Faculty from Baltimore City Community College (BCCC), who have a variety of experiences in integrating accessibility in their Learning Management System (LMS), presented what they learned. Professors Deepa, Malathi and Daniel have discussed ways to integrate accessibility feature in curriculum, instruction, and testing for students with disabilities. They have demonstrated how to use closed captioning and subtitles to Zoom meetings, and PowerPoint closed caption/subtitles feature with applications, such as Word, Excel and PDF. In addition, they discussed about BigBlueButton, an open-source video conference and screen sharing application that is pre-built into Canvas as the Conferences tool to make online lectures more accessible and inclusive. They explained the importance of teaching courses with accessibility in mind that benefits all students and accessibility tools also meet the needs of students that prefer materials in an alternate format.

1. Closed Captioning (CC)
Prof. Daniel Izume
Assistant Professor, Business & Technology Department
E-mail: dizume@bccc.edu
Prof. Deepa Radhakrishnan
Adjunct Professor, Business & Technology Department
E-mail: dradhakrishnan@bccc.edu
Dr. Malathi Radhakrishnan
Professor, Natural and Physical Sciences Department
E-mail: mradhakrishnan@bccc.edu
Baltimore City Community College
Session 7, January 8, 2021, 10:30 a.m. – 11:20 a.m. (EST)
31st Annual Conference
Association of Faculties for the Advancement of Community College Teaching

2. Executive Summary
This PPT presentation was offered by faculty from Baltimore City Community College
(BCCC), who have a variety of experiences in integrating accessibility in their Learning
Management System (LMS), presented what they learned. Professors Deepa, Malathi
and Daniel have discussed ways to integrate accessibility feature in curriculum,
instruction, and testing for students with disabilities. They have demonstrated how to
use closed captioning and subtitles to Zoom meetings, and PowerPoint closed
caption/subtitles feature with applications, such as Word, Excel and PDF. In addition,
they discussed about BigBlueButton, an open-source video conference and screen
sharing application that is pre-built into Canvas as the Conferences tool to make online
lectures more accessible and inclusive. They explained the importance of teaching
courses with accessibility in mind that benefits all students and accessibility tools also
meet the needs of students that prefer materials in an alternate format.

3. Learning Outcomes for this Session
 Apply closed captioning to PowerPoint Presentation and support students who
identify themselves as English as second language learners and students with
hearing impairment.
 Demonstrate how to use closed captioning feature in Zoom meetings and Canvas
BigBlueButton.
 Use closed captioning and subtitles with other applications, such as Word, Excel and
PDF.

4. The definition of "accessible" used by the Office of Civil Rights and the U.S.
Department of Education is about building web pages that can be navigated and read
by everyone, regardless of disability, location, experience or technology.

5. Visual – blind, low vision, color-blind
Hearing – deafness
Motor – inability to use a mouse, slow response time, limited fine motor
Cognitive – includes learning disabilities, unable to focus
Up to 20% of Americans have some kind of disability
The major kinds that affect web use include:

6. How many students in Maryland 16 community colleges have a disability?
Community Colleges Statewide Results
In fiscal year 2018, 7,809 undergraduate students registered with the disability
services office of their campus. This represents 4.7% of the total undergraduate
enrollment at Maryland’s community colleges.
Source: MHEC 2019 Report on Students with Disabilities at Maryland Colleges and Universities

7. How many students in Maryland 16 community colleges have a disability?
Community Colleges Statewide Results
 The trend data show that the percentage of students registered with their
disabilities services office increases slightly each year but remains under 5% of the
total undergraduate enrollment at the community colleges from 2016 to 2018.
 Survey results also show that of these students, 985 (12.6%) graduated with an
undergraduate degree or certificate by the end of the fiscal year.
Source: MHEC 2019 Report on Students with Disabilities at Maryland Colleges and Universities

8. Students with Disabilities at Maryland Colleges and Universities
Source: MHEC 2019 Report on Students with Disabilities at Maryland Colleges and Universities

9. 2016-2018 Retention Trends
 In 2021, MHEC will report on retention, transfer, and completion data for
community college students who register with their institution’s disabilities
services office.
 These data will reflect a cohort of students (beginning with the Fall 2015
cohort) and compare the outcomes of these students with the outcomes of all
students.
 The information may give institutions greater insight into how these students
compare to the larger student body and perhaps identify ways to ensure they
have the support needed to succeed.
Source: MHEC 2019 Report on Students with Disabilities at Maryland Colleges and Universities

10. Instructions
Open your teaching apps such as Word, Excel, browser, or PDF, making sure the
window is not maximized. Then, hover your mouse cursor over the corner, bottom, or
top of the window. Click and drag to resize the window to the size you desire.

