Creating Accessible Instructional Materials Peter Mosinskis, CSUCI CSU ITL Workshop November 7, 2008

Overview Background Assumptions Hands-On Word, PowerPoint & PDF Brainstorming Exercise

Fact or Fiction? Accessibility is painless Accessibility is fast Accessibility doesn’t require technical ability or knowledge You can be 100% accessible Most faculty will do this by themselves

CSUCI Quick Stats Students: ~3600 Employees: 630 Faculty: 285 (200 lecturers) Staff: 345

Our IM Background Blackboard 840 courses (every course section Fall 08) 586 “active” courses (70%) All prior courses archived # of documents: ??? Faculty Web Sites 8,500 web pages 1,800 MS Office Documents (Word/Excel/PPT) 2,200 PDF files

Our Accomplishments Formation of ATS to address ATI Free monthly accessibility workshops Accessibility training curriculum All administrative web content publishers trained in accessibility Knowledgeable student production team Ongoing one-on-one support

Academic Technology Services (ATS) Who We Are Supervisor of Web Services Instructional Designer Multimedia Specialist Web Designer 6 student assistants

Academic Technology Services (ATS) What We Do LMS Support Instructional Design Graphic Design & Multimedia Web Design & Hosting Web Content Management Academic Technology project management Training Accessibility Support

Other CSUCI Teams Library eReserves/eText (1-2 persons, plus 0-2 student assistants) Disability Resource Programs eText & Accommodations

Assumptions

Speed & Ease: depends on simplicity Some technical ability required Degrees of access: Something > Nothing Low-hanging fruit: pick it!

Likely Low Hanging Fruit Syllabus & most “electronic” handouts PowerPoint Presentations

Maybe Low Hanging Fruit “Mostly-text” handouts Short, hard-copy handouts Minimal image/charts/diagrams/tables Minimal scientific imagerys Faculty & Course Web Sites Surveys Online Quizzes/Tests Audio Podcasts

Not Low Hanging Fruit Text books & Course Reader Purely visual materials (fine art) Scientific materials (math, science) Multimedia Audio Video Webcasts Flash

Not Low Hanging Fruit External Web Sites Web forms Web applications

Word

Seven Steps for Word 1. Add text description to graphics and images 2. Use Styles to add structure 3. Use color correctly 4. Use Tables instead of tabs 5. Let Word create Bullets and Numbering 6. Provide a Table of Contents for long documents 7. Add document metadata

TPG Colour Contrast Analyzer Facilitates color contrast checks Free, both Windows + Mac

Word Tools LK4 Virtual508 Wizard File > Save as “Web Page, Filtered”

How Tools help LK4 Wizard Check descriptions of images Add descriptions to images Add metadata to the document Convert to HTML & maintain layout Word’s “Save As Web Page Filtered” Convert to HTML & maintain markup

Tools will NOT help Ensure image descriptions are meaningful/sufficient Semantic/markup problems Solve color problems Table issues (summary, headings, etc) Maintain printablility of converted format

A Simple, Accessible Word Document No meaningful images, charts or diagrams No multiple sections of information No colored text – just B&W No multimedia (audio/video) No tables or tabular data No fillable form fields

Known Issues & Alternatives Complex layout (floating text boxes) Simplify or convert to PDF Complete repairs in PDF Long, complex tables Convert to HTML (best) or PDF (better) Complete table repairs in HTML

Known Issues & Alternatives for Mac Mac user or document created on Mac Option 1: OpenOffice Fix in OpenOffice & save as ODF Export as PDF or HTML & then make additional fixes Option 2: Open and fix on Windows Use VMWare or Parallels on Mac

PowerPoint

Seven Steps for PowerPoint 1. Create text descriptions for meaningful images, charts & graphics 2. Use Slide Layout for slide structure 3. Use color correctly 4. Use appropriate font formatting 5. Make tables and diagrams accessible 6. Address multimedia, video and audio issues 7. Add document metadata

PowerPoint Tools LK4 Virtual508 Wizard LecShare Pro

How Tools Will Help Both tools will Check descriptions of images & charts Add descriptions to images Add metadata to the document Convert to HTML & maintain slide layout

