Instructors

How Does Accessibility Apply to Me?

As you create or revise course materials and facilitate your courses, follow the best practices listed below to help improve the accessibility of your course and reduce barriers for all your learners.

• Use accessibility checkers as you create or revise existing digital materials. Most applications, like Microsoft Word and Webcourses@UCF (i,e., Canvas), have built-in accessibility checkers. See the tools listed below for more information.
• Become familiar with strategies to properly organize, format, present, and share digital materials to support accessibility. Refer to the digital accessibility guides below for more information.
• Keep accessibility in mind when facilitating virtual learning (e.g., synchronous video-conferencing class session).
• Keep accessibility in mind when communicating with students (email, Canvas Inbox).
• When using third-party technologies:
  • Properly embed tools into Webcourses@UCF
  • Ensure the third-party tool has accessible features
  • Provide a link to the tool’s Accessibility Statement
  • Provide an alternative to the learning tool if needed

Digital Accessibility Training and Resources – Essentials

Color

Use color to properly enhance readability and clarity for all users.

Jun 27

Emails

Ensure your messages are clear and can be read by all audiences.

Jun 27

Headings

Use proper HTML Headings instead of just increasing font size or weight.

Jun 27

Images

Learn how to create descriptive alternative text for digital graphics.

Jun 27

Lists

Lists can help increase clarity and readability.

Jun 27

Typography

Choose fonts and sizes that enhance legibility both in print and online.

Jun 27

Webcourses@UCF Pages

Use these tools to make your Webcourses@UCF content accessible to all students.

Jun 27

Digital Accessibility Training and Resources – Advanced

Equations

Use the proper tools to math math equations easy for screen readers to understand.

Jun 27

Hyperlinks

Explore how to make links more descriptive while also being concise.

Jun 27

Accessible PDFs

Exporting PDFs properly can be the difference between an accessible document and an inaccessible one.

Jun 27

PowerPoints

Make your PowerPoints readable and useful for learners of all abilities.

Jun 27

Tables

Create tables that can be navigated by keyboard and read by screen readers.

Jun 27

Video and Audio

Learn how to create captions and transcripts for audio and video files.

Jun 27

Word Documents

Learn how to easily format a document for accessibility.

Jun 27

Tools

The following tools and resources are available to help you improve the accessibility of your course materials:

• Canvas Accessibility Checker helps you identify and fix accessibility issues as you edit content using the rich content editor.
• Universal Design Online Content Inspection Tool (UDOIT) checks your course for common accessibility concerns.
• The Import DOCX or HTML tool in Webcourses@UCF allows you to easily convert .docx, .pptx, and .html files to a Page in your course.
• The Templater Tool provides content pages pre-populated with content and accessible formatting elements.
• Quiz Extensions allows faculty to add extra time to Quizzes for accommodation requests.

Resources

• Student Accessibility Services (SAS) Faculty Resources page provides answers to frequently asked questions.
• UCF Libraries may be able to provide higher quality videos with closed captioning and accessible versions of PDF files.
  • Reach out to your subject area librarian.
• Proactive Captioning for Online Courses allows faculty teaching W courses to submit a proposal to have captions added to course videos.
• The Faculty Multimedia Center provides training to all faculty on how to caption videos and create multimedia for your course.
• The Instructional Design Team provides support and training related to accessible course materials to faculty credentialed to design and teach online. Use the Instructional Designer Lookup tool to find your assigned instructional designer.
• Webcourses@UCF Support offers open support labs which include support on improving the accessibility of your online course materials. Full-time faculty, adjuncts, TAs and GTAs are welcome to attend these open labs.