In keeping with Ryerson's commitment to diversity and inclusive teaching, and in order to meet the standards set by Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities (AODA), it is crucial to keep course materials accessible for the entire Ryerson student body. Accessible documents and files also follow principles of good design and may improve learning for all your students. For instance, accessible web design will also help increase your site's search engine optimization (SEO) as well as standardize its appearance across web browsers; captioned or transcribed videos will provide all your students with an additional method of absorbing information and help them study; and breaking text into chunks and using jargon-free concise language will both improve the clarity of your writing and reduce confusion amongst all students.

This issue of Best Practices will highlight some resources and tips to make the process of creating accessible course materials as simple as possible.

Microsoft Office is by far the most common product used to generate course documents, ranging from plain text syllabi, to spreadsheets, to PowerPoint presentations. As the program has evolved over the years, there has been a corresponding increase in file types, program options, and issues with compatibility between versions and platforms. Luckily, Inclusive Design Research Centre, in partnership with UNESCO and the Government of Ontario, has developed the Accessible Digital Office Document (ADOD) Project. This site provides clear instructions for creating accessible documents in any number of Microsoft Office programs, as well as OpenOffice, Adobe Acrobat, WordPerfect, GoogleDocs, and more. The instructions themselves are also provided in a variety of formats.

WebAIM is another great resource for tutorials on making your documents accessible. They've developed pages on Microsoft Word, OpenOffice. Microsoft PowerPoint, and Adobe Acrobat. Accessibility @ Adobe contains screencasts on creating accessible content using InDesign, Acrobat, and other Adobe products

For more information:

• Accessible Microsoft Office
• How to Create Accessible Documents

Simple Tips to Get Started

1. Don't use color to convey information: People with color blindness won't be able to distinguish the difference. Too little contrast between text and background, such as light blue on a white background, will make text illegible to people with vision impairments.
2. Use headings: To divide sections of a document, define the text with headers instead of font size or style. Screenreaders don't distinguish between font sizes, but will understand a hierarchy created with headers.
   
   
   
   Always start with Heading 1 and proceed down in numerical order, don't skip headers. In PDFs, identifying sections of a document as headers or paragraphs is known as tagging.
3. Use proper lists: Format ordered or unordered lists using Office's numbering or bullet tools, or let Office format the list automatically. If you number items manually, screenreaders will only understand the items as individual paragraphs.
4. Provide alt text for images: Add alternate text to all the images in your document, allowing screenreaders to access descriptions of the visual the information.
5. Test your documents for accessibility: Word 2010 comes with an accessibility checker that will locate any problems with your document. Adobe Acrobat Pro will also check your document for accessibility issues. Adobe Acrobat's Read Out Loud option can test your document for any problems it might cause for screenreaders.

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In addition to keeping course documents accessible, it is important to be aware of limitations within Blackboard, Ryerson's Learning Management System. CCS has created a Blackboard Accessibility website outlining possible problems you might encounter and workarounds for each.

It is Blackboard's responsibility to make sure that their navigation, communication tools and other utilities are accessible for people with disabilities, but the system doesn't check the content uploaded by instructors. Any files you upload to Blackboard will retain your original coding and formatting, so make sure to follow the instructions found in this newsletter to ensure your documents, HTML, and multimedia files are accessible.

CCS also advises instructors to avoid selecting low contrast colors for their course shells or switching their sidebar links from text to buttons. Instructors should also be aware that the collaboration, chat, and discussion board functions can cause difficulty for students using screen readers.

Accommodations may also need to be made for students when using the assessment features within Blackboard. CCS has prepared another page detailing how to Blackboard's assessment tools accessible.

In order to be accessible to students with hearing impairments, videos used in courses must include captioning. If you are using media from the Ryerson Library, follow this set of instructions to determine if the material is closed captioned or if captions can be added

If you are creating a lecturecast or screencast, the DMP may be able to assist you in captioning your video. You can also create your own captions or transcriptions, using opensource software available on the web, such as Universal Subtitle or programs such as RealPlayer and Quicktime. For more information, see the W3C's Providing Closed Captions and the University of Wisconsin's Captioning Best Practices.

