which are
part of a paragraph.
Word – Office 2007
Word – Office 2013
When inserting
tables into your
word document, use
the table tools
provided. This
allows the screen
reader to know that
this is a table.
NOTE: use
formatting tags
inside of the table as
well.
Word – Office 2007
DATA TABLES
DATA TABLES
ALTERNATIVE TEXT
Alternative Text (Alt Text) provides screen
readers with text describing the picture.
• What’s the point that you want the
student to get from looking at this
picture?
• Leave out irrelevant details
How would you create alt text for this picture if:
•
•
•
•
It’s an ad for a tech school?
It’s an ad for a computer company?
It’s a clothing ad for men’s shirts?
It’s a biography of Keith, a highly successful
entrepreneur.
Word 2007:
1. Right click on the
picture
2. Click “Size” from
the menu
3. In the size
window, select
the “Alt Text” tab
and in the box
provided,
describe the
picture.
Word 2013:
1. Right click on the
picture
2. Click “Format
Picture” from the
menu
3. Choose “Format
Picture menu”
from the sidebar
4. Click “Alt Text”
PDF FILES AND
JOURNAL ARTICLES
Is it Accessible?
Good example
Bad example
• Create from Microsoft Word
• Use Formatting Tools (see Word Document
section for more pointers)
• Convert to PDF
• Plug-in for 2007
• Acrobat Pro add-in
• Print to PDF would NOT work
• 2013 Save As PDF
ARTICLES FROM JOURNALS
• Get from Library as HTML?
• Find online in accessible format
• Use a different article?
• PDF: Image/Scanned - contact Disability
Services
POWER POINT PRESENTATIONS
PowerPoint – Office 2007
Provide an accessible alternative
1. Open PowerPoint Presentation
2. Go to “Outline” view (instead of
default: “Slides”)
3. Copy Outline
4. Paste Outline in a Word Document
5. Add tags and formatting
a) Add slide numbers as Header.
b) Remove “Images” of text (i.e.
Word Art): Replace with real
text
c) Alt-Text Images
d) Add content where needed
e) Check formatting tags in Word
6. Save Word Document file: link to file
as alternative to your presentation.
PowerPoint – Office 2013
AUDIO AND VIDEO CLIPS
AUDIO AND VIDEO
• Audio:
• Provide a transcript of the audio presentation (text only)
• Video:
• Must have synchronized captions
• Look for videos with captioning
• Caption in-house videos with Camtasia or YouTube
• Pressure publishers to provide captioned videos
VIDEO W/O CAPTIONS
TRANSCRIPT
Now let's look at a few more examples of these two important
types of graphs. Let's first look at a fascinating bar graph about
the best-selling games in the U.S. titled 'Game Crazy.' Which
game is the most popular game in U.S. history, and how many
units have been sold? Looking at the graph, we can see that Uno
has the tallest bar, meaning it is the most popular game. The bar
for Uno is almost two million. A good estimate for the number
of Uno games sold is 1.9 million.
Which game has sold almost 1.3 million games? Looking at the
bar on the left, 1.3 million would almost be between one million
and 1.5 million. As I follow a line over between these two
values, the Jenga bar appears to be closest to 1.3 million.
YOUTUBE CAPTIONS
65% ACCURATE
YOUTUBE CAPTIONS
EDITING
OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER
DISCUSSION BOARDS, CHAT, ETC.
• Discussion Boards
• Compile summaries
• Chat Rooms –
• Chat Log can be available.
• Moderator regulating the Speed (hand raising)
• Be aware of those who have difficulty with fast paced
typing
• IM – ask student which program works best for them
GENERAL WEB ACCESSIBILITY
• Use of color and color contrast
Don’t use color as the only way to convey
information, such as “items in red are
required”.
Check color contrast with one of the many
online tools.
GENERAL WEB ACCESSIBILITY
• Appropriate Link Names
Bad: Click here to go to Financial Aid.
Good: Click here to go to Financial Aid.
DON’T PANIC!
I have too
many
courses!
MAKE A PLAN
• Good faith effort
• Prioritize courses
• Highest enrollment
• Gateway courses
• Most complicated
• Natural updates and revisions
• Write it down and make it official!
BEST PRACTICE
Don’t be afraid to use different types of
content, but consider your reasons for
using them – images, sound, video,
animations, etc. – If it isn’t necessary,
don’t use it.
BEST PRACTICE
If including these things adds to the
content – a good reason to do this – then
do it. Just make sure you have an
accessible alternative so that everyone
can benefit from that information.
BEST PRACTICE
Simple is better.
QUESTIONS?
CONTACT INFORMATION
Beth Case
beth.case@kctcs.edu
www.bethcase.com