Accessible Synchronous Sessions

Start with accessible slides

Start with presentation slides that follow accessibility best practices. Make sure that the slides will be easy to read by all students, regardless of assistive technology or the size of the screen on which they view the recording. Share the slides with students ahead of time for review and note-taking. 

Verbally describe visual elements

As you present your lecture, describe all images or graphics that are on the screen. If you present a cartoon, read the speech bubbles out loud. If you are writing out a formula or chemical equation, state the elements and how they relate. If you use the whiteboard or Zoom's annotation tool, you should always describe what you are writing for anyone with a disability or anyone that is using their phone due to internet connection issues in your virtual room.  

Provide instructions for asking questions and repeat posted questions

There are a couple ways people can ask questions. First, participants can use non-verbal feedback, such as raising their hand and un-muting when called upon. In addition, they can post a question in the chat feature. Give students the choice to use either option. Always repeat questions that are posted in chat. By repeating the questions, you will help anyone that can’t access the chat during the session (people using assistive technology will have too much screen reader interference if they enable chat) and you will improve the captioning quality of any recorded sessions.  

Communicate resource links you posted in chat

Students using assistive technology may not be able to copy or activate the links posted in chat. In addition, people who join the meeting late or lose their connection and need to reconnect will not be able to access chat content that occurred during the time they were not on the Zoom session. Add any resource links that you will be sharing either prior to or after the session to your Blackboard course. You can also speak out the URL when posting it in chat. If your resource link is long, consider using a URL shortener, such as bit.ly or tiny URL, to help with communicating the link verbally and so that the link is cleaner for anyone copying it from the chat box. To make it easier to compile all posted links, you can save the chat at the end of your session.

• • • Save Zoom in-meeting chat

Communicate Keyboard Shortcuts 

Add the Zoom Keyboard Shortcuts to your Blackboard course. These instructions are valuable for anyone using keyboard only navigation or assistive technology. In addition, it could be helpful to anyone who may have had their mouse stop working unexpectedly. 

Record your session

When possible, plan to record your Zoom session. Students may have technical, personal, work, or family reasons why they may unexpectedly miss all or part of your Zoom class. A recording gives all learners the opportunity to review or look for clarification for a concept. 

Use Blackboard's Zoom integration

You can schedule Zoom meeting right within your Blackboard course. Student then have easy access to your session links and recordings. 

• • • Enable Zoom in Blackboard

Encourage participants to enable “Always Show Meeting Controls Toolbar” 

Share instructions with your participants on how to always show meeting controls. By selecting the “Always Show Meeting Controls Toolbar” checkbox, the controls at the bottom of the zoom screen will remain up. This improves the user experience for many participants as they don’t have to worry about the bar appearing and disappearing upon hover (especially if they are new to Zoom and don’t know how to make the bar at the bottom show up after it’s disappeared). 

From within the Zoom Desktop Client: 

• 1. 1. Select the "Home" tab.

     2. Select the Settings “Gear” icon. A settings pop-up window will open. 

     3. Select the “View Advanced Features” (Windows) or “View More Settings” link (Mac) under General settings. The Zoom website will open. Login if you are prompted with the login screen. The Meeting Settings page will open.

     4. Navigate to the In Meeting (Basics) section of the Meeting Settings page.

     5. Enable the “Always show meeting control toolbar” setting. 

Enable the “Mute Participants Upon Entry” Feature 

In your meeting settings, select the “Mute participants upon entry” check box (located under Meeting Options when schedulinga session). Participants will have to unmute their microphone to participate. This feature will ensure less disruptions at the start of a meeting or class. 

Plan for Captioning

Captions are essential for students with hearing impairments, and provide learning support for English Language Learners, students studying in a quiet space, or those who prefer to read rather than listen to text. Captions are text representations of audio happening in video media. Captions are different from subtitles; captions are in the same language as the original media, subtitles are a translation of the original media’s language into another language. They can take the form of Open Captions (OC) which are always on, and Closed Captions (CC) which can be turned on and off by a user. Unlike transcripts, captions provide text on a screen synchronously with the audio. If you have a student with hearing impalements in your course, you will need to coordinate with the Office of Disability Services to arrange for a captioner to join your live sessions. If this is the case, you will need to:

• Enable closed captioning

• Assign a participant to type closed captions

Zoom also offers audio transcription for content recorded to the cloud. You will need to enable this feature for your Zoom account, and then edit the transcripts for accuracy after the session. Captions should follow ADA guidelines to be 99% accurate in text, grammar, and punctuation. A small error can change the meaning leading to student misconceptions. 

• • • Turn on audio transcription for cloud recordings