Equal access to instructional materials and information and communication technology is integral to fulfilling the mission of the California Community Colleges.
∙ For students, staff, and community members with disabilities to be afforded full and equal enjoyment of college services
∙ Students with disabilities can face a variety of accessibility challenges making it difficult to interact with the college and complete their work, placing them at a higher risk for matriculation and completion failure
∙ To create opportunities by which current and prospective students can engage in academic pursuits, participate alongside their peers, and obtain the necessary skills for continuing their education or contributing to the workforce
∙ Creates barriers and increases division within a campus community
∙ Exposes colleges and districts to potentially expensive, time-consuming, and reputation damaging lawsuits and unwanted publicity
∙ Procurement solutions that ignore accessibility could lead to wasteful spending and redundant purchases
Canvas Accessibility Best Practices This presentation covers the basic accessibility practices to implement in Canvas when transitioning to the online environment. Resources identified in the video include:
Instructional, Student Services, and Shared College Resource Information (CVC-OEI)
MS Word is one of the most common programs used to edit documents for accessibility and when converting materials into alternate formats. The DOCX format is widely supported by many assistive technologies and may be used a basis for converting into other formats (e.g., braille, audio, etc.). The drawback of MS Word documents is that they may not provide a one-to-one relationship to the layout and organization of the printed instructional materials.
It is recommended to use MathType when creating equations in MS Word. This gives the greatest number of uses for the Math once it has been created. The document can be exported to HTML, ePub, or used as-is.
When using MS PowerPoint, there are several procedures to follow to include accessibility into the presentation. These changes will improve the accessibility of the PowerPoint presentation itself and will support accuracy of the information when converting to other formats (e.g., accessible PDF, MS Word, etc.).
While PDF document accessibility has improved over the past few years, students with print-based disabilities may still find challenges when attempting to interact and read PDF documents due to issues with compatible PDF readers or with how the document was originally authored. Generally speaking, creating accessible PDF documents is easier from Microsoft Office applications, Adobe InDesign, or other word-processing applications rather than fixing the PDF document directly.
Adobe Acrobat DC is used by alternate media specialists to edit and manipulate PDF files that have been scanned or provided by publishers. Acrobat can also be used to remediate PDF documents and check if a document has potential accessibility errors.
Accessibility Repair Workflow
Using the Accessibility Checker
Acrobat Accessibility Features
For PDF documents that have many pages and contain multiple accessibility issues, such as incorrect text or lack of a document structure, it may be more effective to process the PDF document using OCR applications. OCR solutions, including OmniPage and Abbyy Finereader, can process large PDF files faster and output documents that require fewer remediation steps.
If a student submits an alternate format request for textbook materials in braille, colleges should contact the CCC Alternate Text Production Center (ATPC) to determine if the requested materials have previously been converted. If the materials have not been converted, then it may be possible to submit an order for instructional materials to be converted by the ATPC.
Equidox is a web-based application intended to facilitate the remediation of inaccessible PDF documents into HTML, EPUB, or accessible PDF versions. The CCC Accessibility Center has acquired a limited number of licenses for California Community Colleges staff. At this time, licenses are limited to approximately three to four per college. To gain access to Equidox, please contact accessibility@ccctechcenter.org with a request for Equidox.
It is strongly recommended that college staff do not upload documents containing Protected Health Information (PHI) or other content associated with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Due to the nature in which documents are stored, this information does not meet legal privacy requirements.
Learn the essentials for ensuring the accessibility of instructional materials in these self-paced courses. In collaboration with @ONE, the CCC Accessibility Center has designed a series of free, online micro-courses in Canvas that focus on accessibility best practices. These courses focus on the basic practices for creating accessible content and instructional materials so as to support access for students with disabilities and all other members of the campus community.
CCC Accessibility Center Self-Paced Courses
Browse the @ONE Course Catalog for other offerings
CCC Accessibility Center email: accessibility@ccctechcenter.org
Color Contrast Analyzers:
Accessibility
Checkers:
Additional Training Next Step:
CCCConverter --converts documents into alternative accessible documents. Great when you don't have Omni or Abby
CCC Accessibility Center Help Desk Ask questions and review responses from other CCC faculty, staff, and administrators regarding web and IT accessibility topics.
DECT The Distance Education Captioning and Transcription grant (DECT) provides CCCs with funding for live and synchronous captioning and transcription as a means of enhancing the access of all students to distance education courses.
Blackboard Ally Allows students in Canvas to convert .ppt, .docx, etc. to alternative formats (Tagged PDF, HTML, ePub, Audio Braille, e-text, etc.)
Accessibility Podcast Round-Up Web Accessibility Podcasts from around the web
InAccessible In this podcast, host Andrea Pasquale and producer Jaye McAuliffe highlight the stories of people with disabilities living in Arizona while pointing to resources dedicated to making the state more accessible.
Assistive Technology Update with John Anderson A weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist people with disabilities and special needs.
Tips to Making your Podcast Accessible
Accessibility for Designers We talk about what accessibility means for UX designers and what you can, and should do to make the websites and apps you design more accessible and inclusive.