May 22, 2013

Assistive Technology Resource Center Provide Assistive Technology for students, faculty and staff with disabilities Provide consultation support for faculty and staff at CSU on accessibility Allison Kidd IT Coordinator UDL / Accessibility Trainer Shannon Lavey, MS, OTR Service Coordinator Assistive Technology Trainer

CSU’s Accessibility Guidelines Principles of Universal Design for Learning Learning Styles Learning Challenges Assistive Technology Documents that are Compatible with Technology Structure Alternate Text Word Documents PDF Documents

Adopted by Faculty Council, Fall 2012 CSU is committed to providing equal access to electronic information for all students Universal Design for Learning provides a strategy for preparing materials that overcome barriers to learning and benefit all learners

Universal design is the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design. –Ron Mace, UD InstituteUD Institute

“ Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a set of principles for designing materials that give all individuals equal opportunities to learn. ” Source:

1.Information and concepts are represented in multiple ways and in a variety of formats. 2.Students are given multiple ways to express their comprehension and mastery of a topic. 3.Students engage with new ideas and information in multiple ways.

Multiple Ways Present Information Interact & Engage with Material Express Understanding

Native Language Non-Apparent Disabilities Dyslexia Autism Brain Injury Apparent Disabilities Physical Impairment Hearing Impairment Visual Impairment Target multiple learning styles to help with these challenges Provide multiple ways to access and respond to materials (audio, file formats)

Search Capability Select Text for Copy and Paste Consistent Structure / Organization Headings Based on Importance Table of Contents Text to Speech Capability Screenreader Accessibility

Benefits of a Universally Designed Word Document

Document Structure Headings Table of Contents Tables and Lists Content Reading Order Descriptive Alternate Text Images Graphs Tables

Visually - It looks easier to read Easier to pick out important points Students can take notes based on an obvious outline Provides a Table of Contents – Navigation Pane Screen-reading software uses structure to navigate the document more easily Consistent use of headings lets the listener know how important a section is

Using Headings, Styles, Tables Adding Alt Text

Add Headings for each section Be Consistent Use Tables to organize columns

Images, Graphs, and Tables are all great ways for presenting information to visual learners. BUT… Screenreaders can only read text! The “Universal Design for Learning” Answer: Present the information in more than one way so non-visual learners can also benefit. Provide a short text description for all non-text elements! Alt Text describes the purpose or meaning of the image in context

Look at the image in context and ask yourself, “What is the purpose of this image?” Write a short description of the meaning added by the image.

Alternative text for images should describe the meaning of the image in its context Ice Cream Manufacturer Girl Scouts of America A Food Blog Diversity Website Adapted from Jesse Hausler, ATRC and The ACCESS Project

1.Right-click on the image and select ‘Format Picture’ 2.Select the ‘Alt Text’ option at the bottom 3.Type the alt text in the ‘Description’ box on the right 4.Do not use the ‘Title’ field, as a screenreader will not read it!

1.Right-click on the top row of the table. 2.Click on ‘Table Properties’ 3.Check the box ‘Repeat as header row at the top of each page’

1.In the same ‘Table Properties’ screen, select the last tab on the right, ‘Alt Text.’ 2.Type in the ‘Description’ box 3.Just as with images, ignore the ‘Title’ field. Screenreaders won’t read it.

Use the Built-in Accessibility Checker File > Info > Check for Issues > Check Accessibility

Documents – Structure vs. No Structure

Scanned Documents

There are three types of PDFs resulting from a scanner: Scanned PDF saved as image only This often looks like a photocopied document. Scanned PDF with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) OCR is software that interprets text in a document and outputs it as text that you can highlight and edit. Scanned PDF with OCR and Tags added Tags determine the order in which a screenreader will read the page.

Sample Source: MasterFileMasterFile

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

Login with eid to request PDF creation Library staff will do entire process Find the article Scan with OCR Convert existing scanned PDF Post online for your course Turn-around time – typically one day On the Reserves Tab of the Morgan Library Homepage or at

Read & Write Gold

Using the Acrobat Plugin in Word 2010

Before Conversion! Make sure Tagged PDF is enabled in Preferences under the Word PDF Toolbar This makes the PDF accessible to screen readers

Start out with a Word Document Make the document accessible, then convert it Use Save As PDF Or use the Acrobat Toolbar AccessibilitySearch-AbilityCopy/PasteBookmarksText to Speech Print to PDF Save As PDF Adobe PDF Plugin

Open the Accessibility Toolbar Click on ‘TouchUp Reading Order’

Click on ‘Show Order Panel’ The panel will show up at the left Drag and drop items in the correct order Empty items or decorative images – set as ‘Background’. Items set as ‘Background’ will be ignored by screenreaders.

DIY Help CSU’s Access Project (Step-by-Step Tutorials) CSU’s Accessibility Website Or Contact Me

Adobe PDF, Universally Designed - ACCESS Project: Microsoft Word, Universally Designed - ACCESS Project: PDF Tutorials by Adobe: PDF Tutorials by WebAIM: Universal Design for Learning: VARK Learning Styles: Word 2010 Accessibility Tutorial by Microsoft: Word 2010 Tutorial by WebAIM: