Why We Love the Pope Tech Tool

Accessibility checker tools for our CA Community College system:

PopeTech available free to all CA community colleges

UDOIT - open source (free) OR cloud-based (premium)

The free open-source version of UDOIT requires hosting on a server. That could be somewhere on your college server, or, if that’s not possible, Heroku is a free cloud server option.
Installation directions for UDOIT
Installing Heroku
There is also a cloud-based version of UDOIT which is hosted but requires purchase as part of Cidi Labs (some colleges have already done so - consider requesting that CidiLabs be added to the STAC list).

Ally (Blackboard) - fully funded for CCCs through June 30, 2021
If your CA community college would like to set up an Ally account, please contact support@cvc.edu.

Striving for Accessible Courses

One of my earliest memories is sitting on the couch, pillows on either side for support, as I held my baby brother. I can remember putting my lips to his little head, and soaking in the baby smell of his downy head as if it were yesterday. Soon after, we would learn that my brother suffered a traumatic brain injury at birth, leaving lasting cognitive and physical echoes. And so my personal journey with disability awareness began.

In college, I had the honor of working as an embedded writing tutor with a cohort of deaf students, and later, I worked with two students who experienced short-term memory loss due to car accidents. By the time I started teaching online, I had a lifetime of experiences working with people who have differing cognitive and physical differences, so embracing making my online course accessible should have been easy--a piece of cake.

Accessibility Is a Team Effort

Instead, what I found was that training and tutorials on digital accessibility were convoluted, complex, and often confusing. I rarely knew if I had achieved the level of accessibility I was hoping for, so (like many online instructors) I often simply ignored broad components of accessibility.

During my work with @ONE and the CVC-OEI, however, I decided to tackle accessibility, and what I discovered is that some parts of accessibility are more difficult, and require collaboration with our campus IT and disability resources--like testing software integrations with Canvas to ensure they meet standards--but other things are simple, and when practiced become muscle memory. Since that time, it’s been my goal to share what I have learned about accessibility within Canvas to as many faculty as possible--to straighten out, simplify, and clarify how to make our content in Canvas accessible.

Take the 10-Day Accessibility Challenge

So, as Disability awareness month comes to a close, and we begin prepping for Fall courses in the era of COVID-19, where all of our students have been forced online, I’m happy to introduce a new series--the 10-Day Accessibility Challenge--focused on making your Canvas course accessible. The challenge is comprised of ten brief videos ranging from 2 to 4 minutes each that cover the six most prominent accessibility strategies for online courses:

Headings
Lists
Links
Images
Color Contrast
Closed-captions

The video playlist is shared with a Creative Commons license on YouTube, so feel free to share, embed, and encourage others to join in, too!

Accessibility does not have to be shrouded in mystery and should be part of our daily routine. As a matter of fact, I’m positive you’re up to the challenge!

Go to the 10-Day Accessibility Challenge

Making Your Tables Accessible--In 15 Seconds (or Less)

Tables can be a useful way to organize certain types of content visually. But tables add an extra layer of complexity for students using a screen reader device which means it’s imperative your tables are formatted properly. Never fear! The Canvas Accessibility Checker is here to save the day.

Video Captioning Conundrum

Captioning instructional videos can be a time-consuming process. But it doesn't have to be! Here are a couple of "What if..." scenarios with some solutions to help you create an inclusive learning environment.

What if I...need a YouTube video captioned that is not mine?

First try contacting the author who posted the video via the Comment section in YouTube. (Note: You may not receive an answer quickly or none at all, but being able to edit the existing captions would be the path of least resistance! Also - we know the link below is non-descriptive, unfortunately YouTube captions do not allow us to hyperlink. Also, make sure the link below if updated and working before using as YouTube may update their resources.) You may want to adapt this template: “Hi, thanks for posting this video! I’ve been using this in my ____ class, and for educational purposes, we’d like to provide captions to create an inclusive environment for all students. Do you have a captioned version of this video? If not, may my institution caption this video? To help our students out, you can easily turn on community-captioning contributions: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6052538?hl=en Thank you and hope to hear back soon!”
Use Amara to caption the videos.

What if I...need a video captioned that I created?

If the course is part of the California Community College system, faculty-created videos used for instructional purposes can be uploaded to 3C Media Solutions to be captioned for free! All you need to do is create a free account to get started.
Is the video short, and are you feeling proactive? YouTube has a couple of features that can help:
- Have YouTube auto-generate captions to get you started. However, you must check captions for accuracy, and add in punctuation. Click here to learn how to edit auto-generated captions in YouTube.
- Have a script of your video? You can copy and paste your script into the caption editor in YouTube, and YouTube will time-sync your words to your video in the form of closed-captions.
Amara offers a crowd-sourced solution that you may use to create captions and a transcript.

Hopefully these solutions can help you as you curate new (or have existing) instructional videos that need captioning. What are some other resources or strategies you use to help you caption your videos? Please let share your experiences and resources! We're interested to learn how you caption your videos!

Accessibil-IT: Who Wants Free and Personalized Accessibility Support?

If you said, “I do!” Sean Keegan, Director of the California Community Colleges Accessibility Center, and his team can help. Implementing accessibility can be a bit difficult sometimes. Keegan elaborates in his TechEdge blog, “Changes in technology capabilities, including that of assistive technologies for students with disabilities, can create confusion and uncertainty as to what is considered accessible or the best practice for ensuring access.” Fortunately, the California Community Colleges (CCC) Accessibility Center launched the Accessibility Center Help Desk in October. Help is here!

