Level the Digital Playing Field for Students with Disabilities: Basics of Electronic Accessibility CSU Diversity Symposium September 22 2016 Allison Kidd and Anna Walker Assistive Technology Resource Center

Assistive Technology Resource Center (ATRC) Shannon Ensuring equal access: 1. Direct Services: AT assessment, accommodation, training, equipment loans, and resources Consultation and Education on campus regarding electronic accessibility, universal design, and ergonomics Our Mission: Ensuring equal access to technology and electronic information for CSU students and employees with disabilities as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act and Sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act

Students & Employees Are Diverse Nontraditional Learning / Cognitive Styles English Language Learners Ethnicity, Culture, Gender Disabilities

Apparent vs non-apparent disabilities When we look at students with disabilities we see about 1/3 have apparent disabilities: things like mobility, visual and hearing impairments. The other 2/3 have a non-apparent disability: So this includes things like ADHD, Learning disabilities, Autism, TBI, PTSD. People often equate electronic accessibility with readability by screen readers (used by people with visual impairments) but most of the students seeking accommodations follow under non-apparent disabilities.

Scenario Discussion You’re preparing supplemental materials for a course, including various types that you intend to share in Canvas. What kind of course materials do you anticipate having? What file types? How many ways might a student access those? Think about devices or technologies they might use. What problems could they encounter?

Flexible Documents - Electronic Accessibility Electronic content (e.g. Word, PPT, PDF, and Web) is accessed using a wide variety of devices and software Content must be designed to interact well with these technologies. Documents that work are Accessible Universal Design – Create with accessibility up front instead of fixing it later Shannon

Universal Design – Physical and Digital Worlds Include accessibility as part of your work flow instead of retrofitting UDL is the same concept for electronic accessibility Designing digital content to work for students with disabilities benefits all students

CSU Policy: Accessibility of Electronic Information & Technologies Campus-Wide Priorities Public-Facing Content (e.g. Websites) Student Need – Accommodation Requests Other Considerations Timeliness is key Benefits to all students CSU Accessibility Policy: http://policylibrary.colostate.edu/policy.aspx?id=739

Easy Top Tips for Universally Designed Documents Make Scanned PDFs Searchable Use Headings and Slide Layouts Add Descriptive Text to Links Add Captions to Videos Allison

Chris – Non-Apparent Disability A Piece of the Picture Sophomore with a diagnosis of Dyslexia and ADD Some challenges he experiences in accessing reading materials Unable to read efficiently Poor quality PDF – small, faint and crowded font is hard to read AT Chris used to access coursework for reading Read and Write Gold See and hear content simultaneously text to speech Change screen and highlighting color Electronic highlighting OCR and read PDF “manipulate display” for change screen and highlighting color

Course Solutions for Chris Handouts in digital formats – lets him use text to speech software Universally designed PDF – lets him read and create annotations with Read and Write Gold or other text to speech software Marla - Demo of accessible PDF

Make PDFs Searchable Scanned PDFs are images, not text Use OCR (Optical Character Recognition) Software Software that converts the image to text Creates a PDF with text that is: Selectable – Copy and Paste Searchable Text-to-Speech Capable More Readable for Everyone Shannon

Demo: Image-Only vs. Searchable PDF Using Read & Write Gold – Popular Literacy Support Software Search Highlight, Copy, Paste Text-to-Speech Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Benefits for all students?

Ways to Make a Searchable PDF OCR with Adobe Acrobat Professional Very simple and easy process. Can be automated to run on batches of PDFs After the PDF has been created Check with College I.T. for installation – site licenses are available. OCR at the Scanner or Copier Look for “Searchable PDF” or “OCR” options before scanning. Morgan Library Course Reserves Library staff can locate articles or chapters for your course They scan, OCR, and post the PDF online for your class to access Morgan Library Course Reserves (http://reserve.colostate.edu)

Nate - Apparent Disability A Piece of the Picture Computer Science student who is legally blind Considered a power user of assistive technologies Barriers he experiences in accessing coursework Print textbooks Print handouts and study guides PDF’s that are image only Visual graphics and formulas Marla – case studies illustrate what is required today and what accessibility can mean and do for a student

AT Nate Used to Access Coursework *Screen reading software For most documents and web Braille translation software for embossing Refreshable Braille Tactile graphics Tiger pro graphics with Braille Daisy book player - Stream

Course Solutions for Nate Course content in digital formats Use of Braille or screen reading software Needs lecture content in digital format ideally ahead of time Universally designed course materials Example: Word documents : create with Styles and Headings PowerPoints: Use Slide Layouts Needs content uploaded into Canvas to be accessible Word docs, PowerPoint, PDFs Putting course content in digital format allows Nate to access the materials with Braille or screen reading software. Giving him the content ahead of time allows him to use technology such as refreshable Braille to emboss content. When creating materials think about creating universally designed course materials For example. If a Word document is being created, use styles and headings

Use Headings and Slide Layouts Generates a Table of Contents / Outline Word, PPT Provides Structure Visual and Non-Visual Word, PPT, Web

Slide Layouts in PowerPoint Use Slide Layouts instead of drawing text boxes Give Every Slide a Unique Title Check Your Outline View

Headings in Canvas / Web Format text using the provided styles for headings, lists, and paragraph text These choices are common in many html editors, including WordPress Start with the biggest heading available, and don’t skip levels

Demo: Accessible vs. Inaccessible Word Doc Using JAWS, a popular screen reader Navigate using headings Table of Contents Benefits for all students?

Descriptive Links Do you see a problem with this link? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyA5mkhCzRA Link addresses: Can be long and full of random characters Clutter up the page Are difficult to read

Links Examples Bad Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyA5mkhCzRA Good Link – Change the display text to be descriptive: Good, Bad, and Ugly: Closed Captioning and Video Description Good Link for Print Materials – Include the address in parentheses: Good, Bad, and Ugly: Closed Captioning and Video Description (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyA5mkhCzR A)

Demo: How to Add Display Text

Add Captions to Videos Captions benefit many students, including those who: Have Hearing Impairments Have a Learning Disability or other non-apparent disability Don’t have speakers / headphones Are in a quiet workspace Are in a loud workspace Are learning English Have difficulty understanding different accents Want to search and jump to a specific point in the video Want to highlight and take notes on a video (Echo 360)

Captioning Options YouTube Auto-Captions Outsourcing Captioning A good place to start Must edit for accuracy Outsourcing Captioning CSU is currently in an RFP process to determine a campus-wide solution 3rd Party Videos The responsibility is on the 3rd party to provide you with a captioned version of the video It is our responsibility to ask for it if it’s not automatically provided

YouTube Auto-Caption Example Source: Funniest YouTube Captions Fails (CLONED) (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/29/funny- youtube-caption-fai_n_516866.html)

Campus Resources and Supports Services for CSU students and employees with disabilities Students need to register with Resources for Disabled Students first ATRC Website (http://atrc.colostate.edu) (970) 491-6258 atrc@colostate.edu ATRC Resources on Universal Design and Accessibility Allison.Kidd@colostate.edu – Accessibility Specialist Anna.Walker@colostate.edu – Campus Service Coordinator Trainings offered throughout the year (PDI, MTI) and by request Tips and Guides at Accessibility By Design (http://accessibility.colostate.edu) Allison