Universal Design for Learning: Creating Accessible Documents

1. Universal Design for Learning: Creating Accessible Documents March 12, 2013

2. Introductions • Allison Kidd • IT Coordinator • UDL / Accessibility Trainer • Shannon Lavey, MS, OTR • Service Coordinator • Assistive Technology Trainer • Assistive Technology Resource Center • Provide Assistive Technology for students with disabilities • Provide support for faculty and staff at CSU on accessibility • http://atrc.colostate.edu

3. Outline • CSU’s Accessibility Guidelines • Principles of Universal Design for Learning • 2 Main Concepts for All Documents • Structure • Alternative Text • Hands-On: Word Documents • Hands-On: PDF Documents

4. CSU’s Guidelines for Accessibility of Electronic and Information Technology Adopted by Faculty Council, Fall 2012 • CSU is committed to providing equal access to electronic information for all students • Universal Design for Learning provides a strategy for preparing materials that overcome barriers to learning and benefit all learners

5. Universal Design for Learning “ Universal Design for Learning (UDL)is a set of principles for designing materials that give all individuals equal opportunities to learn. ” Source: http://www.cast.org/udl/index.html

6. Today’s Students Are Diverse • Ethnicity & Culture • Native language • Non-Traditional • Learning Styles • Disabilities – Non-Apparent • Dyslexia • Learning Disability • ADHD • Brain Injury • Disabilities – Apparent • Visual Impairment • Hearing Impairment • Physical Disability

7. UDL: A Framework for Inclusive Pedagogy • Information and concepts are represented in multiple ways and in a variety of formats. • Students are given multiple ways to expresstheir comprehension and mastery of a topic. • Students engage with new ideas and information in multiple ways.

8. Learning Styles: Involve the Senses • Visual • Auditory • Kinesthetic • Combine for highest impact on learning!

9. What Makes a Document Universally Designed? • Search-ability • Select-ability for Copy and Paste • Consistent Structure / Organization • Bookmarks or an Interactive TOC • Text to Speech capability • Accessibility for Screen Reading Software

10. Beyond Accessibility Universal Design Features Search-ability Select-ability for Copy and Paste Consistent Structure / Organization Bookmarks or an Interactive TOC Text to Speech capability Accessibility for Screen Readers How Can Students Benefit? English Language Learners Non-Traditional Students Learning Styles Disabilities – Apparent Disabilities – Non-Apparent

11. Benefits of a Universally Designed Word Document Read & Write Gold Demo

12. Diverse Technology, Diverse Formats • Students are using a wide variety of technology • Operating Systems • Devices – tablets, phones, eReaders • Versions of word processing software • Assistive Technology – hardware and software • Let students pick the format that works best for them – offer multiple formats. • Start with Word • Convert to PDF • Make both files available to students

13. Creating UDL Documents:Two Main Concepts • Document Structure • Headings • Table of Contents • Content Reading Order • Descriptive Alternate Text • Images • Graphs • Tables

14. Document Structure • Content should be organized! • Use built-in styles • Headings • Lists • Emphasis • Be consistent with styles • Top level headings – use styles to designate level of importance • Screenreaders can pull up all headings as a list

15. Why is Structure Important? • Visually - It looks easier to read • Easier to pick out important points • Students can take notes based on an obvious outline. • Provides a Table of Contents • Screen-reading software uses structure to navigate the document more easily • Consistent use of headings lets the listener know how important a section is.

16. Documents – Structure vs. No Structure ScreenReading Software Demo

17. What is Alternate Text? • Screen readers can only read text • Present the information in more than one way • Provide a short text description for all non-text elements • Alt Text describes the purpose or meaning of the image

18. How to Write Alt Text “What is the function of this image?”

19. Context is Key • Alternative text for images should describe the meaning of the image in its context • Ice Cream Manufacturer • Girl Scouts of America • A Food Blog • Diversity Website Adapted from Jesse Hausler, The ACCESS Project

20. Hands-On: Word Documents

21. Office 2010: Compatibility Mode Off • Documents with .doc will open in compatibility mode • More accessibility features are available in .docx format • To turn compatibility mode off: • File > Save As > File Type > Word Document (*.docx)

22. Add Structure: Use Styles • Add Headings for each section • Be Consistent • Use Tables to organize columns

23. Add Alt Text to Images • Right-click on the image and select ‘Format Picture’ • Select the ‘Alt Text’ option at the bottom • Type the alt text in the ‘Description’ box on the right • Do not use the ‘Title’ field, as a screenreader will not read it!

24. Add Header Row to Tables • Right-click on the top row of the table. • Click on ‘Table Properties’ • Check the box ‘Repeat as header row at the top of each page’

25. Add Alt Text to Tables • Right-click on the table and select ‘Table Properties’ • Select the ‘Alt Text’ tab on the right • Type the alt text in the ‘Description’ box on the right • Ignore the ‘Title’ field, as screenreaders won’t read it (same as with images).

26. Microsoft’s Accessibility Checker • Use the Built-in Accessibility Checker • File > Info > Check for Issues > Check Accessibility

27. Formatted vs. Unformatted Document Comparison

28. Hands-On: PDF Documents Scanned to PDF Word to PDF

29. Let’s Look at Scanned PDFs There are three types of PDFs resulting from a scanner: • Scanned PDF saved as image only • Scanned PDF with Optical Character Recognition • Scanned PDF with OCR and Tags added

30. PDF Scanned as Image

31. Scanned PDF Results Accessibility Search-Ability Copy/Paste Bookmarks Text to Speech Scanned PDF Scanned PDF with OCR OCR and Tags

32. Read & Write Gold Good vs. bad PDF Demo

33. Morgan Library Course Reserves • Login with eid to request PDF creation • Library staff will do entire process • Find the article • Scan with OCR • Convert existing scanned PDF • Post online for your course • Turn-around time – typically one day

34. https://reserve.colostate.edu

35. Course Reserves Options

36. Word to PDF Conversion • Start out with a Word Document • Make the Word Doc accessible, then convert it • Use Save As PDF • Or use the Acrobat Toolbar Accessibility Search-Ability Copy/Paste Bookmarks Text to Speech Print to PDF Save As PDF Adobe PDF Plugin

37. Hands-On PDF • Before Conversion! • Make sure Tagged PDF is enabled in Preferences under the Word PDF Toolbar • This makes the PDF accessible to screen readers!

38. In Adobe Acrobat X Open the Accessibility Toolbar Click on ‘TouchUp Reading Order’

39. Touching Up the Reading Order • Click on ‘Show Order Panel’ • The pane will show up at the left • Drag and drop items in the correct order • Empty items or decorative images – set as ‘Background’.

40. Further Resources: • CSU’s Accessibility Website • http://www.accessibility.colostate.edu • CSU’s Access Project Tutorials • http://accessproject.colostate.edu/udl • Allison.Kidd@ColoState.Edu