Talking with Faculty about Accessibility Talking to Faculty about Accessibility November 2016 Talking with Faculty about Accessibility Gaeir Dietrich HTCTU Director www.htctu.net 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net CC copyrighted under creative commons

Learning from Mistakes 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Round One It’s the law People listened politely…and did not change Also managed to upset and alienate some people 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Round Two It’s the right thing to do Worked a bit better Think of your students! Worked a bit better Worked particularly well with STEM faculty STEM faculty REALLY want everyone to learn their subject matter They like solving problems 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Time to Reassess Took a step back and asked myself, What would make faculty *want* to help with accessibility 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Round Three Accessibility intersects with basic skills Becoming a better teacher Began engaging faculty member’s thoughtfulness around the issue Started getting a LOT more interest Although the interest level increased, I still wasn’t seeing the change I wanted 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Round Four Make it simple I thought the more I could simplify the process, the better the results would be Sort of worked—gained more interest 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

But… Still encountering resistance because accessibility was perceived as taking extra time and effort 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Back to the Drawing Board… Finally, realization dawned…what was needed was “enlightened self-interest” If faculty felt there was “something in it for them,” they would become more interested 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Round Five I looked for ways that making documents accessible would save faculty members time Finally, I was seeing real change Faculty members really wanted to know this information AND they got to feel good about ALSO helping students 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Win-Win I finally had a message that led to change BUT I had to overcome a good bit of initial resistance AND I wasn’t getting many people in the audience 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Reevaluating Again I needed a presentation that would generate greater openness before I began talking about document creation I wanted to create an enlightening experience 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Experiencing Differences I developed a presentation on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) based on a learning styles profile This strategy worked better than I could have imagined 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Learning Styles Profile Used a learning styles profile broken down into visual written, visual graphic, auditory, kinesthetic Have faculty take the profile and then share with small groups 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

HUGE Experiences People were having incredible Ah ha! moments Visual written instructor Auditory and visual graphic spouses Kinesthetic son 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Round Six Strategy Start with the UDL presentation Move to a hands-on presentation on creating accessible Word documents Add accessible PDF 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Results? Knockout! Not only are faculty excited about how much time they can save, they have experienced in a personal, deep way what it means to have learning differences 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Other Tips Give faculty permission to not be perfect! Remind them that they can start to include accessibility on new material and work on archival materials as needed. Provide support -- who can they call? Make retraining available Tap into your champions—enthusiasm is contagious! 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

The UDL Presentation 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Principles of UDL Present content and information in different ways Provide multiple means for students to express what they know Provide multiple means to engage learners

Learning Styles Different people learn differently We process information from different sensory pathways differently Visual Auditory Kinesthetic

Learning Profile1 Visual Auditory Kinesthetic Visual graphic Visual written Auditory Kinesthetic 1 Thanks to Myra Lerch, Butte College, retired

How do you learn? Read each question and choose the best answer for you Add the columns and collate the results on the back We will take a few minutes to complete the learning profile

No Right or Wrong Differences in learning styles are simply differences Knowing your learning style and the learning styles of others can aid communication and understanding No one way is more “right” than any other, but some are more useful in certain situations 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Consider Some Results Low on Auditory Low on Visual Graphic May be better face-to-face than over the phone Low on Visual Graphic May struggle with charts and graphs High on Kinesthetic Learn by doing

Consider Our Biases “Students should read before they come to class” I’m probably high on Visual Written “I want to understand how to put something together before I do it” I’m likely low on Kinesthetic “I summarize information in charts” I’m probably strong on Visual Graphic 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Doing Unto Others… If we are high visual written May expect students to read material before the lecture/lab If we are high visual graphic May assume that charts and graphs will help all students If we are kinesthetic May expect to engage students in an activity with no written preparation 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Implications for UDL Realize that we may be communicating to ourselves! The principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) are designed to engage everyone Teach to all the modalities—not just our own strengths

Additional Strategies? Lecture (auditory) Readings (visual written) Writing assignments (visual written) Graphic organizers (visual graphic) Activities (kinesthetic)

And it just so happens… When you communicate to/design for someone who is blind, it helps others not strong in visual learning When you communicate to/design for someone who is deaf, it helps others not strong in auditory learning

Better Communication Learning to consider the needs of individuals with disabilities segues into learning to better communicate to all learning styles There are times when all of us are functionally blind or functionally deaf. TV Raman 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

The Accessible Word Presentation 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Helpful Acronym Use this “colored” LIST for access! Links Images Structure Table And watch your color contrast! 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

L is for Links Instead of … Click here for document X Use the name or description as the hyperlink Document X has the information you need 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Benefits Benefit for you Benefit for others You don’t loose connection with your materials when you make edits Linking to documents and learning objects by their names allows you to keep track of them easily! Benefit for others What you get when you click is clear Screen reader users can use a “links list” 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

How to Create a Link Select the text for the hyperlink’s name Right-click Choose “Hyperlink…” Browse to the object you want to link 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Checklist √ Links 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

I is for Images Add very brief text description If graphic is simply decoration, wait and mark it as “decorative” in Adobe Acrobat Pro If graphic is informative, describe as succinctly as possible 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Benefits Benefits for you Benefits for others Requires “out of the box” thinking Text becomes searchable online Benefits for others Text appears on mouse-over, clarifying purpose of graphic Provides access for nonvisual users Higher “hit” on Google 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Checklist √ Links √ Images 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

S is for Styles Use styles Use columns if needed DO NOT use text boxes Headings Lists / bulleted lists / numbered lists Use columns if needed DO NOT use text boxes 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Benefits Benefits for you Benefits for others Allows easy changing and editing Improves document navigation Can use “outline” view to rearrange sections Automatic table of contents Benefits for others Improves document navigation for all—headings useable with screen readers 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Checklist √ Links √ Images √ Styles 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Talking to Faculty about Accessibility November 2016 T is for Table Mark the header row in your tables Word calls this “Repeat as header row at top of every page” or just “Repeat Header Rows” Note: If you have column headers (i.e., header in first column), that will need to be marked in Adobe Acrobat Pro 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net CC copyrighted under creative commons

Benefits Benefits for you Benefits to others Always see header row, even across multiple pages Lessens reformatting/editing issues Benefits to others Screen reader users will be able to hear the header text repeated as needed Users of large print will still see header row when enlarging text 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Checklist √ Links √ Images √ Styles √ Tables And you’re done! 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Results 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Faculty Are Excited Receiving more presentation requests than ever Faculty are sharing with each other Faculty are now requesting MORE training on accessibility! 11/10/2018 www.htctu.net

Thank you! Gaeir (rhymes with “fire”) Dietrich gdietrich@htctu.net 408-996-6047