What Type of Accessibility Questions May I Ask?

The Accessibility Center Help Desk can answer accessibility questions such as:

Why do I need to include headings in a Canvas page?
What is the difference between a tool tip element and alt text?
Is there a difference between captions and subtitles?
How can I check accessibility in my MS Word documents?

How Can I Get Started?

To get started, users need to sign in to post questions. To register, you may create a new account, or use an existing Google or Facebook account. When you join, you receive the benefit of joining a community of learners who are just as committed as you are! Learning in isolation is difficult, and takes a tremendous amount of dedication and time (something we all have limited of!) Learning in a community is much easier, especially when it is your first time taking a deep dive into implementing accessibility. You can learn and share strategies to address accessibility in different scenarios, and have meaningful discussions with others.

Help! I Need Somebody

Help is in the form of a community-based forum that allows you to ask questions publicly, or privately by checking the “Post this Conversation Privately” option. The conversations are monitored regularly, which is helpful when you need assistance. Once answers are posted, you will conveniently receive an email notification. No need to wait on the phone or follow-up via email, your answer will be automatically delivered into your mailbox. In addition to the convenience, you receive support straight from an accessibility specialist versus searching the web for the answer!

Learning More Via Browsing the Conversations for Answers

Is there a question you would also like to know the answer to, but it is still awaiting a reply from an Accessibility Expert? Use the Follow button, and this will notify you of any updates via email. Curious to learn more about strategies to implement accessibility? You can subscribe to the Help Desk to receive newly asked questions and updates.

Learning how to apply accessibility elements such how to effectively describe images with alt text is like driving a car for the first time. Initially, it may be overwhelming as there are new ways to format your document or Canvas content page. With practice, time, and gaining additional knowledge, accessibility becomes easier to apply. When I was initially learning more about accessibility, I spent a lot of time researching. I browsed articles and forums, watched many videos, and taught myself how to use several screen-readers. Luckily, learning more about accessibility is a lot easier as faculty now have this convenient resource to provide prompt and helpful answers.

Take advantage of this free resource!

For more information, read Sean Keegan’s Accessibil-IT: Get Help From Accessibility Help Desk.

One More Canvas Tool to Make Your Life Easier: Accessibility Checker!

Good News

Spring is around the corner and you are developing your course. Need something to speed up course design and improve the student usability experience in Canvas? Here’s a nifty tool to help create an inclusive environment for all students: the Canvas Accessibility Checker.

Located in the bottom, right-hand corner of Canvas’ rich content editor is a button with a picture of a stick figure. Its arms are spread wide with pride – finally, Canvas has integrated a built-in accessibility checker! Faculty, fret no more - the Accessibility Checker is here to help.

Inclusive environment for all students? Yes please.

Student usability is essential in online course design. How we build the course, from using colored text, to applying heading styles, to adding meaningful URL descriptions, affects student usability:

What tasks are students expected to complete using Canvas?
How easily can students complete those tasks?
What is the most effective way for all students to access information?

I like to say, “Save time and build with accessibility in mind.” Retrofitting a course for accessibility can feel like tearing a home down, adding a new foundation, and then building it up again. It takes time. Now imagine needing to retrofit a course in the middle of a semester – no thank you, right? Designing courses is not an easy task, but the Accessibility Checker can help streamline the process.

Accessibility Checker - verifying common accessibility errors such as:

Table headers: Tables should include at least one header.
Sequential headings: Heading levels should not be skipped (e.g. H2 to H4). The title of page is designated as the H1.
Heading paragraphs: Headings should not contain more than 120 characters.
Image alt text: Images should include an alt attribute describing the image content.
Image alt length: Alt attribute text should not contain more than 120 characters.
Large text contrast: Text larger than 18pt (or bold 14pt) should display a minimum contrast ratio of 3:1*.
Small text contrast: Text smaller than 18pt (or bold 14pt) should display a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1*.
*Text contrast calculations match those used by WebAim tool.

Try it in your course!

The Canvas Accessibility Checker has great potential to support accessibility efforts in course design. Here is an action screenshot of the Canvas Accessibility Checker:

The screenshot above shows the Accessibility Checker report tell us what we need to focus on and why it is important to remediate. In this instance, for example, the Accessibility Checker notifies us which picture needs alt text, and why we need to add alt text to a picture. Instead of manually checking each Canvas content page after page, we have a tool that gives us an extra pair of eyes.

Remember that automatic accessibility checkers need an extra pair of human eyes to make sure all accessibility elements have been addressed! Similar to using the Microsoft Accessibility Checker or the Accessibility Acrobat Checker, these checkers offer valuable guidance. For example, accessibility checkers will let you know if a document or site is formatted with accessibility elements, for example, if you have added headings. Though accessibility checkers cannot verify if the heading levels are in order or if the headings are effectively structured to help connect related ideas. This is where you come in!

In course design, we need all the support we can get - try the built-in Accessibility Checker today! Learn more about how to use the Canvas Accessibility Checker.

Chunking Content & Using Headers

Accessibility can be an overwhelming topic for online instructors. Kim Pippa-Tonnesen, who teaches English at Columbia College, learned a few key accessibility strategies through her experience in the OEI Online Course Review process. In the 7-minute video below, Kim reflects on the importance of designing pages in Canvas with short "chunks" of text and ample white space. When pages are designed with these principles in mind, students are less likely to feel overwhelmed and more likely to process the content. Kim also demonstrates what header text is and explains how it supports students with vision impairments who use screen readers.