• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Wooster

Educational Technology

Collaborating with faculty and students to explore questions of pedagogy, practice, and technology.

  • About
  • I’d like to
  • Events
  • Staff
    • Professional Staff
    • Student Digital Media Assistants
  • Resources
    • ArcGIS Online
    • Hoonuit online training
    • Moodle
    • Professional Development
    • Projects in a Box
    • Qualtrics
    • Select Survey
    • WordPress(Voices)
    • Workshops
  • Technologies
    • Classroom Technology
      • Document Cameras
      • Epson Technologies
      • SMART Technologies
      • Student Response Systems
      • Video Conferencing
    • Digital Media
      • Audio
      • Images
      • Mobile Apps
      • Presentation
      • Video
    • Virtual Reality
      • VR Resources
      • Virtual Worlds
    • Web 2.0
      • Information Management
      • Mashups
      • Media Sharing
      • Social Communication
      • Social Knowledge Building
    • Web Authoring
      • Blogging
      • CMS
      • Wikis
  • Contact Us
    • Consultation request
  • Technology Services
You are here: Home → Featured Articles → Tips for making course materials more accessible

Tips for making course materials more accessible

Quick tips

The links below provide some simple things you can do to increase the accessibility of your materials.

For documents

  • Headings and document structure
  • Hyperlinks
  • Bullets and numbered lists
  • Color and contrast
  • Image alt-text

For video/audio

  • Video captions (Trint)
  • Stream

For presentations

  • Live captions and subtitles in PowerPoint
  • Translator

Tools for checking accessibility compliance

  • Microsoft Accessibility Checker
  • Acrobat Accessibility Checker and Make PDF Accessible action
  • tota11y (browser plugin to check accessibility features of a website)
  • WAVE (browser plugin to check websites for accessibility issues)
  • aXe (browser plugin to check web accessibility)
  • VoiceOver (iOS/MacOS built-in screen reader)
  • Narrator (Windows built-in screen reader)
  • NVDA(free Windows screen reader)
  • Microsoft Immersive Reader

Resources

  • We have begun to craft a syllabus template that you can download and use for your courses. If you have suggestions for updates or additions, let us know.
  • Tulane’s Accessible Syllabus site
  • UDL On Campus site
  • Immersive Reader
  • Microsoft training videos

Why are we worried about this?

Most importantly because it is only fair that all learners have access to the materials they need to be successful. Also, in March of 2017 the Section 508 standards of the Rehabilitation Act were refreshed. In particular the information and communication technology accessibility requirements were updated to require that they meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. The deadline for compliance with the new standards was January of 2018.

What is WCAG 2.0?

What does it mean to be WCAG 2.0 compliant? There are four components to WCAG 2.0 compliance.

  1. Perceivable –  Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.
  2. Operable – User interface components and navigation must be operable
  3. Understandable – Make text content readable and understandable
  4. Robust –  Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.

These four principles are then expanded further to provide guidance for various types of materials.

If you want to do even more for students.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

UDL is an educational approach based on the learning sciences with three primary principles—multiple means of representation of information, multiple means of student action and expression, and multiple means of student engagement. Most often you will see the aim of UDL represented by the following image.

The image has three panels. The first panel shows three people of different heights standing on equal height boxes trying to look over a wooden fence. Not all individuals can see over the fence. In the second panel the boxes are distributed in a such a way that everyone can see over the fence. In the last panel the boxes are removed and the fence is switched to chain-link so that everyone can see without having to use any assistance.
Image from the Food for Thought: Equality vs Equity vs Justice reddit thread

UDL wants the creator to design things in such a way that the broadest set of individuals can use the item without needing to do anything special. Explore what UDL principles would mean for course design.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Featured Articles

Primary Sidebar

Interesting Videos

Resources

  • We can help with…
  • Professional Development
  • Projects in a Box
  • Workshops
  • I.S. Support
  • Request an Appointment
  • ArcGIS Online
  • Hoonuit online training
  • Qualtrics
  • Poster Printing
  • Loaner Equipment

Copyright © 2022 · Technology Theme 3.0.0 on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

 

Loading Comments...
 

    Educational Technology
    Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

    Strictly Necessary Cookies

    Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

    If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.