Accessibility Tools

This is a short module describing the tools we use on a daily basis. We will dive into using the tools in Module 4: Accessibility Assistant Workflow.

In the STARS Team we use a variety of softwares with a comprehensive set of accessibility tools including Microsoft Word, Powerpoint & OneDrive, Adobe Acrobat, Accessible Math Tools, SensusAccess & the WebAIM Contrast Checker. Learning which tool to use for each document is crucial for the Accessibility Assistant role.

Microsoft OneDrive

OneDrive is where the first part of the magic happens. You will receive a shared folder from your GAA with your name and a list of folders that correspond to individual classes, we recommend that you bookmark this link for easy access. Developing a system of organization that works for you, whether that's a To-Do list, a series of folders describing the status of different documents, or something else, starting with a system will help you keep files organized due to the high volume of documents we process.

Microsoft Word

You've probably used Microsoft Word before, but it might surprise you that it has very comprehensive accessibility features. Checking through the list of accessibility needs for a given document will ensure your documents are in top shape and ready to be sent back for student viewing. 

Microsoft PowerPoint

PowerPoint is another familiar tool, with similar accessibility capabilities as Word. We don't see a lot of PowerPoints at SAS, but they're usually straightforward. 

Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat Pro is the tool we use most often in the STARS Team. This is a comprehensive PDF viewer, editor, and accessibility checker. This is a powerful program, though it will occasionally crash, so be sure to save your files often. 

SensusAccess

SensusAccess is a tool which allows students to convert a wide variety of documents into accessible files. Yale provides this service to all students for free, and it can be very useful for remediating documents that are posing a challenge to our manual remediation methods.

Accessible Math Tools

With more and more students choosing STEM at Yale, we receive a lot of courses that require some equation remediation. We insert accessible equations in documents with MathType, EquatIO, MathPix, AI Tools, or the equation editing tools available Adobe or Microsoft. 

Color Contrast Checkers

Color Contrast is something that is very important for visually impaired students, and above a 4:1 darkness to lightness ratio is recommended between foreground (text or image) color and background color. Thankfully, WebAim has a great online color contrast checker to help make sure documents are suitable for sending back to professors. For black text on a white page (or vice versa) you usually don't have to change anything, but if you see any funky colors it might be good to run it through a check.  (For example, the green text above wouldn't pass seeing as it's a 1.37:1 ratio. )