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. For the last four weeks, we have focused on one of the following areas: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust. If you missed the previous articles, they can be found on the CIS Blog.
Robust
For content to be robust, it must be able to function on current and appropriate technologies. In addition, it must be able to function on assistive technologies.
In order to make digital course content robust:
- If possible, use commonly available software, i.e. consider saving documents as accessible .pdf files. You may wish to test your course content with a limited audience first, especially if it is necessary to include an unusual software or download.
- Again, use a heading structure in your document so that it works well with assistive technologies like screen readers. Microsoft offers this one-minute video on creating accessible headings in Word.
- Make sure that user can tab through any tables – this will insure they work with assistive technologies like screenreaders. Also make sure they work well with keyboards/alternatives vs. the use of a computer mouse.
- Do not link to a website that requires an outdated plugin. Similarly, do not use an outdated or obscure document format that users cannot easily access.
- Upload all video content through Panopto/ Chipcast. When Panopto is used, all content undergoes ‘Auto Speech Recognition’ (ASR) captioning. After processing, ASR results are ~95% accurate for native English speakers. Authors are encouraged to use Panopto’s caption editor for 100% captioning accuracy.
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.