Transcript qm_2013_accessibility_presentation_blauveltx

Erin Blauvelt
Excelsior College
Instructional Designer
[email protected]
By the end of this presentation, you will be able to:

Create a set of accessibility standards for online courses that fit your individual
institution.

Explain accessibility requirements for Standards 8.3 and 8.4 of the Quality
Matters Rubric.
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Identify technical coding and details needed for compliance with screen
readers.

Plan a process for converting some or all of your online courses to an accessible
format.
ADA
(Americans with Disabilities Act)
Rehabilitation Act
Section 508
W3C
(World Wide Web Consortium)
WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative)
WCAG (Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines)
Universal Design
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Divide and conquer
◦ What elements are in your courses?
 What standards match the elements in your courses?
 What standards can be eliminated?
◦ What is your student population base?
 Are certain disabilities more common than others in your student population?
 Are there other students that could benefit from accommodations? (universal design)

Develop your own set of standards from those available.
The course facilitates readability and minimizes distractions.
◦ What types of disabilities does this affect?
◦ What visual elements and formatting do your courses use?
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Colors
Tables
Graphics
Text placement
Elements
Fixes
Color
•Do not use color for instruction
•Use only high-contrast colors together
•Use color sparingly to keep look simple
Tables
•Use tables to convey data in a simple, clean format
Graphics
•Include alt tag with image for description
•Do not include citation in alt tag
•Avoid flashing graphics or animations that do not align with content
Text placement
•Use <h1>, <h2>, etc. heading elements to convey headings, subheadings and order
•Use bulleted and numbered lists for simplicity
•Break up large areas of text
Text formatting
•Use consistent font types and sizes
The course design accommodates the use of assistive technologies.
◦ What are assistive technologies?
◦ What are the types of disabilities that benefit from using assistive technologies?
◦ What elements in your courses need to play nice with assistive technologies?
•Text formatting
•Equations
•Links
•Tables
•Scanned PDFs
•Media
Elements
Fixes
Example
Text formatting
•Use <abbr> tag for abbreviations or acronyms
•Use em for size instead of px (em is resizable, px is
not)
•<abbr title=“National Aeronautics and
Space Administration”>NASA</abbr>
Equations
•Use HTML codes for symbols when possible
•If not possible to use HTML codes (complex
equations), add equation as image with proper alt tag
of text form of equation
•&Delta; is code for Δ
•a2+b2=c2 in text form would be “a
squared plus b squared equals c
squared”
Links
•Use destination description as link title, not the URL
•If link opens to PDF, video, audio file, etc. include file
type and size
•Proper: Visit Google.com
Improper: Visit http://www.google.com
•Module 1 Readings [PDF File Size 1.6
MB]
Elements
Fixes
Tables
•Only use tables for data
•Use <caption> tag to describe table data
•Use <th> (table header) tag to signify column headings
Examples
Session
Room
Time
A
212
3:45
B
209
4:14
Scanned PDFs
•Find text-based version of PDF or scan a copy of the
PDF (or original work) using an OCR Scanner
•A good way to check if your PDF is textbased: place your cursor over the text
and try to highlight it…if you can
highlight the text, it is text-based
Media
•Provide text-only copies of media, including audio or
text on screen
•Module 1 Flash Interaction (text-only
version)
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How much can you have an effect on?
◦ Institutionally or just your courses
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What is your institutional disability policy/process?
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What resources do you have?
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Make a list of standards to focus on, and how you will take care of each
of the standards
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4 years, 450 online courses
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Hired external consultants
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Developed standards list to fit our courses (focus areas)
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Established standards for edits (for consistency)
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Training will be conducted for various groups involved with the courses
during Year II
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2
3
4
5
6
• Courses are selected
• Course list is divided up into smaller batches and put on a schedule
• Each course is analyzed for needed edits
• Edits that require academic involvement are sent to academic units
(broken links, descriptions of charts, scanned PDFs, etc.)
• Each course is edited
• Each course is reviewed for approval
(and edited again if necessary)
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Industry standards/laws
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Quality Matters Standards
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Technical Jargon
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Creating a process
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Section 508 Standards Guide - http://www.section508.gov/index.cfm?fuseAction=stdsdoc
ADA.gov
W3C WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) -http://www.w3.org/WAI/
◦ WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) - http://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/
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HTML Symbols Codes - http://brucejohnson.ca/SpecialCharacters.html
HTML Code Help - http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp
EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information) Training - http://easi.cc/
Sloan-C Workshops - http://sloanconsortium.org/workshops
Sloan-C Accessibility Webinars Recordings http://sloanconsortium.org/institute/webinars/accessibility-series
◦ *** Great Webinar - Accessibility Specialists: Understanding “Invisible” Disabilities & What this Means for
Online Education - http://sloanconsortium.org/institute/webinars/2013/4/accessibility-specialistsunderstanding-invisible-disabilities-what-mean