Accessible Materials Guide for Instructors

Transcription

1 Accessible Materials Guide for Instructors Syllabus For students with disabilities, and all students, it is helpful to have a syllabus within the first week of class, not just in hard copy, but also posted on the web or elsewhere for digital access. These practices also align with Clarkson University course syllabus polices ( The course schedule should be as developed as possible for maximum accessibility. If any materials need to be converted to alternative formats, the student needs advance access to the materials and a schedule for use of the materials (reading schedule, etc.) in order to plan for conversion times. It does take time to make conversions, so it is important that materials are chosen and available as early as possible. It is also helpful if you include a disability statement in your syllabus. Feel free to write your own, but here is a sample: Accommodations for Students with Disabilities In compliance with Clarkson University policy and equal access laws, I am available to discuss appropriate academic accommodations that may be required for students with disabilities. Requests for academic accommodations are to be made during the first three weeks of the semester, except for unusual circumstances, so arrangements can be made. Students are encouraged to register with the Office of Accommodative Services, located in the Student Success Center, 1400 ERC, to verify their eligibility for appropriate accommodations. Selecting Textbooks and Readings Textbooks If you would like to ensure maximum ease of accessibility when choosing textbooks: Check with the publisher or Clarkson s Accommodations Specialist to see if the book is available in alternative formats accessible to people with print disabilities. Whenever possible, choose texts that are already available in alternative formats. If alternative formats are not already available and you would still like to use the textbook, it s best for the Accommodations Specialist to be aware early on she can start working on making the text available in an accessible format.

2 Choose your textbooks as early as possible and notify the bookstore of your choices. The earlier you choose your texts, the more time the Office of Accommodative Services has to obtain them in accessible formats. Create a reading schedule and make it available as early as possible. The student and the Office of Accommodative Services can then be sure that each section of the book is available in accessible formats when it is assigned. If you are using a custom text or materials not conventionally available from publishers, talk to the Accommodations Specialist as early as possible. She may need to communicate with the publisher and have the book converted, which can take several weeks. Readings If you would like to ensure maximum ease of accessibility when choosing other readings: Provide an electronic copy of the reading whenever possible. If a document needs to be converted into another format for accessibility, this saves a step. Provide PDFs that contain real text. If you can highlight individual words or lines of text in your PDF, it contains real text and will work with assistive technology. If you re creating a PDF in Adobe Acrobat, you can choose the OCR Text Recognition option under Document to change a scanned image into a document with real text. If you cannot provide an electronic copy of the reading, provide a clean original. Make sure it s been copied well with no large shadows, skewed page orientation or cut- off text. The document should also be free of stray marks. When we scan and convert the document into an accessible format, the conversion will be much quicker and more accurate. Provide an electronic copy, hard copy or both of any reading material as early in the semester as possible. Whenever creating materials, keep your original source. If you started with a Word document and ended with a PDF, the PDF may not be accessible, but the Word document probably is. Exams and other Materials When writing exams or other course materials, make sure the document contains real text. If you can highlight individual words, lines and sections of text, your document contains real text that can be accessed using assistive technology. If at all possible, create your document in Microsoft Word and then convert it to a PDF. Detailed instructions can be found below in the Creating Accessible Handouts section of this guide. Creating your document in Word ensures that it contains real text, alternative text for images and real structure.

3 If you re even unsure that a particular file format is going to be accessible to all students, contact the Accommodations Specialist. She s happy to meet with you to discuss your needs. Creating Accessible Handouts The following is a method for creating accessible materials in either Word Document or PDF format. If you follow these steps, your documents will be accessible to students with a variety of disabilities. Accessibility Starts at the Beginning Microsoft Word is a fairly simple application for creating accessible handouts and other documents. The following will address how to use styles and alternative text when creating your document in Word 2010, and then how to save the file as a PDF should you prefer it in that format. Styles Formatting Why is Styles Formatting Important? In Word, creating headings by emboldening text, choosing a larger font or creating an outline format does not create true structure within the document. The benefit of using styles to create true structure in your document is that styles and the headers within them automatically create an outline of the document with navigation tabs. Students with visual impairments or a variety of learning disabilities can then navigate your document easily with keystrokes. You will find your styles on the right side of the home ribbon: Inserting Styles Styles can be inserted by selecting a heading before typing. They can also be inserted after the fact by selecting text and then choosing the desired heading.

4 You ll notice that headings are hierarchical Heading 1 appears over Heading 2 and so on in your Navigation pane. You can change your choice of style or customize your styles using the Change Styles option. Headings are the most important part of using styles as they create a navigation structure in your document. If you require more advanced use of styles, please consult Microsoft Office help documents. Alternative Text for images or other objects in Word 2010 Alternative text allows for textual explanations of images and other objects within the document. The alternative text can be read by screen readers and displayed when a user chooses not to view images, or when a browser cannot read an image. Guidelines for Alternative Text The descriptive text should: Not include phrases such as image of or graphic of Should include the phrase image start at the beginning of the description and image end at the end to signal to the reader that the text is a description of an image. Include the content and function of the image or object, not its appearance. It might not be important for someone with a visual impairment to know that the person in the image has yellow boots, but it probably is important for them to know what the person is doing. Be written as succinctly as is appropriate. Creating Alternative Text in Word Insert your image or other object into your document. 2. Right click the image and select Format Picture.

5 3. The Format Picture window will appear. Select Alt Text at the bottom of the list.

6 4. Type in your description. For a simple image that only requires a brief description, you are only required to fill in the description box. For longer descriptions, or for graphics containing titles, you may find that creating a title is also helpful. If you include a title, the student will be able to decide if they want to hear the whole description or just the title. Once you click Close your tag is saved and applied to the picture. Saving as a PDF Saving a Word document as a PDF will migrate all of your styles, formatting and alternative text into the PDF. To Save as a PDF: 1. Choose Save As from the File menu. 2. Choose PDF from the Save as type drop down menu. 3. Click Save. It is good to also save the document in Word format as converting from a PDF back to a Word document requires third party software. Additional Tips and Best Practices Place content in logical reading order. Use the application s built- in formatting tools such as styles, headings, lists, headers/footers, tables, etc. This will encode real structure.

7 Utilize navigation tools that ensure navigation can be performed using the keyboard. Use standard fonts. Use meaningful hyperlink text instead of the URL which may sound like jibberish on a screen reader (for example: Office of Accommodative Services Webpage instead of Avoid complex layouts and use of drawing canvases or text boxes. These make it difficult to maintain a logical reading order, and sometimes will even flow to the bottom of the reading order. Provide alternative text descriptors for all non- textual objects. Any pictures or other objects should be in line with text otherwise they are challenging to navigate and may be inaccessible or read in an order other than how they appear. To make sure images or objects are in line with text, right click the image, select Wrap Text and In line with text. Use color and leave white space where necessary for easy viewing.