Accessibility Makeover: How Faculty Can Improve Access to STEM Content

Abstract

Be inspired to learn skills to make self-created K-12 and higher ed STEM curriculum materials, including documents, graphics, and videos, accessible to all learners.

Presenters

• Cynthia Curry
• CAST
• Luis Perez
• CAST

My Notes:

Cynthia Curry and Luis Perez

National Center on Accessible Ducati O’Neal Materials

Who is this for: the instructor of Gen ed classroom- for teachers making materials. Also get other students doing this! Share the workload. It’s a collaboration. It’s part of Digital Citizenship. Look up ISTE standards- this is covered.

Get one new skill next time I create materials

STEM jobs earn 29% more than non-stem 2.5 million jobs expected to go unfilled 2018

2019 NSF report says 28% of students with one or more disabilities were enrolled in S&E same as those without disabilities, but they seem to drop out. 1 in 10 scientists and engineers has a disability 2017. Was 1 in 9

Accessibility- has different definition than education definition.

Perceivable, operable, understandable, robust

Image: such a graph. how do I make this accessible? Provide ahead of class. Add alt text. For a line graph that shows solubility of sodium sulfate in water: 1-2 sentences. AI is weak if you auto generate. You must write something. So writing one sentence like, “a line graph” it does not adequately describe the graph (not robust).This is Benetek recommendation:

• Add this to a PowerPoint. You can add a new graph if you want that reads the text in the graph.

Extra information is helpful to everyone! When students struggle with reading graphs, the description can help them too.

Documents!- Content Algebra worksheet, quadratic equations.

Usually teacher passes out a paper handout. Which can’t be read by all students. Some accessibility. Take an image and give it alt text. Pass out digitally. Also benefits kids with learning disabilities

In a word document, describe the image with alt text

Or

Use Math ML so it can be read by a screen reader. There are tools that write Math ML. The order things are read, and where the

Have worksheets read outloud: Use NVDA, in Firefox, with MathPlayer app.

How do we render Math ML to be read across multiple browsers? Demo: MathJax

There is a demo on the website for MathJax.org

Some features, you can use zoom triggers (like double-click equation and it gets bigger) No pixilation on enlargement due to rendering. Click on parts of the equation and hide parts! Then you can solve it in steps (also great for LD kids).

Video: content Physics, format video, teacher records video and uploads to YouTube. Talking about Newton’s first law.-AutoCaption is not helpful

Turns out Science and math are challenging for auto captioning.

In YouTube, you can Edit the Subtitles. If you are hosting on a different platform, you can download captions in YouTube then import to share point or whatever you are using. YouTube will do the bulk of the work, you just edit. It’s a shortcut.

CADET cross platform (web browser tool) to add captions.

In production plan for description, especially if things need spelled out. Add pauses.

The more descriptive the professor is during the production, the less post production work needs to be done. Describe what objects are being manipulated. It’s UDL. Do it up front- it will save you time.

In YouTube if you find a video you’d like to borrow, you can add captions for someone else (but you have to moderate your videos)

PowerPoint- describe what’s on the slide

@AEM_Center