Working with Students with Disabilities
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Presented by Disability Services Coordinator Cathy Cassady and Office of Learning Technology director Anastasia Trekles, this workshop takes a look at ways to help ensure that all students feel welcome and are able to learn effectively in the college environment.
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Working with Students with Disabilities
- 2. Many students on postsecondary campuses have disabilities that are not easily noticed You may look at a student and not see anything different than any other student in your class
- 3. While you may not see the disability, there are many types of disabilities that are invisible That disability may impact their participation in the class
- 4. Asperger syndrome Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders, or ADHD Brain injury Learning disabilities Psychiatric conditions Seizure disorders Tourette syndrome
- 5. Sometimes, students with invisible disabilities are perceived as lacking in intelligence, or as not paying attention That happened to Nate before he was diagnosed with a learning disability: "They'd look at me and they'd be like, oh, well, you're faking, you're playing around, you're just not trying hard enough or something. But I was trying."
- 6. With the new wave of psychiatric medications that are out there, students are finding that they are able to concentrate better and participate in classroom activities more than ever before
- 7. Students who have the same medical diagnosis for their condition may have different abilities and disabilities and different accommodation needs It is important to work with each individual to figure out what's best in a specific situation
- 8. Seizure disorders Psychiatric conditions Autism Spectrum Disorder Tourette syndrome
- 9. Students with invisible disabilities may or may not need accommodations in a college classroom. If they do, it's the students' responsibility to self-disclose, provide documentation of the disabilities, and request accommodations
- 10. Good Communication Respect Expectations Flexibility
- 11. Refers to the concept and practice of making electronic documents (websites, PDFs, etc) usable by all, including persons with disabilities Contrary to popular belief, it’s not hard to keep accessibility in mind while developing your online materials
- 12. Not everyone uses computers and the Internet in the same way, but everyone CAN use these tools successfully Assistive technology can help people with visual, mobility, and other sensory, cognitive, or physical disabilities use technology effectively Strategies that we employ in our online development can also make a user’s experience that much better Consider that there are many disabilities we cannot even see!
- 13. TerrillThompson’s 10 SecondWeb Accessibility Test 1. Use the Outline button on theWAVE toolbar to see if the web page has logical heading structure. 2. Again using theWAVE toolbar, check for Errors, Features, and Alerts. 3. Try tabbing through the page. 4. If the page includes video content, try playing a video to see if it's captioned. W3C-WAI Demo site Accessible University 2.0
- 14. Very compatible with most screen readers like JAWS (see https://www.blackboard. com/Platforms/Learn/Re sources/Accessibility/Acc essibility- Resources.aspx) But there are additional things you can do to make your course more accessible also
- 15. When uploading and inserting a picture, be sure that is has a Description andTitle This should be a simple title of no more that one or two sentences, or a summary phrase Complex images like graphs should be described in more detail as a download or Item with text
- 16. Some PDFs that are scanned from another source are actually images and cannot be read in a screen reader Make sure your PDF files are actual text and tagged as well as possible Use Styles (Headings, Paragraph, etc.) inWord if convertingWord to PDF See http://webaim.org/techni ques/acrobat/ See http://webaim.org/techni ques/acrobat/converting for converting fromWord For Accessible syllabus templates, visit http://www.pnc.edu/dist ance/web-accessibility
- 17. Captions can do wonders for many students in understanding a video, not just the deaf AutomaticYouTube captions are not ideal – use your own or a transcript wherever possible Lecture notes and transcripts should be able to take the place of the video if you use them Making your own videos? Seehttp://www.techsmit h.com/tutorial-camtasia- 8.html Useful tips on caption and transcript development: http://webaim.org/techni ques/captions/
- 18. When you use publisher- created content, there may or may not be a guarantee of accessibility When in doubt, consult with the publisher directly about any concerns or student issues Also don’t hesitate to contact the Disability Services Coordinator - http://www.pnc.edu/sa/dis ability-services/
- 19. Be willing to be flexible when students have accessibility issues Be willing to provide alternative content, more time on tests, or even alternative assignments when necessary Again, contacting the OLT or Disability Services will help!
