Establishing an Accessible Social Presence

The video I created was a brief introduction of myself to my Psychology students. I included my education background and some personal information about my family. I also included a quick overview of the LMS we would be using for class. I highlighted four locations on the LMS that would be important for students to become familiar with for the course.

I used QuickTime Player to make my screen recording. I also used part of a powerpoint in google drive that I use in class to introduce myself to the class. I had two windows open to the sites I used in the video including Schoology and my Google drive. I used YouTube to publish my video to the web and to create closed captions. I have used QuickTime Player before and YouTube, but I had never added a transcript for closed captioning. The process was quick and easy to learn. I will be able to include closed captioning for any new videos I create for class and also know how to add it to videos that I have already produced. I did notice that I am still not fully comfortable with recording myself, but hope that my comfort level will improve with time and experience. Creating a script ahead of time to read from for the recording is really key. This was a great learning experience as I continue to develop my skills for online and blended learning.

Transcript

Reflection: Accessibility Background and Research for Resources

I will be reflecting on my learning and practice regarding "Accessibility" in this discussion. Prior to this course my instructional materials were very limited in accessibility. My education in this area was very limited and the course reading assignments were eye opening. Prior to this course I had never considered ADA compliance other than providing for any students with IEPs in my classroom. I felt very ignorant in trying to write my original reflection due to my lack of knowledge and experience in this area. I now believe I have developed the knowledge and skills in the area of ADA accessibility to be compliant with the new materials I create for blended learning. Materials in my class that are accessible include YouTube videos that already contain closed captioning. In addition, I believe there are many items that are in my google drive that have the ability to be improved by providing headings, alternative text for images, non-text items for tables or charts, and closed captioning for flipped videos I have created. The hands on opportunity of creating a closed caption video provided me with some much needed learning.

In beginning my research of resources to make my curriculum and class materials accessible (beyond the resources of our assignment and textbook), I came across some basic guidelines for people who shoot their own video. 1Caption It Yourself™ - Described and Captioned Media ... I have created some videos I use in class so I believe this would be useful along with many reasons for why it is important to make content accessible. The second resource I discovered was about writing effective alternative text for images. 2ALT-text for images On our previous assignments I had included alternative text for my images, but did not understand fully what I should be including in my descriptions. Next I began thinking about the LMS Schoology that is used at my school. Our reading assignment contained a clip of a woman trying to access her Introductory Psychology courses’ LMS, and it showed the frustrating process. I was curious about how ADA compliant Schoology is for those with learning disabilities and came across a powerpoint that contain resources for evaluating accessibility and accessibility tools for teachers and students. 3Online Learning and Accessibility for Students with Disabilities Finally, I have never considered the font I used in composing my course materials so I found a quick reference guide to assist me as I make future documents for my class. 4Quick reference guide to ADA signage I acknowledge that I have a long way to go in my learning to be ADA compliant, but I hope that I am on the right path as I begin to make necessary improvements to provide for students in my future classes. I look forward to being a better teacher through this reflection process as I take the first steps to make changes.

^[1] (2015). Caption It Yourself™ - Described and Captioned Media ... Retrieved July 16, 2015, from https://www.dcmp.org/ciy/.

^[2] (2002). ALT-text for images - Quality Web Content. Retrieved July 16, 2015, from http://www.webpagecontent.com/arc_archive/66/5/.

^[3] (2015). Online Learning and Accessibility for Students with Disabilities. Retrieved July 16, 2015, from https://www.schoology.com/system/files/attachments/files/m/201408/course/130235255/On-line20Learning20and20Accessibility207-2.28_53ea4e152ccc9.pptx

^[4] (2012). Quick reference guide to ADA signage - Accent Signage ... Retrieved July 16, 2015, from http://www.accentsignage.com/wp-content/uploads/ADA-Quick-Reference.pdf.