Adding Disability to the Diversity Umbrella

1. Adding Disability to the Diversity Umbrella Presented by: Van Credle Assistive Technology Specialist The Catholic University of America

2. How can Faculty Do More to Make their Courses Accessible? • What your office is doing and how much of this can and should be done by faculty?

3. How Can DS Professionals Bring Faculty to the Table? • What encourages faculty to become participatory in campus accessibility?

4. Suffolk UniversitySensory Workshop Overview • One day program required faculty who will teach a student with a sensory disability • Presented in collaboration with Center for Teaching and Excellence • Program presents an overview of sensory disabilities • Teaches curriculum, instructional, and assessment design • Clarifies resources on campus for faculty

5. Suffolk UniversitySensory Workshop Accessible Strategies • Curriculum design: • Choose texts early, make your choices known to your students • Choose texts that have electronic versions available (call the publisher to inquire) • If considering an online resource (Connect, journals, etc…) ask ODS to check it for accessibility first • Determine if podcasts are transcribed before using them, if not contact ODS for assistance • All videos should have captions or transcripts, contact ODS for assistance with this • Use a sighted narrator or descriptive video to describe aspects of videos, ask ODS for assistance • If planning a field trip make sure that the materials and general access to the buildings are accessible • Plan on emailing students any handouts or PPTs at least 24 hours before the class • Provide the class with a list of new technical terms • If the course has many graphs, charts or images send them to ODS at least two weeks before the class begins for conversion • Spend a few minutes in the classroom/ lab, examine the spatial and sound barriers, send an email to the student describing these barriers or offer to meet them ahead of time • Clearly state your office hours and location, remind the student that this is the best place and time to discuss their progress in your course • Always notify changes of class schedule in advance verbally and electronically

6. Suffolk UniversitySensory Workshop Instruction: • Speak to the class upon entering and leaving the room • Call the student with vision disabilities by name if you want his/her attention • Describe, in detail, pertinent visual occurrences of the learning activities • Speak clearly without exaggerating lip movements or volume • Describe and tactually familiarize the student to the classroom, laboratory, equipment, supplies, materials, field sites, etc • Provide one sentence descriptions of any graphs, charts or images in the notes section of a PPT slide • Verbally spell out a new or technical word as you write it on the board • Describe, in detail, visual occurrences, visual media, and directions including all pertinent aspects that involve sight • Whenever possible, use actual objects for three dimensional representations • Always try to keep materials, supplies, and equipment in the same places • For group work pair the student in a group that you think best fits his/her skills • Allow students to use their laptops with text-to-speech software in class • Provide written supplements to oral instructions, assignments • Write down key words and phrases on board • Repeat questions asked by other students in the class • Avoid pacing and face the student • Use an amplification system if necessary

7. Suffolk UniversitySensory Workshop Assessment: • Allow the student to take their exam in ODS with appropriate accommodations • Get your exam to ODS 2 days before the exam so that it can be modified • If the student chooses to take the exam in class and is low vision make a larger print exam with 20 pt sized font • Students with hearing disabilities may benefit from using a dictionary on an exam • Students should give any required presentations, both you and the student can work with ODS for modifications if needed Source: Suffolk University, Office of Disability Services

8. Suffolk UniversitySensory Workshop How it Makes an Impact with Faculty • Establish inclusive professional partnerships in which the amount of course material that needed to be handled by our office was drastically reduced • Faculty found appreciation for the ways in which students access their materials • Faculty have a genuine desire to improve their teaching for all through Universal Design

9. CUAMethods in Distance Education Training Overview • Five week online course for faculty to learn how to create online and mixed courses • Presented in collaboration with Technology Services • Course reviews teaching methodology, learning styles, online course design, and universal design • Participants learn how to use on-campus technologies available

10. CUAMethods in Distance Education Training Information and Materials

11. CUAMethods in Distance Education Training How it Makes an Impact with Faculty • Participants are excited and feel more confident about using online course tools • Participants are more aware of the diversity of their classes • More faculty are requesting the course because word-of-mouth • Faculty are designing better online courses and using tools that do add accessibility

12. Simple Tips to Train Faculty • Partner with another office on campus to administer trainings • Get “buy-in” from deans and administrators • Provide easy guides and info sheets everywhere • Make your students more proactive in talking to faculty about accessibility • Think like a marketing professional: How do I get my target audience to buy what I’m selling?

