Digital Accessibility

Accessible Educator – Digital Accessibility summer theme

Building on our existing work on Digital Accessibility, The Accessible Educator themed events encompass digital accessibility and inclusion.

The Accessible Educator events will allow academic colleagues to discuss and share their approaches, difficulties, and solutions to digital accessibility and to engage with development opportunities to develop their accessible practice.

The series opened with an introductory MicroCPD from Professor Jon Rowe (Acting DPVC for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) introducing The Accessible Educator series of events.

MicroCPD

There will follow weekly MicroCPD videos from colleagues themed around Digital Accessibility and Inclusive practice, including a student led contribution. These will be available weekly from the HEFi website.

Showcase sessions

The HEFi Showcase series will include workshops and panel discussions on digital accessibility from producing accessible content in Canvas, to a Student Panel, to writing a module or programme accessibility statement. For more information and booking details follow the session title links through to the Showcase Canvas pages.

10th May 2022: Digital Accessibility: Student Panel, 2pm
The student panel will be an opportunity for students to share their experiences of Digital Accessibility, explain some of the barriers they face to learning when teaching materials are not accessible for them, and highlight how they have benefited from any changes that academics have made to make their teaching materials more accessible. Students joining the panel include undergraduate, distance, PGT and PGR students.

11th May 2022: Captions, 11am
An introduction to captioning and audio descriptions. In this session you will learn how automated speech recognition (ASR) works in both Panopto and Zoom, how to make edits to existing captions on-the-fly and by uploading caption files directly into Panopto from other sources. There will also be recommendations on how to capture better quality audio for your video recordings.

11th May 2022: Digital accessibility drop-in, 2pm
Questions about how to edit your captions? Unsure about making an image accessible or fixing those accessibility errors in your document? Attend our digital accessibility drop-in and put your questions to HEFi Digital staff. You are welcome to ask questions on any aspects of incorporating digital accessibility into your practice.

19th May 2022: Accessible Educator Staff Panel, 11am
Join our staff panel discussion to coincide with Global Accessibility Awareness Day where colleagues will discuss and share their approaches, difficulties, and solutions to digital accessibility, not as experts, but rather as practitioners committed to taking actions to become accessible educators. We will launch the new Accessible Educator course which will invite you to reflect on your current practice around Digital Accessibility and to consider your attitudes and actions to becoming an Accessible Educator.

24th May 2022: Writing a module or programme accessibility statement for your students, 11am
Whatever your discipline and approach to digital accessibility, it is best to be clear and upfront with your students about what to expect when engaging with their learning materials online. By providing a School, Discipline or Module level accessibility statement you can highlight some of your discipline specific teaching methods, any accessibility issues that are likely to arise from these teaching methods, any known issues which currently exist and what steps are being taken to remedy them and who to contact to report an issue or request an alternative format. In this workshop we will share examples of Accessibility Statements and support you in writing your own module level statement to be shared with students.

25th May 2022: Accessible Documents – How and Why to produce, 10am
Accessible documents are essential when shared electronically and when uploaded to Canvas. This session will explain the importance of creating accessible documents and will provide an explanation of good practice in relation to Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. The session will also discuss creation of accessible PDFs and best practice in respect of creating and using files.

25th May 2022: Digital accessibility drop-in, 12 noon
Questions about how to edit your captions? Unsure about making an image accessible or fixing those accessibility errors in your document? Attend our digital accessibility drop-in and put your questions to HEFi Digital staff. You are welcome to ask questions on any aspects of incorporating digital accessibility into your practice.

31st May 2022: Accessible PowerPoint Slides, 2pm
PowerPoint slides should be accessible when used in lectures and when shared on Canvas. This session will provide an opportunity to learn about accessibility in PowerPoint with tips and tricks to ensuring your resources are accessible in accordance with the legislative requirements.

8th June 2022: Accessible Content in Canvas, 2pm
Did you know that Canvas has a built-in feature that supports the creation of accessible content? The Canvas Accessibility Checker is an accessibility tool that detects common accessibility errors within the Canvas Rich Content Editor. This session will cover how you can incorporate the feature into your overall digital accessibility checks, explains the common digital accessibility errors that the feature highlights, and gives tips on how to resolve them. The session will also help you identify accessibility areas unlikely to be picked up by the Canvas Accessibility Checker and key principles which you can apply to all your Canvas courses to ensure your content is designed for all.

9th June 2022: Accessible Images and Alternative Text, 2pm
A useful follow up session to ‘Accessible content in Canvas’, this session will provide an opportunity to learn about the use of images and alternative text (or ‘Alt text’). When and how to use Alt text with images, with examples of good and bad practice and how to ensure that the non-textual resources you use are accessible in accordance with the legislation.

Accessible Educator Course

We have launched a new course for Educators across the University. The Accessible Educator course invites you to reflect on your current practice around Digital Accessibility and to consider your attitudes and actions as you take steps to become an Accessible Educator. Complete the course and commit to the Accessible Educator actions to earn a digital badge to use in your email signature and on social media.

Join the Accessible Educator course