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

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

3. 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

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

5. 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

6. 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

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

8. 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

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

10. Assumptions

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

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

13. 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

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

15. Not Low Hanging Fruit External Web Sites Web forms Web applications

16. Word

17. 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

18. TPG Colour Contrast Analyzer http://tinyurl.com/2l6msr Facilitates color contrast checks Free, both Windows + Mac

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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. PowerPoint

26. 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

27. PowerPoint Tools LK4 Virtual508 Wizard LecShare Pro

28. 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

29. 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

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

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

32. Accessibility Spectrum HTMLPDFMS Office MORE ACCESSIBLE

33. PDF

34. 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

35. 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

36. 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

37. 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

38. PDF Tools NetCentric CommonLook Plugin for Acrobat

39. 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

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

41. Conducting IM Training

42. 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)

43. Training Considerations Curriculum Tools Delivery Assessment

44. 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)

45. 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

46. Training Delivery Survey your faculty and account for preferences Use existing resources if possible Lynda.com Other ATI materials http://www.calstate.edu/accessibility/resources/ http://www.calstate.edu/accessibility/resources/ When possible, use training requirements to manage access

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

48. 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 ∆

49. Exploring Solutions Time to Brainstorm

50. Hire Some Students!

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

52. 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

53. Syllabus Example ~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) 2.5-5 weeks for 4 students 1.6-3.3 weeks for 6 students 1.25-2.5 weeks for 8 students

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

55. 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

56. Thank you! Peter Mosinskis peter.mosinskis@csuci.edu 805-437-8587 http://staff.csuci.edu/peter.mosinskis/