More on accessibility (NOTES)

Ensures that all students and staff can participate in our online environment.

Guidelines for Accessibility

UNSW Guidelines for Accessible Blended and Online Courses - https://teaching.unsw.edu.au/guidelines-accessible-blended-and-online-courses (am trying to contact UNSW about us adapting this for SCU - it is very good)

Copyright and Disability

https://www.copyright.com.au/about-copyright/people-with-disabilities/

Checklist from Dept. of Education

1. Always use plain English

Using plain English helps people with memory issues. It's also important for people who use English as an additional language or dialect, or those who have low levels of literacy. It will also help people on the autism spectrum.

2. Use a font that's easy to read

(Note: if using the SCU Style loaders the fonts and colours are already set with accessibility in mind)

3. Write unique page titles

4. Use headings to structure your content

Web users scanning your page should be able to easily understand what's there.

Headings help busy readers understand the structure of information and its hierarchy. Any headings should explain the content that follows.

Never use 'click here' or 'more' or anything else generic. Screen reader-users tend to use links as a way of navigating the page, so a big long list of 'click here' is not helpful. Make sure the link text explains what you're going to get when you click on it.

Using keywords in your link text also helps with search engine optimisation. That means people can find your information and trust that it's the most relevant for their needs.

6. Always add text alternatives (alt text) to images

Alternative text (alt text) describes what's in an image. It ensures people who cannot see the image still get the information conveyed.

Never use images of text.

7. Use tables only for tabular data

Don't use tables for layout. Keep tables simple with no merged or empty cells. Make sure tables always have a header row or column (setting table headers in Bb - https://help.blackboard.com/Learn/Student/Original/Add_and_Format_Content/Add_Tables#set-table-row-and-cell-properties_OTP-2

Blackboard

Accessibility - https://help.blackboard.com/Learn/Student/Original/Accessibility

Quicklinks - https://help.blackboard.com/Learn/Student/Original/Accessibility#quick-links_OTP-5

Screen readers - https://help.blackboard.com/Learn/Student/Original/Accessibility#screen-readers_OTP-4

Tables - https://help.blackboard.com/Learn/Student/Original/Add_and_Format_Content/Add_Tables

How to check that a Word document is accessible

To run the Accessibility Checker:

  1. On the ribbon, click the File tab.
  2. Click Check for Issues, and then click Check Accessibility. Note: ...
  3. The Accessibility Checker pane will open and display any issues with the document. From here, you can resolve any issues that appeared during the process of checking for accessibility.

How to check that a PDF is accessible

Select the text in the PDF

This is the easiest and most convenient way to check whether a PDF is accessible. If there is text in the PDF, try selecting the text or select all using Edit > Select All from the top menu in Adobe Acrobat.

If instead of the text, the entire page gets selected (this is the most common case), then that is an image file and is, therefore, not accessible.

However, please note that this is a rudimentary method to test accessibility. If a PDF correctly selects text, it doesn’t mean that it is accessible; it can still be an inaccessible PDF.

Check if the PDF document is tagged

One of the most important characteristics of any accessible PDF is its tagging. Tags add behind-the-scenes coding to a PDF. Every tag identifies the type of content and stores some related attributes. In addition, tags also arrange the document into a hierarchical structure.

An untagged PDF is not accessible, so if you don’t find any tags in a PDF, then it’s inaccessible.

Below is a screenshot of the tags panel of an inaccessible PDF document:


screenshot of tags panel of inaccessible pdf

You can learn more about tagged and untagged PDFs in this article: All you need to know about tagged PDFs

Media content

H5P content type accessibility

https://documentation.h5p.com/content/1290410474004879128

Video content

Mediasite Content Accessibility Guide - https://mediasite.com/wp-content/uploads/Mediasite-7-Content-Accessibility.pdf (no automatic captioning functionality)

Camtasia Adding captions or subtitles - https://www.techsmith.com/blog/add-captions-subtitles-video/ (no free automatic captioning functionality)

Zoom - https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/207279736-Enabling-and-managing-closed-captioning-and-live-transcription

If you are unable to provide captioning manually or with a third-party service, the live transcription feature is also available but has limitations to take note of. Live transcription currently only supports English and the accuracy of the feature depends on many variables, such as but not limited to:

  • Background noise
  • Volume and clarity of the speaker’s voice
  • Speaker's proficiency with the English language
  • Lexicons and dialects specific to a geography or community

Because of these limitations, if you are required to use speech-to-text support for any compliance or accessibility needs in your meetings and webinars, we recommend using a manual captioner or service that may be able to guarantee a specific accuracy.

W3C Accessibility Standards

W3C Accessibility Standards encompass a set of guidelines that help ensure that all students and staff can participate in our online environment.

https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/

W3C Accessibility Guidelines

Essential Components of Web Accessibility shows how web accessibility depends on several components of web development and interaction working together, and how the guidelines apply.

Quick Reference - https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/quickref/?showtechniques=111

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2

Web “content” generally refers to the information in a web page or web application, including:

  • natural information such as text, images, and sounds
  • code or markup that defines structure, presentation, etc.

WCAG applies to dynamic content, multimedia, “mobile”, etc. WCAG can also be applied to non-web information and communications technologies (ICT), as described in WCAG2ICT.

WCAG 2 info:

Audio and Video

Other Areas of W3C WAI work

Blackboard Ally

Might cost the Uni a bit but would help when academic staff are developing content

https://www.blackboard.com/en-apac/teaching-learning/accessibility-universal-design/blackboard-ally-lms?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=APAC_Accessibility&utm_term=ally%20for%20blackboard&gclid=EAIaIQobChMItuHQ3crf8QIVmgsrCh1FfAA4EAAYASAAEgL0XvD_BwE

So far can't find any mention of video accessibility

User review - https://www.perkinselearning.org/technology/blog/using-blackboard-ally-low-vision

(Please note - it's better to refer to the Online version rather than export, as it's always up to date)