Texas Tech University

For Faculty

Online Accessibility Bootcamp

by Jackie Luft, Ed.D., Accessibility Specialist

On July 11, 2017, a group of instructors and staff gathered at Texas Tech Plaza. Armed with their laptops and tablets, they dove into the world of ADA compliance for online and hybrid courses. Over the next three days the participants examined their syllabi, PowerPoints, PDFs, videos and images for accessibility.

Tuesday started with a rundown of federal legislation and lawsuits dealing with online instructional material. Then they were introduced to screen readers. Screen readers help people with vision disabilities to hear the text on screens. The participants learned about three types of screen reader software they can use themselves to check documents: NVDA, Jaws, and VoiceOver. At the end of the session, the group cooled down by learning about the resources at the TTU Worldwide eLearning Online Accessibility Lab.

Wednesday was all about the documents. We beefed up our syllabi by following the Seven Steps to Accessible Documents. Next, came our work on images—adding alternative text and long descriptions. And we didn't forget about our PowerPoint presentations. Turning PowerPoint presentations into text documents not only makes them accessible, but is great Universal Design of Learning practice. Finally, the group learned how to check documents for accessibility and save them as accessible files.

Our final workout was an intense review of our digital media, focusing on making accessible instructional videos. The audio tracks needed some transcripts and the videos needed synchronized captions and audio descriptions. Participants learned how to include audio descriptions as part of their presentations and create caption files from a transcript using Movie Captioner, a software purchased by TTU Worldwide eLearning.

The Online Accessibilty Bootcamp was a great success. Participants left with new goals and plans to continue the process towards providing fully accessible online instructional material. Although this process seldom happens overnight, by building accessibility into new classes and continually revising current content, we will ensure the needs of all learners are met.

TTU eLearning Online Accessibility Bootcamp
Dr. Jackie Luft explains accessibility concepts during the Online Accessibility Bootcamp held in July.