Course Material Accessibility

Accessible instructional materials are designed or converted in a way that makes them usable across the widest range of student variability regardless of format (print, digital, graphical, audio, video)

Online course best practices:

• Order textbooks and course readers early.
• Learn how to make course materials accessible; take training!
• Provide syllabi in electronic format & add heading styles for document structure.
• Post PDF documents that are clean and readable, not a scanned image of a PDF.
• Make sure pictures, tables and graphs have alt (descriptive) text.
• Use captioned videos whenever possible.

Universal Access with Ally

What is Ally Universal Access and why we chose it: Ally is built into the learning management system. It allows student’s choices with alternative documents with the type of document that is easiest for them to access. For example, some students prefer to listen to text being read out loud, while others prefer to look at text and ready quietly, and others may need it converted or changed to Braille to be able to use it. This tool is available at the click of a drop-down arrow next to the file name, it takes only seconds for the material to appear and download in a new format. This feature in itself will benefit all students and therefore increase student learning. (This is not meant to replace SDR Alternate Media Services, but perhaps lighten the burden) It is our hope that instructors and students will embrace it as we have and look forward to reaping the benefits.

• Instructor Resource Package Ally Moodle
  
• Scanned documents tips
  
• Word: Make your documents accessible
  
• PowerPoint: Make your presentations accessible
  
• Word: Accessibility Checklist
• Universal Access PPT

Practice Documents

More Accessibility Resources: Tutorials & Video

Adobe Acrobat Video Tutorial-Accessible PDF & Cheat Sheet Video and Document

Adobe PDF: Word Forms (login to Atomic learning, use your username) search for Creating Accessible Forms Using Acrobat Pro XI & Word 2013 Training

• Accessibility 101 Training Videos Accessibility 101 Training Slideshow
• Universal Access PPT

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• NCDAE Accessibility Cheat Sheets
• YouTube Video: Requirements to Make a Word Document Accessible
• Windows: Use the Accessibility Checker on your Windows desktop to find accessibility issues
• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OfCJEbF3M55zVVSkB9r0AQ7YsCjHIZpA/view?usp=sharing

• Mac: Use the Accessibility Checker on your Mac to find and resolve accessibility issues
  

Other Tools

• Accessible Media Converter The Accessible Media Quick converter can be used to quickly convert your electronic files into popular accessible formats. Instructions on how to use this tool are listed below. After you complete the steps, the file you requested will be emailed to you in a few minutes depending on the length and complexity of the source materials. For more information on what the tool does, please view this YouTube video of Sensus Access. Note: This tool works very well for text based documents but does not use human verified optical character recognition (OCR). As such, we do not recommend its use for critical or poorly scanned and photo-copied documents. In addition, please note that the resulting output does not produce structurally accessible PDF or Word files (ex. headings, tables, etc.)
• 2ePub This free online tool converts PDF and other documents to the most popular ebook formats: EPUB, Kindle MOBI/AZW3, FB2, Microsoft Reader LIT and Sony LRF.
• Calibre Calibre is a free, open source ebook reader that's available for Windows, Mac and Linux, with an extra portable version for Windows PCs.
  
• ATI 2017-2021 Faculty Evaluation Course material accessibility form
• Assistive Technology Training Form