Accessibility Help

Faculty play a key role when it comes to providing access to our students with disabilities.  Faculty must maintain the confidentiality of students with disabilities.  To discuss students, please contact DSPS at 805.730.4164.   DSPS is the designated agent of the college responsible for ensuring equal access to students with disabilities by providing reasonable accommodation to instruction.  Designing your courses and following the principles of creates an equitable and inclusive environment to benefit all of our students.

Resources:
- Letter from Chancellor Oakley re: Accessibility Standards
- SBCC Accessibility Standards 
- BP 3730, Web Standards
-AP 3730, Web Standards
- BP 3725, Information and Communications Technology Accessibility and Acceptable Use
-AP 3725, Information and Communications Technology Accessibility and Acceptable Use
- Updated Title 5 regulations on Distance Education ()


The Takeaway : 
1. Know that accessibility is part of your responsibility in creating instructional materials.
2. Know something about the accessibility of the technology the instructional tool creates (e.g. HTML, PPT, PDF, E-books from publishers, ones you create or open educational resources).
3. Know how the authoring tool supports accessibility features.
4. Ask vendors - how does your tool help me learn about and create accessible content using universal design principles.
5.  Expect vendors to provide you with a knowledgeable answer.

Check a Canvas Page 

  • (button at the bottom of each Canvas item)
    • on using PopeTech to check your Canvas content.

      What Canvas elements can faculty test with Pope Tech?
      Most areas where faculty use the Canvas Rich Content Editor can be tested with Pope Tech:

      Canvas pages
      Syllabus
      Quiz descriptions
      Discussion Topics
      Assignments
      Announcements

      To test a Canvas item for accessibility concerns, activate Pope Tech by selecting the Pope Tech icon button at left of the Cancel and Save buttons while editing any of the Canvas items above. Pope Tech works even when the item is not yet published.

      What does Pope Tech check for?
      If headers are present or skipped 
      Flags suspicious alt text for images (contains “image of”, “image”, etc.)
      Color contrast between text and highlighted colored-background
      (Note: doesn’t check color contrast within images)
      If font size is readable
      Flags non-descriptive links such as “click here”, “link”, “more”, “read more” 
      Flags redundant links 
      Flags tables that lack at least one header and caption.
      Flags YouTube, Canvas embedded video and Canvas embedded audio to bring awareness media will need to be manually reviewed for captions
      Flags potential inaccessible files that need to be manually reviewed

      Alternative Text errors are listed in the Images and Links category of the Pope Tech tool. how to fix such errors.

      Fixing Color Contrast
      Color Contrast errors are listed in the Text and Contrast category of the Pope Tech tool. Users can fix color contrast errors by one of two methods:

      Adjust the color in the Canvas rich text editor.
      Adjust the contrast by using the sliders in the Pope Tech interface until the interface displays a “Pass” message.

      Fixing Table Captions and Headers
      Table errors are listed in the Tables and Lists area of Pope Tech. Using Pope Tech, it is very simple to add a table caption and designate whether the first row or the first column must be the header.

      This two page PDF walks through the usage of PopeTech to check accessibility of Canvas content.

  • (does an ok pass at headings, alt text, bullets, and tables)

Video Captioning – as more instructors make use of videos on YouTube, be aware the videos you incorporate into class activities must be closed-captioned. (coming soon)

Uploading your video to youtube allows their system to provide captions automatically.   These captions are not perfect.  They lack punctuation, capitalization, and need to be reviewed.   They are a good starting point, but if your video will be used for long term, or for lectures, you need to either have professional captions done through DECT, or correct them manually.

A few things to consider if your project qualifies for DECT funding:

  1. Is this a synchronous class in which a student is enrolled who has presented an Academic Accommodation Plan with Disability Services that calls for captioning as an accommodation?
    • Then DECT funding can be used
  2. Is this an asynchronous class in which a student is enrolled who has presented an Academic Accommodation Plan with Disability Services that calls for captioning as an accommodation?  And is this a recording that is longer than 30 minutes?
    •  Then DECT funding can be used.
  3. The state Chancellor's Office memo also states:
    • "All closed captions requests for videos that do not have a certification of current need for accommodation but would like to be accessible for potential future students with disabilities will be processed as lowest priority auto-caption videos.  Relevant faculty/staff should edit them for accuracy as needed."
    • DECT funding is not utilized for auto-caption processes

Coming soon

Adobe premiere has a new auto caption feature.  Adobe Premiere can create "better" captions simply and automatically for use in your youtube videos. This technique is generates captions that include punctuation and capital letters , which in turn increases the accessibility of our videos.

(with screenshots)

Make a Word Doc Accessible (coming soon)

Make a Google Doc Accessible (coming soon)

HOW DO I START??

-This playlist includes videos from a 5 part webinar series presented by @ONE and OEI that discuss these accessibility topics (8/10/2016)

  • Creating Accessible PDF Documents with MS Word and Acrobat Pro (57:57)
  • @ONE Webinar: Online Course Usability: 10 ways to kick it up a notch (51:49)
  • @ONE Webinar: Evaluating Web Content for Accessibility (56:11)
  • Creating Accessible Online Presentations (1:04:14)
  • Captioning Considerations (1:08:51)
  1. made available by (NCADE)
  2. Google accessibility -
  3.  (YouTube 
  4. Accessible document creation,
  5. @One course -  (Self-Paced course)

Accessibility and Instruction

Overview of requirements at TV

Assumptions about the classroom

  • Classrooms are comprised of diverse learners, including students with disabilities and a wide range of learning profiles

  • The college has a legal obligation to provide services and accommodations for students with disabilities

  • The college depends on the interactive process to establish needs, procedures, and expectations

  • The partnership between faculty, student and the college promotes a consistent process for managing the needs of the student

  • The Universal Design model of teaching provides a lens in which to increase awareness and educational access

Review the

The term web accessibility speaks to the inclusive practice of removing barriers that prevent interaction with, or access to websites, by people with disabilities. When sites, learning management systems, student systems and/or publisher sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, all users have equal access to information and functionality. )