- 20. Testing and giving extra time Currently must make a copy of the exam and set Adaptive Release Next fall there will be a special exemptions option so no more test copies! Learn more: http://www.pnc.edu/distance/testing-with- students-with-disabilities/ http://www.pnc.edu/distance/learn-tutorials/
- 21. W3C Web Accessibility Initiative: http://www.w3.org/WAI/ Helpful video accessibility checklist: https://www.howto.gov/social-media/video/508- compliant-video-guide/video-accessibility- checklist PDF accessibility: http://webaim.org/techniques/acrobat/ Many other excellent articles on making various materials accessible: http://webaim.org/articles/ WAVE accessibility checker for websites and HTML: http://wave.webaim.org
- 22. PNC: http://www.pnc.edu/distance/webaccessibility/ Purdue Calumet (thanks to Pam Riesmeyer): http://webs.purduecal.edu/webaccessibility/ University ofWashington DO-IT ▪ Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking andTechnology ▪ AccessIT University ofWisconsin – Madison DoIT: Division of InformationTechnology Penn State University: AccessAbility
- 23. Cathy Cassady LSF 103A crcassad@pnc.edu 785-5374 StaciTrekles pncolt@pnc.edu, 785-5734 Twitter and Facebook: @PNCOLT http://www.pnc.edu/distance for all workshop notes, links, and training needs
Editor's Notes
- Welcome to the Accessibility in BlackBoard Learn Workshop!
- We throw the word Accessibility around an awful lot, but what does it mean? In short, it refers to making sure that your electronic documents are usable and/or readable by all who might need it, including those with disabilities. It sounds like extra work to consider the needs of persons with disabilities when you’re working online, but in reality, it really isn’t if you keep some basic things in mind while you are creating and posting. This presentation will give you some insights and tools that you will need to make your online courses more accessible to all students.
- Not everyone uses computers the same way, but with assistive technologies like screen readers, everyone can use them. The problem is that there are many things that many of us take for granted every day that can be serious barriers to persons with disabilities. For example, many times we communicate something in pictures, letting a picture, graph, or diagram tell a story. That is a wonderful thing, but what about the student who is visually impaired? Without being able to see the image, the meaning will be lost unless it is explained in words as well. The videos linked on this slide show some examples of persons with disabilities and the issues they encounter in daily life with computers and in school. There are disabilities and limitations that we may not always be able to see, and may not always be documented. It is important to recognize that by using accessible strategies, you are helping not just the small number of students with documented disabilities through the Disabilities Services Office, but also those with less obvious limitations, as well as even those students who may not even have a “disability” at all, but who just simply have a different preferred learning style.
- The 10-second Web Accessibility Test is a great eye-opener to see whether any Web page you’re working with has any accessibility barriers. This uses the WAVE Toolbar, a fantastic tool for Firefox that allows you to see at a glance all errors with graphics, headings, and other issues. You can use this within BlackBoard or on pages outside of BlackBoard – you can even use it on publisher-created pages to test their accessibility! If your page has video, is it captioned? This is another important item, as videos that must be reviewed should have either captions or a text transcript available for students to read if they cannot for any reason hear the video. This is the subject for next month’s workshop series as well. Follow the links on this slide for some great resources and demonstrations of accessible and inaccessible Web page design.
- BlackBoard has a number of good features for accessibility, and it works reasonably well with most screen readers and other assistive technologies. In most cases, users can use the Tab key to get around any BlackBoard course, rather than a mouse, which can be a great feature for those with visual or mobility disabilities. The link on this slide takes you to a comprehensive overview of accessibility features built into BlackBoard. But, note that there are some features that are dependent upon you setting them up a little in order to make them work best for your students.
- First of all, be sure to describe and title your pictures when you enter them into any Item in your course. You are always prompted to provide this information when inserting an image, and you don’t have to write much – maybe a phrase or a short sentence is all that is needed. For example, an image showing a person studying might say exactly that – “Student studying a book.” If you are working with a more complex graphic, such as a table or chart, it may be necessary to provide more detail. Depending on the nature of your graphic, you may wish to provide a paragraph or more that describes what is in the figure in detail, or you may even wish to ask Disability Services for help in providing the student with an appropriate description. Every graphic and every student is different, so don’t hesitate to ask if you need some guidance.
