Webinar presentation on May 21 as part of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) 2015. Barry Dahl, D2L Community Manager

1. Five Easy Wins for Making your
Brightspace Courses more Accessible
to Students with Disabilities
Barry Dahl, Sr. Community Manager

2. FUSION – June 22-26, 2015
www.brightspace.com/fusion

3. Source of the Five Easy Wins

4. 1. Captioned Videos
Most people recognize the importance of
having captioned videos for their online courses.
It’s becoming easier all the time to create captions for videos.
However, you also might be able to find useful videos that were
created by others.

5. Don't be fooled by YouTube's machine captions. YouTube uses voice
recognition software to automagically create a video transcript and captions
for almost every video uploaded to YouTube.
To find human transcribed captioned videos on YouTube:
1. Enter your search term in the YouTube search field.
2. Add a: , CC (that's a comma, CC)
3. Hit Enter or click the magnifying glass icon.
1. Searching for captioned videos on YouTube

6. 1. Example of poorly captioned video

7. 2. Little-known PowerPoint tips
What are the a11y concerns about the following?
a) Slide titles
b) Adding alt text to an image
c) Adding content to a slide
d) Built-in accessibility checker

8. 2a. Ensure that all slides have unique titles
•Slide titles are
used for navigation
and selection by
people who are
not able to view
the slide.
•Look at Outline
View to review
slide titles

9. 2b. Adding Alt Text for Images in PowerPoint
Alt text: “Long waiting line for free
coffee and doughnuts on a cold day
during the Great Depression.“
1. Right-click image
2. Format Picture
3. Size & Properties, click ALT TEXT
4. Use Description field (not Title)

10. 2b. Adding ALT TEXT

11. 2c. Adding Content to a Slide
A common accessibility
error in PPT is an improper
reading order for the
content on a slide.
Reading order refers to the
order in which a screen
reader will announce
various slide components.
To check the “Reading
Order”
1. Go to Home Menu
2. Click the “Arrange” drop-
down
3. Choose “Selection Pane”
4. Review order, from
bottom to top

12. 2c. Check Reading Order of Content on a Slide

13. 2d. Run PowerPoint Accessibility Checker
The built-in a11y checker
will help identify errors and
possible errors, called
warnings and tips.
To use the checker
1. Go to File Menu
2. Click “Check for Issues”
button
3. Choose “Check
Accessibility”
4. Review possible issues in
newly opened pane

14. 2d. Check for Accessibility Issues

15. 2d. Check the Possible Accessibility Issues

16. 3. Create text links instead of unreadable URLs
What does screen reading
software say when it comes to
this?
http://brightspace.com/tlc
What does screen reading
software say when it comes to
this?
Teaching & Learning Community

17. 3. Other unreadable URLs
What does screen reading
software say when it comes to
this?
https://docs.google.com/docu
ment/d/1-x1OOBQg3N-
J9pT_6IoD25t6tyb6c1ODE5nUl
Xsfv6U/pub
What does screen reading
software say when it comes to
this?
Link to this Google Doc

18. 4. Use free, automated testing tools for HTML pages
• Consider installing the WAVE toolbar from WebAIM,
for Firefox or Chrome.
• For a D2L Content page:
• Open the page in its own window by clicking on the
Open in a new window icon.
• Right-click on opened content page and choose
“Errors, Features, and Alerts” on the Quick Menu.

19. 5. Consider the A11Y Features of External Tools
Using external (usually web-based) tools is popular in
education.
• Is the tool built to allow users with disabilities to
create content?
• Is the output created by the tool web accessible?
• Do you have alternatives or work-arounds in place
for students who cannot participate?

20. Two sites for a11y information on external tools
www.web2access.org.uk/product centerononlinelearning.org/resources/vpat

21. The End