Accessibility & Online Learning Presentation
- 1. Accessibility & Online Learning What is required for online coursework at TCTC?
- 2. What is accessibility & why is it important? “Accessibility is all about our ability to engage with, use, participate in, and belong to, the world around us” 2 - beaccesssible.org
- 3. Accessibility vs Accommodations Accommodations changes to content and assessment that we make during instruction that is unique to a student and cannot be addressed proactively. Accessibility content that most all students can engage with immediately. This can be done proactively as the course is being designed and created. 3
- 4. 4 What’s it like to try to use the internet with a disability that effects your accessibility?
- 6. Why use Text Formatting? A person who is reading a website or other text will often use headings and subheadings to search for information. You may not read an entire site if you are looking for one piece of information. A person who is using a screen-reader because they have low- vision or blindness cannot see that visual cue. 6 It is important to make sure our headings and subheadings can be identified by a screen-reader so a user can navigate a text efficiently. Text readers don’t identify bold or italicized text.
- 7. The Importance of Font Choices Simple fonts that are widely available on all devices should be selected. Stay away from ornate fonts that can be difficult to read. 7 Fonts designed for online use: Verdana Tahoma Trebuchet Georgia
- 8. Recommendations of Fonts Only use one or two fonts in any given section of text. Too many variations make text more difficult to read. Avoid writing in ALL CAPS. THE LACK OF VARIATION IN TEXT SIZES CAN MAKE IT HARDER FOR SOMEONE WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT TO READ THE TEXT. 8
- 10. Ensuring PDF Readability 10 PDFs have to be readable by screen- readers. Simply making a copy of a book page creates an image of the text and a screen-reader cannot read that. A quick test: Take your cursor and try to highlight the text (or CTRL+F and search for a word you see). If you can highlight word for word and/or successfully find a word, the PDF is likely accessible.
- 11. Using Color 11
- 12. Using Color in online courses The way we use color in our digital content can quickly make our online courses inaccessible. Accessible color use happens when there is a high contrast between background and foreground colors. 12 LOW
- 13. Recommendations/Tools For Color Recommendations In general contrast works best in a webpage if you have a white (or pale) background with black (or dark) text. In cases with minimal text a color can be used, but should still have a significant amount of contrast between background and text. Tools you can use: The WebAIM Color Contrast Checker is a great tool to check color accessibility. All color combinations should meet WCAG AAA requirements to be compliant. Installing an eye-dropper Chrome extension can help you find exact color codes. 13
- 15. Using Animations in online courses Certain animations and visual effects can be detrimental for people with seizure disorders. Just to be safe, please be sure that you: Remove any flashing or blinking animations Change transitions in presentations to slow, simple transitions Ensure there are pause buttons on RSS feeds such as an embedded Twitter feed. 15
- 17. Properly formatting your hyperlinks It is important that hyperlinked text always describes the contents of the link. A screen reader should always be able to read details of the link, not just the hyperlink address. https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/ packages/html/nyregion/9- 11imagemap.html?mcubz=0 17 TCTC Spring 2014 Academic Calendar Click Here https://www.nytimes.com/co lumn/learning-article-of- the-day
- 18. Using Images in Your Course 18
- 19. Making Images Accessible A student who is unable to see the screen has no way of knowing what an image is unless a screen- reader “reads” it to them. Images can only be readable with the use of Alt Text that is attached to the image. These Alt text descriptions are only “visible” to an audio browser. 19
- 21. When an Image Needs More Detail Some images may require a longer description than normal. Alt tags should be used for short descriptions. Often images like charts, graphs, and infographics carry a ton of instructional content. In this instance, it’s better to type out the information in something like a Microsoft Word File and link to the text version below the image. Don’t let the step of adding this info deter you from using infographics in your courses. The info included can be extremely helpful and useful to students! 21 Detailed description of the above graph.
- 23. Online Video Accommodations To be legally compliant, all videos must have accurate subtitles or a transcript available. While YouTube has automatically generated captions, remember that voice-to-text automation is not perfect. All captions should be checked for accuracy. Keep in mind that if you upload a video you created to YouTube, you can edit or create the subtitles. You have no control over the subtitles in someone else’s video. 23
- 24. 24Accessing Transcripts on YouTube *Always double check your transcript. There is no guarantee of accuracy. When possible, record your own videos and upload to YouTube. It will make your course more personal, and it is easier to make accessible.
- 26. Making Math Equations Accessible Math and science formulas/equations must be readable by a screen-reader. We have two options when creating accessible equations/formulas: If equations are saved as an image, add an alt tag to each image with the math language typed out in words (imagine how a screen-reader without math understanding might read it). Use Word documents for worksheets with equations instead of PDFs (Word’s equation editor is accessible). 26 A = π r2 How would you write out the following equation for the area of a circle? It would read: “Area equals pie times radius squared” OR “Area equals Pie R squared” NOTE: Just like with PDFs, if you can highlight the equation and it recognizes each character, the equation is likely accessible.
- 27. Questions? Comments? 27Daniel Graybeal, M.Ed. Curriculum Consultant Tri-County Technical College dgraybea@tctc.edu 864.646.1854