- PDFs can be a big problem for users with disabilities. In some cases, scanned images may look like text to you and me, but to the viewer with a screen reader, it may actually be a picture and thus, the words are invisible to them. It is important to make sure that your PDF files contain actual text – you’ll know the difference if you can drag your mouse over the words and highlight them while you are viewing the PDF. If you can do that, then you’re in good shape. If possible, you should also consider tagging your PDF documents, or having someone assist you with this process. Our office and the Disability Services office can assist with PDF tagging. In some cases, this can be a laborious process, so if you have many PDFs with complex figures, charts, and tables, be prepared for a long road ahead. In some cases, it may behoove you to find an alternate reading or resource for students. If you use Word to convert documents you write or edit into PDFs, that’s great, but be sure you’re actually using Word Styles like Heading 1, Paragraph, and so forth. This is not often a default action for many of us, but if you look at the Home ribbon you will see an item called Styles, and easily selectable options there that correspond to heading levels and paragraph types. Use these when you are constructing a document to avoid trouble and extra tagging needs later on.
- Captions are a great thing for many people, not just the hearing-disabled. They can enhance meaning in a video, and can help even those who can hear it just fine understand what is going on. They can also help students for whom English is not their first language understand the video that much more clearly, as well as practice their English comprehension skills. Automatic captioning is a technology that has come a long way in recent years, but it definitely should not be relied upon just yet! Try a random YouTube video and turn the automatic captioning on, and you’ll see exactly what we mean! Sometimes the results are downright silly (and sometimes even offensive!) so avoid relying on them. Instead, you can actually edit your own YouTube captions for any video you upload, making sure that they are correct if someone turns captioning on. Camtasia also has built-in captioning assistance to help you write or import your captions in and align them easily to each scene of your video. Another alternative to captioning is to provide lecture notes or transcripts. Similar to this presentation you’re viewing right now, you can use the Notes feature of PowerPoint to provide more detailed notes on any slide, providing a rough transcript of what would be said should the presentation be given before an audience. Sometimes PowerPoint slides can even stand on their own as a transcript or lecture notes depending on how detailed your video or presentation is.
- Publisher-created content is used frequently in our courses, and well it should – it is often of high quality and goes along with what we are teaching. But sometimes, publishers do not provide appropriately accessible materials. In this case, be sure to contact the publisher directly on the student’s behalf about your concern. Sometimes publishers will also have help or alternative versions available under a Support link on their website, but it is often best to guide students through this process, rather than expect them to seek out help on their own. When you’re not sure of what to do or who to call for help, contact Disability Services as soon as you can for advice.
- Ultimately, be willing to be flexible with students with disabilities. When there are issues, maintain patience and be willing to change things around to adequately accommodate that student. This does not mean that you have to make the course different or “easier” for the student; instead, we need to provide them with reasonable accommodations so that they have the same chance at an education that all of the other students do. Keep this in mind, as it is also possible to be “too flexible” in an effort to help the student as best you can. Instructors frequently find themselves in binds when dealing with such issues without support. Luckily, Disability Services and the OLT are here to help, so be sure to ask anytime you need it!
- One of the most common needs of students with disabilities is more time on an assessment. In BlackBoard, there is no current way to do this easily, but you can make a copy of the exam and set it up through Adaptive Release to release that version to only that student. This does create extra columns in your gradebook, unfortunately, but luckily, after this semester this will no longer be an issue. In the summer, you will have access to an updated version of BlackBoard that should have functions for allowing extra time for individual students right within a single assessment. For more information on this process, consult the links on this slide.
- Please consult these resources to learn more about different types of accessibility online
- Please consult these resources for more advice and insight into accessibility for students at the college level
- Please contact us and visit http://pnc.edu/distance for all workshop notes, links, and training needs. Thank you!