This summer, we featured an article in our weekly newsletter, Considerations for Digital Content Accessibility. This article outlined the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) P.O.U.R acronym for content creators (faculty members) to consider to improve student accessibility to course content. Each week, for the next four weeks, we will focus on one of the following areas: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust
Perceivable
For a course’s digital content (web pages, video, or PDF files) to be perceivable, it must be presented in a way that at least one of a student’s senses can take in the information. Can the student identify content and interface elements using their senses–namely sight, sound, or touch?
Some quick tips for making your digital course content perceivable are:
- Confirm that PDF files contain proper text and are not scanned images of text. A screen reader (a tool for the visually impaired) will only read text if it is actual text; it cannot “read” an image. To convert images of text to valid readable characters, use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) tools in a program such as Adobe Acrobat, or submit a DesignPro ticket.
- Make sure any videos within a course Blackboard shell are captioned. Uncaptioned video is content that a deaf or hard-of-hearing user cannot easily perceive. Our CIS Media Team can provide advice or assistance to caption your video. CMU’s Chipcast (Panopto) environment also includes automatic speech recognition (ASR) which will automatically caption videos at approximately 90-95% accuracy.
- Provide alternative text for images within Blackboard, web pages, PowerPoint files, and PDF files. Effective alternative text allows visually impaired students to use a screen reader to “perceive” what the image communicates.
Our staff is diligent in keeping abreast of the highest standards for compliance and is here to assist and support faculty as needed. If you need support with making your digital content accessible or would like it reviewed for compliance, contact CIS at cis@cmich.edu or by calling (989)774-3615.