Help All Students Reach their Potential with Accessible Course Materials January 12, 2016 Allison Kidd IT Coordinator & Accessibility Specialist 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 Today Are Diverse Ethnicity, Culture, Gender Nontraditional English Language Learners Learning / Cognitive Styles Disabilities

Types of Disabilities Apparent Non-Apparent Mobility Impairments Visual Impairments / Blindness Hearing Impairments / Deafness Non-Apparent Learning Disabilities Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD) Autism Spectrum Disorder Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Mental Illness People often equate web accessibility with readability by screen readers (used by people with visual impairments) but 2/3rds of the students seeking accommodations follow under non-apparent disabilities.

Disabilities in Higher Education Nationally, 11.3% of undergraduates report some type of disability.1 At Colorado State University2, 8%–11% report a disability. Non-apparent disabilities are the largest proportion and growing Even among students who say they have a disability, many do not seek accommodations 1National Center for Education Statistics, 2008; U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2009 2Schelly, Davies & Spooner, Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability (Feb. 2011)

Apparent vs non-apparent disabilities

Examples of Universal Design Include accessibility as part of your work flow instead of scrambling to fix issues after the fact Designing digital content to work for students with disabilities benefits all students UDL is the same concept for electronic accessibility

Equity in an Electronic World Steadily growing population of students with disabilities Diverse ways that students access electronic content, including Course and Instructional Materials (Word documents, PDFs, PowerPoints, videos, podcasts, etc.) Online course delivery LMS (Canvas) Electronic Textbooks or Online Textbook Components Electronic syllabi, quizzes, exams, homework, discussion boards Websites Content Management Systems (WordPress, etc.) Online Applications, Registration, etc. Mobile Devices What types of content do you work with? It’s going to take all of campus working together

What is Electronic Accessibility? Electronic content (e.g. Word, PPT, PDF, and Web) is accessed using a wide variety of devices and software Includes Assistive Technology used by students with disabilities, mobile devices, etc. Content must be designed to interact well with these technologies. Digital content that works is Accessible Universal Design – Create with accessibility up front instead of fixing it later

Top Tips for Electronic Accessibility PDFs Make PDFs Searchable Add Tags for Document Structure Check Reading Order Use Headings & Styles to Create Outline Structure Canvas / Other Web Word PowerPoint Provide Descriptive Alternate Text for: Images, Graphs, Charts Links Video or Content (Captions) Add Captions to Video

Chris – Non-Apparent Disability Profile Undeclared major – Sophomore Student with a diagnosis of Dyslexia and ADD Challenges he experiences in accessing coursework Print books and handouts – unable to read efficiently Poor quality PDF – small, faint and crowded font is hard to read Written work – slow; loses train of thought Difficulty proof-reading his own work; dependent on family members Note taking – slow and laborious

AT Chris Used to Access Coursework Read and Write Gold – literacy software See and hear content simultaneously – digital books and content (text to speech) Manipulate the display (background and highlight color) Electronic highlighting and annotations OCR and read PDF Dragon Naturally Speaking – voice recognition software Allows him to get ideas on paper using his voice LiveScribe Pen Synchronous written and audio notes for capturing lectures

Course Solutions for Chris Giving notes ahead of time – lets him print out content on special Livescribe paper 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

Making Searchable PDFs (or What is OCR?) OCR stands for “Optical Character Recognition.” Software that takes an image, finds the text, and converts it to computer-recognized text. Creates a document with text that is: Searchable Selectable Text-to-Speech Capable Text Resizable for Various Screen Sizes More Usable for Everyone

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)

Creating a Searchable PDF OCR at the Scanner or Copier Look for “Searchable PDF” or “OCR” options before saving. Morgan Library Course Reserves (http://lib.colostate.edu/) Requested articles are OCRd for you and posted online for your entire class. Click on the “Reserves” tab on the Library Homepage and login as an instructor using your eid. Edit Existing PDF with Adobe Acrobat Professional Ask your IT Support about software availability

