In the Online Accessibility Lab with
Luis Anaya

By Joshua Blount, Editor

The Accessibility Team at eLearning & Academic Partnerships is instrumental when it comes to providing accessible content for online courses. From capturing videos to restructuring documents, this team enhances eLearning's ability to support any student or instructor wherever they are. Luis Anaya is an integral part of this team.

He offers some insight into his work at eLearning. "I use screen reader software to examine websites, Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF documents to ensure they meet federal accessibility guidelines," said Luis. "Also, with my limited but useful vision, I determine whether the content in the document is being delivered properly by the screen reader so that someone who is completely blind can receive the exact same information (in the same order) as a fully sighted person who does not utilize a screen reader."

There are three screen readers that Luis uses for his work: NVDA (PC), JAWS (PC) and VoiceOver (Mac). The screen readers will read on-screen text and other sections aloud as the mouse scrolls over the screen. This software is ideal for individuals who are blind or visually impaired and is an essential tool for Luis when reviewing web pages and documents.

Luis also mentioned the impact that he believes his work has on students. "With the advent of screen reader software (which is a relatively new technology that has only blossomed in the past 20 years), blind/visually impaired students are able to compete on a level playing field. I am also able to help the captioning lab to quickly develop quality closed-captions to make online videos and other audio content available to any hearing-impaired individual who would not otherwise have access to that information in this form."

Currently, Luis works with instructional content to add accessible styles, tables and headings to their documents. If these elements are not present in a Microsoft Word document, for example, then a screen reader cannot properly read the words on-screen.

Luis loves his work: "I love the fact that I am making a difference in the education of those who, despite their disabilities, are striving to achieve their goals and simply need a level playing field to compete and succeed. Because I am visually impaired, I know the struggles that visually impaired people contend with when attempting to attain lofty goals."

Kirsten Morris, Instructional Designer/Accessibility and Coordinator for the Online Accessiblity Lab said of him, "Luis is an essential part of testing instructional materials for usability. His expertise and experience with the screen reader has helped in numerous situations when we needed to test out the accessibility of documents and other materials."

eLearning & Academic Partnerships is fortunate to have Luis' expertise and experience, which helps to identify the struggles of students as well as help create useful, accessible content.

Please feel free to contact the Luis or any of our professionals in the Online Accessibility Lab with your questions about accessibility at elearning.oa@ttu.edu.

Luis Anaya