What is accessibility?
Accessibility
refers to creating information, services, and environments that
can be used by people with disabilities, including those with visual, hearing,
cognitive, and neurological disabilities. Products and environments that
incorporate the principles of universal design can be used by all people
including those with disabilities. There are many options when designing your
blackboard course by applying the principles of universal design that will
benefit all students.
What is assistive technology?
Assistive technology includes a range of devices that may be used
by people with disabilities. These assistive devices need to be taken into
consideration when designing accessible web-based and digital materials.
Commonly used assistive devices include:
Screen readers: Software that interprets what is being
displayed on the computer screen and translates it to speech or Braille. Examples
include JAWS and Window-Eyes for the PC, and VoiceOver for the Mac. Your
Blackboard site and the materials you upload to it should be designed to allow
screen readers to “see” and interpret what appears on the screen. If you are
using Jaws, we recommend that you use Internet Explorer as your browser.
Blackboard has created a tutorial for using screen readers with Blackboard.
Speech to text software: Converts spoken word to text.
Examples include Dragon Naturally Speaking and MacSpeech Dictate.
Alternative
input devices: Devices such as joysticks or trackballs may be used by
individuals who have difficulty manipulating a keyboard or mouse. Specific Jaws
Keyboard commands may also be helpful for students who have difficulty using a
mouse.
How can I make my Blackboard course accessible?
To create an accessible Blackboard site, it is important to
consider both the design of the site itself and the format of materials, such
as audio, video, images, and documents, which you post to the site. The
principles of universal design can help guide your Blackboard site creation.
These principles suggest conveying information in as many ways as possible in
order to accommodate a range of users. Below are some ideas to consider when
designing your Blackboard site:
- Include
descriptive text for all non-textual elements. This text, also known as
alt text, allows screen readers to provide students with visual
impairments with a description of the visual features. Blackboard’s
visual text box editor can be used to add these descriptions.
- Use descriptive names for files you upload so that screen readers
can easily identify them.
- When designing the left navigation menu in your course site,
maintain a high contrast between the text and the background color.
- Use san serif fonts (e.g., Arial, Helvetica, or Verdana)
throughout your Blackboard site. Use a dark color font that is easy to read on
a white background. While black and white offers the highest contrast, students
with low vision may have other color preferences. Be sure to ask them. Avoid
using colored fonts to enhance meaning. Keep the format simple and avoid
patterns in the background, e.g. power point slides with extraneous graphics,
borders, etc.
- If you use Blackboard to give timed exams, you may need to create
a second copy of the exam for students who need extra time, since it is not
possible to change test settings for one individual while others are taking the
exam. This alternative copy of the test can be made available only to specific
students by using the adaptive
release function of Blackboard.
- Files such as PDF or Word documents should be created with
accessibility in mind. Keep in mind that scanned documents will not be readable
by screen readers unless OCR (optical character recognition) is used. Student Disability Services can help you
create accessible scanned documents. Visual features such as graphs, charts,
and diagrams should be created
using alternative text.
- Audio files and video files that contain speech or music with
lyrics should be accompanied by a text equivalent, either a transcript or captions.
As written and
created by Technology Teaching and Learning Group at Hunter College. Reprinted
with permission.
