1. Keep It Simple: Creating Accessible Instructional Materials Easily Peter Mosinskis Supervisor of Web Services CSU Channel Islands Presentation: http://tinyurl.com/c6aklq

2. Polling Yes/No Multiple Choice

3. Question #1 How often do you work on making instructional materials accessible? –A. Every day –B. Every week –C. Once a month –D. Rarely or never Multiple Choice

4. Q1 Answers

5. Question #2 How well is your campus is doing in making instructional materials accessible? –A. We’re in great shape. –B. We’re doing OK, we could do more –C. Swamped & barely squeaking by –D. Uhhh…what are we supposed to be doing? Multiple Choice

6. Q2 Answers

7. Question #3 Does your campus have a plan for making instructional materials accessible? –Yes –No

8. Q3 Answers

9. Question #4 Does your campus provide incentives to your faculty to make instructional materials accessible? –Yes –No

10. Q4 Answers

11. Agenda Background Principles Strategies

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

13. CSUCI Teams Academic Technology Services (ATS) –Instructional Design & LMS support –Multimedia & captioning –Web Site Design –Graphic Design –Web Application Development –Everything (6 student assistants)

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

15. Our Challenges Course Section Growth –320% since 2005 Blackboard –840 courses (every course section Fall 08) –586 “active” courses (70%), All prior courses archived Faculty Web Sites –8,500 web pages –1,900 MS Office Documents (Word/Excel/PPT) –2,500 PDF files

16. “Keep It Simple” Principles of IM Simple = fast & easy Something > Nothing Some technical ability required Harvest low hanging fruit

17. Target Audience Faculty Never heard of accessibility “Comfortable” with MS Office

18. Types of IM What’s easy, what’s not

19. Definitely Low Hanging Fruit Syllabus & most “electronic” handouts Presentations

20. Maybe Low Hanging Fruit “Mostly-text” hard-copy handouts Faculty & Course Web Sites Online Quizzes/Tests Audio Podcasts Blogs

21. Not Low Hanging Fruit Text books & Course Reader Purely visual materials (fine art) Scientific materials (math, science) Multimedia (Audio, Video, Flash) External Web Sites Surveys Web-based applications

22. IM Training Pulling it all together

23. Definitely Low Hanging Fruit Operating System (Win/Mac) MS Word PowerPoint LMS Basics

24. Low Hanging Fruit? Maybe… –Universal Design for Learning Not! –Section 508 –ATI Manual Evaluation

25. Recap of LHF Types of IM –Syllabus & most “electronic” handouts –Presentations IM Training –Operating System (Win/Mac) –LMS Basics –MS Word –PowerPoint

26. Strategies for LHF IM

27. Strategy 1 – Teach 4 Concepts Image description, good color use, styles and tables

28. Poll How familiar are these 4 concepts to you? –A. Know and use every day –B. Know how to use when needed –C. Heard about them but never tried –D. First time I’ve heard about them

29. Concept 1: Describe images and diagrams Is it decorative or meaningful? If meaningful and simple: –write short description If meaningful and complex: –write short and long description If decorative: –Leave it blank

30. Example Figure 1

31. Example #2

32. Concept 2: Color 1.Color Words 2.Color Contrast

33. Color Issue #1 – Color Words Color words: “red”, “green”, “yellow”, “purple”, etc. Look for text color changes Look nearby for color words Replace color words with text or text symbols

34. Color Word Examples WRONG: –“See the red section for additional information” –“Read blue items for Friday” CORRECT: –“See the ‘Next Steps’ section for additional information” –“Read items 1-3 for Friday”

35. Color Word Example

36. Color Issue #2 - Contrast Easy tool: TPG Colour Contrast Analyzer –Free download: http://tinyurl.com/2l6msrhttp://tinyurl.com/2l6msr –Windows + Mac Compare background and foreground colors –Minimum: meets both WCAG “AA” luminosity checks –Recommended: meets “AA” and “AAA” checks

37. Concept 2 – Keeping it Easy Use default text + background colors No other colors? No problems? Avoid color words Default templates? Sometimes…

38. Concept 3: Styles Use default templates & styles Use headings! Use bullets & numbering!

39. Concept 3 Big Benefits Word –Change the look of all headings with ease –Table of Contents PowerPoint –Change look of all slide headings, etc. Helps export to PDF + HTML