Ryerson has some specific guidelines for multimedia content, especially if you plan on distributing the content to your students via the internet. All interactive content should be accompanied by clear, prominent instructions as well as the following information:

1. A description of the content
2. The format of the content
3. The size of the content if it must be downloaded and is larger than 60kb
4. Runtime information for audio or video (e.g. "Runs 3:34")
5. A link to the page where any necessary third-party plug-ins can be downloaded (plug-ins should be avoided as much as possible)

Embedded multimedia should be presented in a stopped state (i.e. no automatic music), blinking and scrolling elements should be avoided, and "where possible, the transmission of multimedia and specialized content should be scalable to the available connection speed; dial-up users should receive lower bandwidth streams while high-speed users should receive higher quality streams."

If you plan on developing any web content for your course, or if you are making material available to students on a website, there are some important web accessibility guidelines to keep in mind.

The most definitive list of web accessibility guidelines has been developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 defines how to make Web content more accessible to people with "a wide range of disabilities, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, language, learning, and neurological disabilities... These guidelines also make Web content more usable by older individuals with changing abilities due to aging and often improve usability for users in general." In addition to their guidelines, the W3C has developed a set of instructions for evaluating web sites for accessibility. Websites can also be checked for problems using several online tools, including the Web Accessibility Checker or the WAVE Web AIM Checker.

The W3C has created a quick accessibility reference list to help web developers meet their guidelines:

1. Text alternatives: Provide text alternatives for any visual or sound content. This is as simple as filling out the "alternate text" field when adding an image to a Wordpress blog or adding an "alt" attribute to an "img" tag in html.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Time-based media: Provide alternatives for time-based media, and provide users enough time to read and use content.
3. Adaptable: Create content that can be presented in different ways without losing information or structure.
4. Distinguishable: Make it easier for users to see and hear content.
5. Keyboard Accessible: Make all functionality available from a keyboard, make sure all links and menus can be tabbed through easily.
6. Seizures: Do not design content in a way that is known to cause seizures.
7. Navigable: Make text content readable and understandable.
8. Predictable: Make Web pages appear and operate in predictable ways.
9. Input Assistance: Help users avoid and correct mistakes.
10. Compatible: Maximize compatibility with current and future user agents, including assistive technologies.

Simple tips to get started:

(Adapted from 25 Ways to Make Your Website More Accessible and 10 Usability Nightmares)

1. Don't use color to convey information.
2. Make sure text and foreground elements are in high contrast to background elements.
3. Avoid using small font sizes.
4. Avoid flashing or moving text or images, try to limit animations to one per page
5. Link text should be meaningful out of context—don't paste in a long URL or use "click here" or "read more." Provide additional information if the link will open in a non-standard manner (mailto links, file downloads, etc.).
6. Add "alt" descriptions to describe any non-textual content.
7. Use headings to properly divide content on your page. Never use headings out of order (ex. h4 coming before h1) and don't use styles (bold, font size) to order content.
8. Format lists using proper HTML list elements.
9. Don't open links in a new window or use pop-ups.
10. Don't automatically resize users' browser windows.
11. Use clear, concise language.
12. Validate your code
13. Test your page using multiple methods.

To thoroughly test your page, the W3C suggests using multiple browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, etc.) to complete the following steps:

1. Turn off images, and check whether appropriate alternative text for the images is available.
2. Turn off the sound, and check whether audio content is still available through text equivalents.
3. Use browser controls to vary font-size: verify that the font size changes on the screen accordingly; and that the page is still usable at larger font sizes.
4. Test with different screen resolution, and/or by resizing the application window to less than maximum, to verify that horizontal scrolling is not required.
5. Change the display color to gray scale (or print out page in gray scale or black and white) and observe whether the color contrast is adequate.
6. Without using the mouse, use the keyboard to navigate through the links and forms on a page (for example, using the "Tab" key), making sure that you can access all links and form controls, and that the links clearly indicate where they lead.

For more information:

• Web Accessibility, Digital Media Projects Office
• Usability and Accessibility Guidelines and Recommendations, CMS Support [pdf]
• Designing More Usable Web Sites, Trace Center, University of Wisconsin