Making Accessible Educational Documents
Not all people are the same and not all people use technology in the same way. Some people, because of their disability, need specialized equipment and software called assistive technologies (AT) that allow them to participate, contribute and collaborate more fully. But unfortunately, many of these assistive technologies can get “hung up” by things other people do. This is especially true when dealing with digital documents. Sometimes these digital documents will simply not work with some of these assistive technologies and this will exclude people with disabilities from accessing their content.
Educational Documents
Documents created by educators come in many shapes and sizes. They may be web pages used to inform students and their families of past, current, or future activities. They may be actual curriculum pieces: notes, handouts, syllabi, tests, textbooks, outlines or reading materials saved in word processor or in Portable Document Format (PDF) files. They may be presentation materials made in PowerPoint or Keynote. Or they may be other students’ work in a NoteShare file or a multimedia attachment in a Learning Management System (LMS) like Moodle. All of these document types or formats have the potential of becoming inaccessible to people using AT.
Articles for Educators
In this article series, we discuss how educators can ensure that the content they are creating or providing for students, their families, other educators, or the general public will be accessible to all.
Tips for Educators
These are quick ideas of things educators can try or avoid!
- Avoiding Text Boxes
- Can everyone access this materials?
Other Resources
Web Site Development Resources
These are the resources directly related to Article 5 - General Considerations about Web-based Communications
Images
WebAIM - Appropriate use of alternative text
Guild of Accessible Web Designers (GAWDS) - Writing good ALT text (Excellent summary with place for comments)
Wikipedia - Alternative text for images
Jim Thatcher - text alternatives for images
Webcredible - Writing effective ALT text for images
Web Design Group (WDG) - Use of ALT texts in IMGs (Warning: this is long, complicated, and a bit dated)
Tables
WebAIM - Creating Accessible Tables
Jim Thatcher - Accessible tables
Accessify - Accessible Table Builder (actually builds the code for you)
evolt - Building Accessible Tables(old but interesting)
Maine CITE - My own example of layout tables and an example of a Data table
Forms
WebAIM - Creating Accessible Forms
Web Standards Project - Accessible HTML/XHTML Forms: Beginner Level
Jim Thatcher - Accessible Forms
A List Apart - Prettier Accessible Forms (lots of CSS if you are interested)
Links
WebAIM - Introduction to Links and Hypertext
Captioning
Web Captioning General Information
WebAIM
http://www.webaim.org/techniques/captions/
Universal Design in Maine blog
http://udmlti.edublogs.org/2008/04/02/accessibility-of-web-20-video/
Media Access Group at WGBH Boston
http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/mag/resources/guides/mag_guide_vol7.html
Captioning Web
http://www.captions.org/
National Captioning Institute
http://www.ncicap.org/
Joe Clark’s website
http://joeclark.org/access/captioning/
Captioners/Captionists
Captioning Web – Search Engine
http://www.captions.org/services.cfm
Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART)
http://www.cartinfo.org/
Captioning Services
Automatic Synch Technologies
http://www.automaticsync.com/caption/
CC Maker
http://www.ccmaker.com/
CaptionMax
http://www.captionmax.com/
Captionate – Flash video
http://www.buraks.com/captionate/
C-Print
http://www.ntid.rit.edu/CPrint/
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders
http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/caption.asp
National Association of the Deaf
http://www.nad.org/site/pp.asp?c=foINKQMBF&b=99547
Captioning Software
Captioning Web
http://www.captions.org/softlinks.cfm
WebAIM
http://www.webaim.org/techniques/captions/software.php
Photo Credit: Used under license by Creative Commons: Photo by Extra Ketchup from Houlton, ME
