Digital Learning Resources

Accessibility

Access isn't just about compliance; it's about digital equity, aiding all learners,
irrespective of disability. For example, podcasts assist not only visually impaired
individuals but also busy parents studying at night, enabling multitasking. This
principle is known as Universal Design for Learning.

US Laws

• Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (includes Section 508)
• ADA Title II

USF Policies

• Policy 0-108 Disability and Accommodations
• Policy 10-506 Captioning and Access of Media Used in Course Content
  
  

Student Accessibility Services have a variety of resources to help you provide the access to course content that your students need. 

• SAS Accessibility Guide 
• SAS Resources 
  
  

• Canvas Accessibility Design Guidelines
• Canvas Accessibility Checker Guide 
• Extending Quiz Time with Moderate Quiz Tool

Make your online course materials accessible: organize PDFs and docs with clear titles, headings, and alt text. Screen readers can then relay content effectively to  students with visual impairments. Check the SAS Accessibility Guide for tips on pages 10-12, and the following resources for different document types. 

Microsoft Office 365

Office 365 Accessibility Checker

• Microsoft Office Products Accessibility Checking

MS Word

• WebAIM Guide to Making Word Documents Accessible

MS PowerPoint

• Make Your PowerPoint Presentations Accessible
• WebAIM Guide to Making PowerPoint Accessible

PDF Documents

• Create and Verify PDF Accessibility 
• WebAIM Guide to Making PDF Documents Accessible 
• Turning Page Scans into Clean Text

Improve multimedia accessibility with concise, 10-minute content with closed captions and transcripts. This can also increase play and review rates. Contact Student Accessibility Services for assistance if captioning tools from Kaltura, Teams, or Canvas don't meet your needs.

• Editing Captions in Kaltura
• Captions in Teams
• Adding Captions in Canvas RCE
  
  

Images require Alternative Text, or Alt text. These are descriptions of the images that are read with screen readers instead of the image file names. Following are resources to show how to add Alt text in common files. 

• Adding Alt text in Canvas
• WebAIM Article on Alternative Text
• Adding Alt text in MS365
• Adding Alt Text in PDFs 
  
  

Color is an important consideration when determining the accessibility of your content. Check out our video about it and some tools to help.

• WebAIM Color Contrast Checker
• Color Blindness Simulator