13. Word Documents Simple Rules to Word Document Accessibility • Use headings and other style mark ups to create navigation within the document. How to create headings • Add descriptions to images • How to create alternative text • Use Microsoft Word’s list function to create lists, not hyphens (-) or asterisks (*) • How to create lists • Color is not used to convey important information, e.g., "See red text below" • All charts and graphs have either an alternative text description or provide a description in the text immediately below the chart or graph • All edits have been accepted, comments removed, and track changes and formatting marks turned OFF • Format a table using “Percent” to adjust Column Width • How to format tables • Create hyperlinks using reasonable descriptions (DSS web page, not click here) • How to create hyperlinks • Consider saving as HTML if you’re putting the document online. Note: These are also more accessible for Kindles! • How to save in HTML • To ensure that your document is fully compliant with 508 accessibility standards, you can review the Health and Human Services Word Document checklist. Source: http://dss.cua.edu/Providing%20Equal%20Access%20in%20the%20Classroom/index.cfm

14. Section 508 Word Document Checklist Word Document 508 Checklist • Document file name does not contain spaces or special characters • Document file name should be concise, generally be limited to 20-30 characters, but make the content of the file clear in the context in which it is presented • Document properties for Author, Title, Company, Keywords, and Language are properly filled out • Document has been formatted using style elements (proper headers, bullets, etc.) • All edits have been accepted, comments removed, and track changes and formatting marks turned OFF • Color is not used to convey important information, e.g., "See red text below" • All images have alternative text descriptions (Images used only for decoration have null alt tags: alt=””) • All charts and graphs have either an alternative text description or provide a description in the text immediately below the chart or graph • All tables read from left to right, top to bottom, and provide a description immediately below the table • All hyperlinks are active and use the full Web address, e.g., http://www.hhs.gov/ • Document has been reviewed in Print Preview for a final visual check

15. PowerPoints Simple Rules to PowerPoint Accessibility To help you prepare a better and more accessible PowerPoint presentation for your lectures and presentations, we have put together these guidelines. These guidelines are based on the Health and Human Services Department Checklist for accessibility. Layout and Formatting • Use Microsoft PowerPoint standard layouts provided with the application • Do not use “busy” backgrounds • Use high contrast background and foreground colors • Accept or cancel all track changes • Make sure all slides can be viewed in Outline View Text and Fonts • Use recommended fonts: Times New Roman, Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica • Use readable font sizes: no fonts smaller than 12 points • Avoid using flashing or animated text • Avoid using text boxes or graphics that contain text • Make sure that all hyperlinks have clear descriptions and are active

16. PowerPoints Simple Rules to PowerPoint Accessibility continued Images • Add Alternative Text to all your meaningful images • Group associated images (ie, boxes in an organizational chart) • If a slide contains multi-layered objects, flatten the image and add alternative text • For complex images, include descriptive text immediately after the image Tables and Charts • Make sure all of your charts have a Title, Legend, and the X and Y Axis labeled • Name and number (if applicable) all data tables in your presentation • Create your tables in PowerPoint • Give your table rows and columns headers, and have a logical order (top left, to bottom right) Audio and Video • All audio and video used in your presentation should have captions or text descriptions Source: http://dss.cua.edu/Providing%20Equal%20Access%20in%20the%20Classroom/index.cfm

17. To Accessibility and Onwards! Contact Van Credle The Catholic University of America credle@cua.edu dss.cua.edu Kirsten Behling Suffolk University kbehling@suffolk.edu http://www.suffolk.edu/campuslife/1316.php