Acrobat Step 1: Text Recognition Use the Text Recognition Tool to make the PDF Searchable

Acrobat Step 2: Add Tags to PDF Once the document is searchable, add Tags using the Accessibility Tool

Acrobat Step 3: Reading Order Check Reading Order using the TouchUp Reading Order Tool

Nate - Apparent Disability Profile Student who is legally blind Computer Science major; Junior 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 Allows for access with Braille or screen reading software Needs lecture content in digital format and ideally ahead of time – allows him to use refreshable Braille or to emboss content Universally designed course materials PDF – has to be Searchable with Tags in correct order Word documents – created with Styles PPT presentations – descriptions of images, graphs. Reading order Math Content – needs to be converted into code the computer can read Web content Video – descriptive audio Needs content uploaded into Blackboard to be accessible (Word docs, PowerPoint, PDFs)

Demo Accessible vs. Inaccessible Word Doc Using JAWS, a popular screen reader Navigate using headings Listen to images with alt text

Use Headings and Styles in Word Use Headings to Provide Document Structure Indicate Level of Importance Don’t Skip Heading Levels Check Your Table of Contents in the Navigation Pane Use numbered lists, bullet lists, etc. on the Home Tab Choose a Style Save Your Own Style as a Template

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

PowerPoint Accessibility Use Slide Layouts instead of drawing text boxes Give Every Slide a Unique Title Generates Table of Contents Check Your Outline View Check Reading Order Home > Arrange > Selection Pane

Writing Good Alt Text for Images Consider Context. Ask yourself… What is the purpose of this image? If the image were removed, how would I convey the information using text? Other Tips… Avoid redundant descriptions (e.g. “Image of”) Avoid repeating the text already surrounding the image Be concise

Context is Key Consider the picture. How would the alt text change if the image is used for… Ice Cream Manufacturer Girl Scouts of America Diversity Website Source: Jesse Hausler, ATRC & The ACCESS Project

Practice Writing Alternate Text Learning Styles VARK is an identified variety of learning styles: Visual, Aural, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic. Many learners identify strongly with one of these styles, and approximately 60% learn best with a combination of styles (Multimodal). Source: VARK (http://www.vark-learn.com)

Adding Alt Text in Canvas When you insert an image in Canvas, add the text description in the “Alt text” box provided

Adding Alt Text in Word and PowerPoint Right-Click on Image to Format Picture or Format Shape Click on Layout & Properties in the Sidebar Expand the Alt Text menu Add the text in the Description field

Use the Accessibility Checker Microsoft Word and PowerPoint have an accessibility checker built-in File > Check for Issues > Check Accessibility Manually check images, since the checker will not realize when the alt text is ‘junk’

Converting from Office to PDF Start with an Accessible Source Document Using Acrobat Professional Plugin “Enable Accessibility and Reflow with Tagged Adobe PDF” in Plugin Preferences Use “Save As PDF” or “Create PDF” Avoid Printing to Adobe PDF in the Printers List! Using Microsoft Built-in Converter “Document structure tags for accessibility” in “Save as” Options

Fixing PDFs Both Scanned and Converted PDFs need to be manually checked for accessibility within Acrobat Check “Tags” for Correct Reading Order Images will be out of order on converted PDFs Images need to have tags and alt text added manually on scanned PDFs Run the “Make Accessible” Action Wizard (v.XI) or the Accessibility Checker (earlier versions)

Add Captions to Videos Captions benefit many users, including those who: Have Hearing Impairments 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 YouTube Auto-Captions – A good start, but make sure you edit for accuracy. Amara – manually type captions while watching video. Canvas has links to Amara to add a transcript to video.

YouTube Auto-Captioning Fails! 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 Trainings offered throughout the year (PDI, MTI) and by request Tips and Guides at Accessibility By Design (http://accessibility.colostate.edu) Video Tutorials at Atomic Learning (http://atomiclearning.com) (Contact ATRC for an account) Allison