Attend at least three sessions on Course Accessibility to earn the digital badge. Credits can be earned over multiple academic years.
Fall 2021
Create Accessible Math Equations in Canvas with LaTeX
Wednesday October 20, Thun 137 and Zoom
Presented by Mary Ann Mengel
Ensuring accessibility of digital math equations has always been a challenge. However, improvements to the Canvas rich content editor enable both faculty and students to create accessible math equations – right in Canvas. This session provides a brief overview of accessibility issues related to equations and compares options for creating math content from an accessibility perspective. Attendees will learn to create editable equations in Canvas using LaTeX to meet guidelines for digital accessibility.
Past Sessions: Course Accessibility Badge
How accessible is your Canvas course?
Monday, March 22, 2021, 12:15 pm – 1:15 pm via Zoom, Presented by Mary Ann Mengel
Providing students with accessible course content and navigation is integral to the design of a quality course. This session focuses on the Universal Design Online Inspection Tool (UDOIT) for Canvas, which quickly identifies accessibility issues by scanning a Canvas course. UDOIT generates a report of issues and provides resources and suggestions on how to enable greater accessibility. Participants will have the opportunity to scan one of their courses, review their report, and take steps to remediate inaccessible digital content.
Instructional Videos Need to be Captioned, but How Exactly Can I Make that Happen?
Monday, March 23, 2020, 12:15 pm – 1:15 pm, Thun 137, Presented by Mary Ann Mengel
Many individuals besides deaf or hard-of-hearing students rely on closed captioning to comprehend video-based content. For example, students whose first language is not English, those who need to study in a noisy environment, or individuals experiencing defective computer audio may all depend on captioning to consume course content. Yet adding closed captioning may be considered a time-consuming extravagance that is out of reach. This session reviews available tools, processes, and resources to ensure video-based course content is accessible to all students. We’ll look at approaches geared toward both faculty-produced videos and uncaptioned content created by other authors.
Navigating Canvas with a Screen Reader
Monday, November 4, 2019, Presented by Mary Ann Mengel and Dr. Deniz Aydemir-Döke
Did you know that designing Canvas course content which is accessible to screen readers will benefit all learners–notably those using mobile devices–to navigate your course? This session reviews basic principles for creating accessible course content and files in Canvas, with a focus on accessibility for screen readers. Attendees will experience a firsthand demonstration of the impact of accessible course design as a sample Canvas course is navigated with a screen reader by Dr. Deniz Aydemir-Döke.
Creating Accessible Word and PowerPoint Documents
Monday, April 1, 2019, Presented by Mary Ann Mengel
Microsoft applications are widely used to create digital course content, yet many documents can be inaccessible to some students. In this session, you’ll learn several important strategies to ensure the accessibility of your course documents.