11. Instructions
Log into your Zoom account and click the “Share Screen” button located in your
meeting controls.

12. Instructions
Click “Advanced” share screen options, then select “Portion of Screen” option. Click
the “Share” link button.

13. Instructions
After you share a portion of your screen, a green box will appear. You can move the box
and adjust its size. Participants in the Zoom meeting will see only what is inside that
box (nothing else on your screen).

14. BigBlueButton is an open-source video conference and screen sharing application that
is pre-built into Canvas as the Conferences tool. BigBlueButton web conferencing
system offers a cost-effective way to make online lectures more accessible and
inclusive.

15. The BigBlueButton recognizes both the regulatory and usability benefits of complying
with government standards for accessibility and strives to both comply with those
standards and use them as a guideline for making BigBlueButton more accessible for
students with disabilities and difficulties.

16.  Canvas embedded BigBlueButton feature enables instructors to deliver a high-
quality learning experience to ALL students. BigBlueButton is accessible to all
students with visual and/or audible disabilities.
 BigBlueButton supports both JAWS and NVDA screen readers.
 When using a screen reader, they recommend students to use Internet Explorer or
the 32-bit version of Firefox. The 32-bit versions of Firefox and Chrome make it
easier for screen readers to interact with the BigBlueButton client.

17. Institutions are under considerable pressure to ensure that all students have the same
level of access to education while managing limited budgets. BigBlueButton allows
community colleges and universities to provide live captioning during a class and a
recording of it afterwards complete with closed captions (at no additional cost to the
live captions).

18. BigBlueButton supports live captioning during a session. Instructors can enter captions
for a selected language during the class and BigBlueButton will display those captions,
in real-time, to students. After the session is finished, the captions appear as subtitles
in the recordings.

19. Closed Captioning offers Transcription & Translation features
 Transcription is converting data from an audio or video format into a written
document format.
 Translation is the process of creating a written document from one language to
another.
 Closed Caption can be turned on and off by viewers whereas open caption are
always in view and cannot be turned off.

20. Importance of Closed Captioning
 Closed Captioning can help individuals with hearing impairment.
 It can also be used as a tool for a person who is learning to read & speak a non-
native language or when they are more familiar with another language.
 In an environment where the audio is difficult to hear or if it is intentionally muted,
it helps the viewers to access the content without audio.

21. Closed Captioning in PowerPoint
 PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 can transcribe your words as you present and display
them on-screen as captions in the same language you are speaking.
 You can also choose the language you want to speak while presenting and select
the language of the caption or subtitle that should appear.
 There are display options like position, size, color, and appearance for the captions
and subtitles to accommodate the needs of diverse audience.

22. Enable Captions & Subtitles
 On the ’Slide Show’ tab, select ’Always use Subtitles’ and go to ‘Subtitle Settings’.
 Use Spoken Language and select the language that you will be speaking while
presenting.
 Use Subtitle Language and select the language in which you want the captions or
subtitles to be displayed on the screen.
 In the Subtitle Settings menu, set the desired position of the captions or subtitles.
They can appear at the top or bottom of the slide.
 More options are available by clicking Subtitle Settings menu.
You can change the color, size, transparency, and font style of the subtitles.
 You can also change the background to make the text easier to read.

23.  What is the first thing you think of when you hear the word accessibility?
 Is your course designed to support different types of assistive technology
devices?
 What are the accessibility tools that you are using or considering using in your
online/virtual platforms?

24. Best Practices to Follow
 While using the closed captioning or subtitle feature, if you encounter any
problem, please try to speak slowly and clearly.
 Try to avoid the background noise that may interfere with your voice.
 It is important to have an internet connection that is stable.

25.  Designing with Accessibility in Mind Benefits All Students
 Creating more accessible online classes really helps all students; students have
diverse learning styles and benefit from having access to class content in a variety of
ways.
Thank you for viewing this presentation!