Digital Learning Resources

Accessibility

What is 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


USF Policies




Student Accessibility Services Resources

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


 



Document Accessibility Checkers

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

MS Word

MS PowerPoint


PDF Documents

 
 
Turning Page Scans into Clean Text

Multimedia Files

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


Image Files

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. 




 

What About Color?

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