Differences between PPT Tools LK4 Wizard will Provide multiple HTML output options Create printable handouts LecShare will Help make tables accessible Provide multiple other output options (Quicktime, etc) Enable presenter to record slide narration and add captions

Tools will NOT help Ensure image descriptions are meaningful/sufficient Semantic/markup problems Solve color problems Create accessible audio/video

Known Issues & Alternatives Created on a Mac? Export as HTML using LecShare

Accessibility Spectrum HTMLPDFMS Office MORE ACCESSIBLE

PDF

PDF Pros & Cons Pros Reading software is free Good accessibility & support of assistive technology Maintains print layout Cons Requires users to install PDF reader on their computer Not easily editable by others Must be generated by a source document (Word, InDesign, etc.) Complex documents can only be made accessible with difficulty

Steps to PDF Create PDF from Word/OpenOffice Check and Fix Reading Order Save As Text (Accessible) Change Tags if necessary Rinse/Lather/Repeat Check & Set Document Metadata & Language

Save as Text (Accessible) Go to File menu, choose “Save As…” Set “Save as type” to “Text (Accessible)” Shows you how a screen reader will read it

Set Document Metadata Go to File menu > Document Properties… Select the “Description” tab Fill in Title and Author Field Be sure and include “CSUCI > “ at the beginning of the title, to improve web searchability Click OK to finish

PDF Tools NetCentric CommonLook Plugin for Acrobat

CommonLook will help Adjust reading order Check some color issues Add and modify tags Check descriptions of images & charts Add descriptions to images Add metadata to the document Make tables accessible Run automated checks of your document Create a report of accessibility issues

CommonLook will NOT Make it “easy” to create an accessible PDF Ensure image descriptions are meaningful/sufficient Solve all color problems

Conducting IM Training

CSUCI Training History 2005 – Web Technology Workshops begin 2006 – CSU ATI begins To date: 84 workshops offered 529 total registrations 212 unique participants (5% faculty)

Training Considerations Curriculum Tools Delivery Assessment

Select a Curriculum 3-Tier Example Level 1 – low hanging fruit (LHF); 80% Level 2 – maybe LHF; 10% Level 3 – not LHF; 10% Include hands-on activities Include live demo and/or video demo of assistive technology (screen reader, etc)

Select Your Tools Choose tools for low-hanging fruit first LK4 Virtual508 Wizard LecShare Buy small quantities & get feedback Set up multiple delivery methods In-person, library, Help Desk, etc. Tie delivery of tool with training, if possible

Training Delivery Survey your faculty and account for preferences Use existing resources if possible Lynda.com Other ATI materials When possible, use training requirements to manage access

Training Assessment Survey after each workshop Annually review surveys & adjust to suit current need

Set Benchmarks & Use Metrics Workshop Enrollments ∆ Workshop Satisfaction ∆ Content growth ∆ Word, PowerPoint, PDF and HTML Accessibility ∆ Automated evaluation Manual evaluation (random sampling) Self-Paced Workshop Completions ∆

Exploring Solutions Time to Brainstorm

Hire Some Students!

Skill Set Requirements Excellent communication (verbal + written) Work + research independently Proficiency in MS Office Proficiency in HTML

Training Your Students 13 hours per student (minimum) 2 hr. Word accessibility 4 hr. PDF accessibility (basics + forms) 2 hr. PPT Accessibility 2 hr. Web Accessibility 2 hr. Web Content Management 1 hr. office communication & procedures (work orders, etiquette) Training before enabling their access

Syllabus Example ~800 Syllabi in Fall 2008 Repair time per syllabus avg: min Total time: hours 5-10 weeks for 2 students (20hr/wk each) weeks for 4 students weeks for 6 students weeks for 8 students

Recap Go after low hanging fruit Take little steps & document progress Get a few tools and do some training Hire & train student help

Fact or Fiction? Accessibility is painless Accessibility is fast Accessibility doesn’t require technical ability or knowledge You can be 100% accessible Most faculty will do this by themselves

Thank you! Peter Mosinskis