Part II: Universally-Designed Course Materials Applying the UDL principles

Two sides of the UDL coin Students with Diverse Learning Needs Mainstream Technologies Usability Students with Disabilities Assistive Technologies Accessibility

Mandates vs. UDL Legal Mandates – Address individual needs UDL approach – Speaks to diverse types of learners – Benefits many students beyond those with disabilities – More timely access; equivalence – Proactive vs. Reactive

What makes a document Universally Designed?  Searchability  Copy and Paste  Bookmarks or an Interactive Table of Contents  Text to Speech capability  Accessibility  Keyboard access, alternative to images, etc.

Microsoft Word, Universally Designed

Microsoft Word  Dos  Add alternative text to images and objects  Specify column header rows in tables  Use styles in long documents  Use short titles in headings  Ensure all heading styles are in the correct order  Use hyperlink text that is meaningful  Use simple table structure  Include closed captions for any audio or video  Increase visibility for colorblind viewers  Don’ts  Avoid using blank cells for formatting  Avoid using repeated blank characters  Avoid using floating objects  Avoid image watermarks

Things you can do for Word documents  Present Information in Multiple Ways  Images, Tables, etc.  Organizing and Adding Style  Content, Structure and Presentation Content, Structure and Presentation  “Structure” enables navigability  Headings, Lists, Table headers  Other things you can do  Save documents in multiple formats  Make hyperlinks informative  Simplify readability

Content, Structure, and Presentation  Content  The actual information you are providing in a document: text, images, videos, or multimedia.  Structure  The organization of content is structure: headings, lists, tables, emphasis, etc.  Presentation (Styles)  One can add style rules to structural elements to give documents a particular appearance. Return

Word demo  Open unstyled Word doc (w/ image and table)  Should include other readability issues, too  View Navigation pane  MS Accessibility checker  Add headings  Add alt text  Repeat MS Accessibility checker

Images and Alt Text  Alternative text for images should describe the meaning, based on context Ice Cream manufacturer Girl Scouts of America My niece's blog Diversity website ?

Microsoft PowerPoint, Universally Designed

Microsoft PowerPoint  Dos  Add alternative text to images and objects  Specify column header rows in tables  Use hyperlink text that is meaningful  Use simple table structure  Include closed captions for any audio or video  Increase visibility for colorblind viewers  Ensure that the reading order of each slide is logical  Ensure that all slides have unique titles  Don’ts  Avoid using blank cells for formatting

PowerPoint demo

Adobe PDF, Universally Designed

Adobe PDF  Dos  Create PDFs from electronic sources, not scanned images  When scanning is unavoidable, apply OCR  Add bookmarks when not already present  Where feasible, add tags  Check for accessibility  Don’ts  Discard accessibility features when “optimizing” a PDF  Prohibit selecting and copying text  Prohibit printing

Adobe PDF Demo ScannedOCR and Tags

Make Your Own PDF - Results AccessibilitySearch-AbilityCopy/PasteBookmarksText to Speech Print to PDF Save As PDF Adobe PDF Plugin

Scanned PDF Results AccessibilitySearch-AbilityCopy/PasteBookmarksText to Speech Scanned PDF Scanned PDF with OCR OCR and Tags

Video Captions

Alternative Text for Video Transcripts  A written or text-based record of dictated or recorded speech. May contain additional relevant information, such as descriptions or comments. Captions  A transcript is timed to display with the video track, it displays on screen as a caption. Descriptive Audio  The narration of key visual elements in a video or multimedia product.

What is captioning?  Captions are on-screen text descriptions that display a video product's dialogue, identify speakers, and describes other relevant information.  Captions are synchronized with the video image so that viewers have equivalent access to the content that is originally presented in sound.

Captioning Models  Disability services office  on-demand, hopefully in time  In-house, fee-based, centralized service  Complete outsourcing  Mixed model (some of the work outsourced)  DIY (the “yourself” may be individual faculty or their departments)

Course content that may require captioning  YouTube  Instructional DVD’s  VHS – Yikes!

Lecture Capture

Lecture Capture Systems  Captions and/or Transcripts  Searchability  Navigation Options  Keyboard Accessibility  Example Example

Learning Management Systems

LMS as repository  You may not be able to change the system... but you can make the course materials you store there usable and accessible.  Also, think about consistency of design and navigation

Two sides of the UDL coin Students with Diverse Learning Needs Mainstream Technologies Usability Students with Disabilities Assistive Technologies Accessibility

Two sides of the UDL coin Students with Diverse Learning Needs Mainstream Technologies Usability Students with Disabilities Assistive Technologies Accessibility

UDL Tech Tutorials  Microsoft Word  Styles and Headings  Images  PowerPoint  Adobe PDF  Video Captioning  HTML  E-Text

Thank you! Craig Spooner Professional Development Coordinator ACCESS Project Marla Roll Director, Assistive Technology Resource Center Assistant Professor, Department of Occupational Therapy