1. How to Create Accessible Course Materials Yasmin Mahasongkham Highline College

2. What is OER? OER = open educational resources “Open education resources are free and openly licensed educational materials that can be used for teaching, learning, research, and other purposes.” -The William and Flora Hewlett FoundationThe William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

3. Current work around OER… Faculty Learning Committee Meet as a committee Workshops and presentations during Open Ed Week Mini projects where librarians are paired with instructors to create course materials using OER

4. Advantages and Disadvantages of OER Advantages Instructors have intellectual freedom replace textbooks relatively free…low cost Fact: students at Highline spent an average of $300- $700 on books per quarter. Disadvantages Intellectual property and unclear copyright laws Quality Accuracy

5. Disability Office role in OER Is the material accessible? If faculty are moving towards OER, who is responsible for making sure the content is accessible? What new accessibility issues will arise from using OER?

6. How to make your course materials accessible A summary of Module 8 Accessibility from How to Use OER training by SBCTC

7. Think UDL (universal design for learning) Multiple means of Representation (written, audio, and videos) Action/Assessment (navigation and assignment format) Engagement (offer options, flexibility)

8. When building your course… Start with text Add alternative means to support text (audio/video/images) Provide options for submitting work Break down course content into sections Keep content open continuously

9. Make images accessible Screen readers will skip over an image if there is no alt text Provide alt text for images (right click image, click “format picture”, add alt text) Avoid decorative images If you do, use “ “ (quotation mark, space, quotation mark) in the alt text field

10. How to add alt text to images

11. Use captions and transcripts Provide transcripts for audio recordings Provide captions for videos Use a vendor Do it yourself Provide a script Avoid automatic captions (not accurate)

12. Use Headings and style guides Headings provide structure, like an outline Screen readers can differentiate titles from content so the reader can quickly locate page numbers and sections of documents Limit use of bold, italics, underline and color

13. Example of not using headings https://foothillcollege.instructure.com/courses/197/pages/document-headings-and-screen-readers

14. Use descriptive hyperlinks Embed link to relevant text (highlight descriptive text, right click, and paste URL) Avoid “click here” or “more…” and using full web addresses

15. Example of hyperlinks NO http://www.openwa.org /module-8/ http://www.openwa.org /module-8/ Click here to go to Module 8 Accessibility at the Open Educational Resource for Washington State website. Click here YES Learn more about Module 8 Accessibility on the Open Educational Resource for Washington State website. Module 8 Accessibility

16. Avoid using only color to communicate Some people are color blind and may not be able to differentiate between colors. Find an alternate way to represent meaning of color

17. Example of how to not use color Instead of finding states by colors, list states after colors. example: Dark blue: Incumbent Democrat (Washington, Oregon, New York, etc.;)

18. Choose and use a textbook that is accessible Remember that your campus is liable if you purchase a book that is not accessible! Ask publishers about accessibility! Put the pressure on! Use your buying power! Don’t require a textbook (Use OER??)

19. Questions to ask publishers

20. Quick tips to use PPT, MS WORD, Canvas wisely! Use Accessibility Checker feature POWERPOINT: USE: slide templates, contrasting colors, alt text for images, clear language, lots of space AVOID: animations, timed presentations, URL addresses MS WORD: Use list formatting tool (not your own), headings from style guides, alt text CANVAS: Use headings, provide alt text for images.PDF Convert.PDF into a readable.PDF (not one whole image), add tags

21. Resources to help build an accessible course Module 8 – Accessibility Open Washington Open Educational Resources Network Module 8 – Accessibility Open Washington Open Educational Resources Network Web Accessibliity in Mind – WebAIM University of Washington: Creating Accessible Documents

22. Feedback from instructors on Accessibility module… Can be difficult and tedious to implement accessibility Too many steps, hard to remember Not intentional to make course inaccessible

23. Examples of incidents where courses became inaccessible How many of you have faculty who use videos in their class but have no caption? How many of you have faculty who require students to purchase a textbook that does not have an alternate format?

24. What is your campus doing to make sure instructors are creating accessible course materials??? Suggestions???