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

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

Good example Bad example Is it Accessible?

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

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 2007 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 don’t have time! I have too many courses! I have too much on my plate already!

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