Joseph Polizzotto High Tech Specialist Taft College Fall 2014 Inservice

 The High Tech Specialist at Taft College  Provides alternate formats of textbooks to students with disabilities.  Trains students who need assistive technology software programs (Magnification devices, e- readers, speech recognition, etc.).  Offers assistance to faculty wishing to create accessible course materials.

 The High Tech Center at Taft College  Is located in the Administration building.  Is available to students who qualify for Student Support Services. 1.Student requests services. 2.Student receives testing for a disability. 3.Student meets with High Tech Specialist to discuss options.  Has served over 70 students this semester.

 A report from the National Center for Education Statistics found: report from the National Center for Education Statistics  6.4 million students (13%) in grades K-12 received special assistance because of a disability.  the most common disability category (37%) was “specific learning disability”, which means these students struggled comprehending language and expressing themselves in speech or writing.

 More and more students with disabilities are spending the majority of their school day in the regular classroom (80%).  Students with speech and language difficulties are the most likely to spend the majority of their school day in regular classroom.

 We need to be prepared!  The teacher of basic skills subjects (Math, English, Reading, & ESL) should expect to encounter students with a “specific learning disability” since that category precisely affects reading, spelling, speaking, and doing math calculations.  Students may not self-report since they are used to being in the regular classroom.

 In the realm of digital media (electronic textbooks, PowerPoint demo presentations, webpages, videos, etc.), accessibility can be understood by using these four principles:these four principles  Perceivable  Operable  Understandable  Robust

 Perceivable:  Information and technology must appear in a form that students can recognize. Examples: ▪ Text descriptions for images ▪ Captions for visual and audio input ▪ Adequate contrast between background and text color ▪ Adapting content so that students with assistive technology can recognize it.

 Operable:  Information and technology must not force users to complete impossible actions. Examples: ▪ Information is accessible by keyboard only. ▪ Sufficient time is permitted to read and use content. ▪ No content that causes seizures. ▪ Support is offered to navigate and locate information.

 Understandable:  Information must not be too difficult for students to follow or understand. Examples: ▪ Make text simple and comprehensible. ▪ Create content that appears and operates predictably. ▪ Offer information that helps users avoid mistakes and correct them.

 Robust:  Information should be reliable and available to as many different students as possible. Examples: ▪ Try to enhance the potential that students with a wide variety of assistive technologies and devices can receive the information.

 Visit the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) at their website:   Learn about Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which is a “set of principles for curriculum development that give all individuals equal opportunities to learn.”

 Both sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (1973) apply to the California Community Colleges.  Section 504 mandates that persons with disabilities be given an accommodation for learning.  Section508 requires that any technology purchased and/or any information created by the institution be accessible to people with disabilities.

Section 504Section 508 Refers to the specific accommodation that a student receives (e.g., a student needs extra time on a test.). Refers to accessing the information that the college distributes to students (e.g., MS Word documents, web pages, course management systems, etc.)

Section 504Section 508 Section 504 happens after a student requests Student Support Services. Section 508 happens before any student enters the classroom. Section 504 holds the Student Support Services department responsible. Section 508 holds the faculty and institution in general responsible (Everyone!).

 The students who benefit the most are:  The blind and visually impaired

 Students with Learning Disabilities.

 Students with physical impairments

 Everyone truly benefits when documents have clearer structure and simpler language!

 Some basic principles:  Use heading structure  Add alternative text  Label header rows in tables  Give clear names to links  Use bulleted/numbered lists  Write in simple language  Save out as PDF

 Accessible Word Docs have these features:  Uniform heading structure

 Alternative text for images, charts, tables, and graphs

 True Columns

 Tables with marked header row

 Links with clear descriptions

 True numbered and bulleted lists

 Adequate font size (at least 12 point)

 Sans-Serif fonts Comic Sans MS Courier New Trebuchet MS Arial Century Gothic Tahoma Verdana

 No color-coded information to distinguish important content

 Use sufficient color-contrast between your text background and font color.

 Simple language

 Table of Contents (for longer documents)

▪ Text boxes ▪ Blank cells in tables ▪ Image watermarks ▪ Floating images (Must be in-line with text) ▪ Empty paragraph marks

 Available in other formats (e.g., PDF, RTF, EPUB)

 Some basic principles:  Use slide layouts that are provided  Provide sufficient color contrast  Charts and Graphs with Tabular Data  Check reading order  Create internal links to the end of Power Point for footnotes.  Use accessible video and audio  Distribute in PDF format

 Ensures that text will follow logical reading order.

 Make sure background color and text have enough contrast.  Background design should be solid (no pattern).

 Use the default chart option on the slide.

 If you paste a chart from a table in Excel, you will need to re-enter the tabular data.

 To provide a long description of a table, you can either: 1. Use the notes box OR 2. Hide the description in a text Box behind the table. Then refer to description in Alt Text box.

 Use the TAB key to test the order in which regions will be read.  To change reading order, right click on region and select bring to front option.

 Click insert hyperlink and select the slide where you would like students to arrive.

 Use videos with captions and provide transcripts for audio

 Check for accessibility warnings and errors.

 High Tech Center at Taft College High Tech Center at Taft College  Sidekick Sidekick

Please contact me: Joseph Polizzotto

Nces.ed.gov.2013 The Condition of Education- Participation in Education- Elementary/Secondary Enrollment- Children and Youth with Disabilities- Indicator January (2013). [online] Available at: tor_cgg.asp[accessed: 2 Dec 2013]. tor_cgg.asp[accessed Back to slide 4

“Distance Education Accessibility Guidelines: For Students with Disabilities” Distance Education Accessibility Guidelines Task Force, January 2011 Back to Slide 7