Providing Accessible Course Content

Why?

Course content needs to be accessible so all students may have equal access to SUNY Cortland.

• Deaf students or those who are hard of hearing may need accurately captioned videos and transcripts of audio files.
• Students with reading disabilities or who are blind often require high quality electronic files of their course readings so they may have equal access to the curriculum. They may use software to receive that equal access, but only if the document is prepared correctly.

Disability Resources is responsible for ensuring students have equal access to their required textbooks. All other course materials are the responsibility of faculty and their departments. Disability Resources is happy to serve as a resource to faculty in this endeavor.

How to provide accessible course content for your students

A variety of resources are available to faculty for assistance. As a starting point, Brightspace includes an accessibility checker for content added by faculty. Additionally, SUNY offers free self-guided online courses on disability and accessibility through Deque University.

Captioned Videos

• Memorial Library offers many films with accurate captions. You may place a remediation request if you discover a Library video without captions or would like the Library to purchase a captioned video they do not already own.
• Microsoft Teams and Webex offer fairly accurate automated captions for live events.
• If creating or posting your own video to Brightspace, contact Design Help for assistance.
• If sharing an online video with your class from a third party, like YouTube, be sure to preview the video with the captions turned on. Many videos have accurate captions included. Others have no captions or inaccurate ones. If you have a student that requires captions, please continue searching for an accurately captioned video. You may contact your librarian for assistance.

Accessible Documents

Brightspace at SUNY Cortland includes Read Speaker, a read aloud toolbar for students to listen to quizzes and documents. Read Speaker will not work well (or at all) with inaccessible PDFs, however. The best way to provide accessible documents to your students is to offer readings as searchable PDFs, accessible websites, or accessible Word documents. Julia Morog, the Campus Technology Trainer, offers workshops and one-on-one trainings on this. Here are some tips on how to get started on your own.

Microsoft Office Documents

Most students using text-to-speech software will be able to access Microsoft Office documents without difficulty. Some students who are blind may need specially formatted documents to ensure they may be read properly by a screen reader. Microsoft provides some simple tips for ensuring your Word and PowerPoint documents are accessible. They also offer accessible templates of Office Documents.

PDFs

1. If you have an existing PDF, check to see if it is searchable by attempting to select the text on the page. Drag the cursor over text. If it highlights, then your document is searchable. If, instead, the cursor draws a box or tints the entire page, you will need to convert your PDF. This tutorial demonstrates how to create searchable PDFs (.DOCX) through OCR in Adobe Acrobat. Faculty and departments may request Adobe Acrobat free of charge upon request through the Hardware/Software Request System. Instructional Technologies and Design Services will assist faculty in learning how to use Adobe Acrobat as well.
2. Make sure your image quality is high. If the document was scanned with low resolution or the original was a poor quality photocopy, the student's software may be unable to read it.
3. Ensure the text is clean with no marginalia, underlining, or highlighting, all of which can interfere with the student's software.
4. If you have a high quality hard copy that is clean, a new searchable PDF can be created with a scanner. Department staff can often assist with this process.
5. If you need to obtain a new, clean, original copy, Google the reading and/or search the library databases. Librarians can assist with this. If requesting a document through Interlibrary Loan, be sure to note that you require a "clean and searchable" copy. Don’t waste time creating a new, possibly flawed, copy if a perfect one is already out there.
6. Put the electronic copy in Blackboard so all students may access it. If you are unable to do this, speak with your students about the best way to share large files with them. (They are usually too large for email.)

How to do it wrong

Here are some common mistakes when providing course content.

1. Don't spend hours trying to make content accessible if you can find it already accessible elsewhere. Search online and in library databases. Colleagues and librarians can also be of assistance.
2. Don't scan an old photocopy that has been through multiple generations. The student's software won't be able to translate the text when the image quality is so poor. Instead, start with an original clean copy from a book or journal if an existing electronic copy is unavailable.
3. Don't scan a hard copy without making it searchable. The student's software will only "see" a file of images and won't be able to read the text aloud to the student. See above about creating searchable PDFs.
4. Don't scan a hard copy with shadows, underlining, highlighting, and/or marginalia. This will confuse the student's software, as such marks will obscure some letters, change others, and add still more. Make sure you scan a clean copy. See above for tips on how to find one if you don't have one already.
5. Don't post an uncaptioned video or assume a captioned video has accurate captions.

Accessible course content has other benefits too

• It’s easier for all students to read cleaner copies of documents and search for key words in searchable PDFs and captioned videos.
• Many students process information better through videos when they can read captions while watching.
• As text-to-speech technology becomes more widespread, more students are using it—even those without disabilities. One Cortland student without a disability who uses text-to-speech software says, "Like most students, I have trouble concentrating on long reading assignments.  Fatigue, a noisy environment and a heavy workload often add to my inability to focus for extended periods of time.  I have found that using the text-to-speech capabilities which now come standard on most computers to read a passage out loud while following along not only significantly increases the length of time I can attend to a reading, it also increases my comprehension of the material."