Creating ADA Compliant Course Sites: An Online Training Program John Bowers Director of Academic Technology Western Kentucky University

Western Kentucky University Located in Bowling Green Enrollment: 21,048 Percentage of completed credit hours earned through distance learning: 19.6% (2012-2013) Enrollment is about 18,000 undergraduate and about 3,000 graduate students. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, WKU is the second-largest university in the state of Kentucky. Carnegie classification: Master’s colleges and universities, “larger programs.” Our percentage of completed credit course hours earned through distance learning has increased from 5.5% in 2005-06 to 19.6% in 2012-13. Fall 2013: 511 course sections being offered through Distance Learning fully online, along with 182 Independent Learning course sections.

Video tutorials Short animated screen capture recordings with voiceover narration and captions Create in Captivate, output to Flash 343 active videos in 26 categories About 75% of our users prefer this self-service method of training We also use youtube to provide alternate versions of the tutorials for mobile devices that don’t support Flash. Also 174 inactive videos and 59 deleted videos. We began keeping Google Analytics on our video tutorials in 2008 and since that time, we’ve had 74,597 visits by 30,873 absolute unique visitors, with an average time on site of 5:32.

The Americans with Disabilities Act provides protection from discrimination for individuals on the basis of disability. True False Questions from the online assessment in our “Creating ADA Compliant Course Sites” training.

Why is accessibility important to students? At least 10% of the US population has a disability affecting computer use. Over 8 million people are blind or visually impaired. Over 20 million are deaf and hard of hearing. All of the above. Questions from the online assessment in our “Creating ADA Compliant Course Sites” training.

What is an instructor required to do by ADA and WKU policy? Create accessible materials. If a student reveals a disability, refer the student to Student Disability Services. Do not make decisions about how to accommodate the disability. Follow instructions if you receive a letter of accommodation. All of the above.

Legal landscape ADA Section 508 DOE Office of Civil Rights California Community Colleges, 1999 Penn State Accrediting agencies “An area of legal vulnerability” Americans with Disabilities Act Section 504 and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Grand Rapids Community College

Project collaborators Academic Technology University ADA Coordinator Distance Learning Faculty Development Center Student Disability Services University Libraries Web Standards Committee Plus administrative buy-in at the top level. In our case, the ADA Coordinator asked the President and the Provost to appoint a committee to develop an implementation plan for accessibility of Distance Learning course sites. Part of a larger effort that involved separate strategies for compliance in three areas: in addition to Distance Learning, WKU is also committed to: accessibility of its entire University web site and of all electronic resources from the WKU Libraries, including online databases.

Accessible course sites Distance learning (online) courses Blackboard is considered to be an ADA-compliant platform Course materials can still be non- compliant Word, PDF, PPT, audio and video WCAG 1.0 priority 1 WCAG: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Priority 1: these guidelines must be followed to assure minimal accessibility compliance with Section 508. Blackboard course sites cannot be reviewed or checked by audit software in the same way that public sites can be.

When you use a scanner to create a PDF file of a journal article, that PDF file will typically be an image, similar to a photo or a graphic file, and will not be ADA compliant. True False Questions from the online assessment in our “Creating ADA Compliant Course Sites” training.

Solutions to make accessible tests and assessments include which of the following? Extend time limits. Provide students the ability to move from sitting position as needed. Provide a less distracting environment. All of the above. Questions from the online assessment in our “Creating ADA Compliant Course Sites” training.

Types of student disabilities Visual Hearing Motor Cognitive/Learning Disabilities It’s helpful to think of the assistive technologies used by these individuals and the accommodations they might require.

Accommodating: examples Audio description of the action taking place in a video – for a visually impaired student Making certain PDF files are properly formatted and are not graphics – for a student using a screen reader

Accommodating: examples Captions accompanying a video – for a hearing impaired student Designing menus and pages so that a user can easily tab between links – for a student with a motor impairment or a student using a screen reader

Online accessibility training Creating ADA Compliant Course Sites Blackboard course site Six video tutorials Associated documents and links Online assessment Automated enrollment “ADA-trained” instructor role Takes about 40 minutes to one hour

Screen shot, introductory page, “Creating ADA Compliant Course Sites” online training.

Screen shot, main menu page, “Creating ADA Compliant Course Sites” online training.

Six video tutorials (1-3) Introduction to ADA Compliance for Online Courses Providing Equivalent Alternatives to Visual Content Providing Equivalent Alternatives to Audio and Video Content Titles of the six tutorials in our “Creating ADA Compliant Course Sites” online training.

Six video tutorials (4-6) Creating Accessible PDF Documents Providing Equivalent Alternatives to Online Assessments Best Practices for ADA Compliant Online Course Material Titles of the six tutorials in our “Creating ADA Compliant Course Sites” online training.

Standards for production Adobe Captivate, output to Flash All tutorials start with detailed scripts Scripts reviewed by project team Create all screen captures, then record narration Verbatim captions 790 x 545 window size Convert to QuickTime for mobile access

Captioning should accomplish the following: Display text in synchronization with the audio portion of a video. Describe all audio content. All of the above. Questions from the online assessment in our “Creating ADA Compliant Course Sites” training.

You can add Alt or Longdesc tags in which programs? Microsoft Word. Microsoft PowerPoint. Microsoft Excel. All of the above. Questions from the online assessment in our “Creating ADA Compliant Course Sites” training.

For more information All six tutorials are available on the WKU video tutorials site: http://www.wku.edu/it/videotutorials All tutorial scripts were uploaded to the EDUCAUSE site for this session Contact me: john.bowers@wku.edu Our tutorials are available for public use. Our scripts are made available under Creative Commons license and are free for you to use in developing your own tutorials.