40. Concept 4 – Tables Use tables instead of tabs

41. Table Rules Use column and row headings Write a short table summary

42. Things to Watch Out For Word –Complex tables –Floating text boxes –Mac! PowerPoint –Native PPT format –Mac

43. Strategy 2 – Handy Tools

44. Handy Tools LK4 Virtual508 Wizard (Word + PPT) LecShare (PPT) TPG Colour Contrast Analyzer (all)

45. How Tools help Check descriptions of images Add descriptions to images Check color contrast Convert to HTML & maintain markup & layout

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

47. Other “Tools” IM Checklist (SJSU) –http://tinyurl.com/64altthttp://tinyurl.com/64altt Adobe Quick Reference Card –http://tinyurl.com/59zyczhttp://tinyurl.com/59zycz

48. Strategy 3 – Refine Your LHF Processes

49. Syllabi Create list of syllabus guidelines Create a MS Word template –SJSU: http://tinyurl.com/6xeppt Create a web template –CSUN: http://tinyurl.com/6kb9j2 Fillable, web-based form + database

50. Text-Based Handouts Create in electronic format (Word) Scan hard copies & convert to PDF Post Word/HTML/PDF in your LMS Post Word/HTML/PDF on faculty web site

51. Presentations Create in electronic format (PowerPoint) Post PPT + HTML in your LMS Post PPT + HTML on faculty web site

52. Strategy 4 - Expand Your IM Training

53. Select a Curriculum Use tiers: Basic, Intermediate, Advanced Use hands-on activities Use tools Use examples of actual IM Use assistive technology demos

54. Select Your Tools Have tools available Set up multiple delivery methods for tools Tie delivery of tool with training, if possible

55. Training Delivery Survey your faculty and account for preferences Use existing resources if possible –ATI Professional Development web site: http://teachingcommons.cdl.edu/access http://teachingcommons.cdl.edu/access –Lynda.com Keep training regularly scheduled Use training to manage access

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

57. Set Metrics & Measure Success Content growth ∆ –Word, PowerPoint, PDF and HTML Accessibility ∆ –Automated evaluation –Manual evaluation (random sampling) Workshop Enrollments ∆ Workshop Satisfaction ∆ Self-Paced Workshop Completions ∆

58. Strategy 5 – Get Better Buy-In Universal Design for Learning Incentives Advertising

59. Incentives Implement certification program –Tie in with RTP Provide opportunities for public recognition –Best practices web site –Newsletter blurb Workload reduction –Mentorship

60. Advertising Campaign Hard-copy mail to faculty Send email blast Scheduled/repeated reminders Word-of-mouth (in person, meetings, etc) Web sites Faculty mentors / leaders

61. Strategy 5 - “Just Do It”

62. Option 1. Syllabi Hire some students Gather the syllabi Evaluate and Fix the syllabi Re-distribute the syllabi Create template(s) for new syllabi Provide training for syllabi

63. Option 1. Syllabi - CSUCI ~800 Syllabi in Fall 2008 Repair time per syllabus avg: 15-30 min Total time: 200-400 hours –5-10 weeks for 2 students (20hr/wk each) –3-5 weeks for 4 students –2-4 weeks for 6 students –1-3 weeks for 8 students

64. Option 2. Presentations Hire some students Gather a set of presentations Evaluate and fix the presentations Re-distribute the presentations Create & provide template(s) for new presentations Provide training for presentations

65. Option 2. Presentations - CSUCI ~509 PPT’s on faculty web server (May 2009) Repair time per PPT avg: 1 to 1.5hr Total time: 509-764 hours –13 – 19 weeks for 2 students (20hr/wk each) –7 – 10 weeks for 4 students –5 – 7 weeks for 6 students –4 – 5 weeks for 8 students

66. Pros & Cons Pros –Consolidation all in one place –Consistency –Central expertise Cons –Creation process unchanged –Expensive?

67. Recap Identify low-hanging fruit Tailor strategies to the LHF Incremental: training, process, buy-in

68. Q&A Peter Mosinskis peter.mosinskis@csuci.edu 805-437-8587 http://staff.csuci.edu/peter.mosinskis/ Presentation: http://tinyurl.com/c6aklq