Global Accessibility Awareness Day and Fix Your Content Day

• April 29th, 2022
• in Training, UA11y News

Greetings, UA Allies!

Thursday, May 19th marks the 11th annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day. GAAD’s purpose is “to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital (web, software, mobile, etc.) access/inclusion, and the more than One Billion people with disabilities/impairments.”

As part of our campus-wide commitment to inclusive education, and in celebration of GAAD, we’ll be sharing accessibility resources and offering live, online opportunities to learn about accessibility throughout the day. We will also participate in the Blackboard Ally “Fix your Content Day Challenge”!” For 24-hours, we’ll be on a mission to fix as many accessibility issues in course files as we can. At the end of the day, the campus with the most files improved will be recognized and awarded a prize.

How can you help? Start clicking those Low (red) and Medium (orange) accessibility score indicators in your courses and fix as many files as you can. Focus on images that need a description and Word documents to start. Aim for a 100% accessibility score, but improvement is what counts! For more information on how to fix files through Blackboard Ally, check out:

• Video: Ally Overview for Instructors
• Blackboard Ally Help Page: Improve File Accessibility

As always, thanks for your efforts in making UA a more inclusive and accessible campus community! Please contact us if we can help with Ally, course content fixes, or other technology accessibility needs.

Global Accessibility Awareness Day and Fix Your Content Day at The University of Alabama – May 19, 2022

All day – Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, where we’ll share accessibility resources and opportunities to learn about accessibility throughout the day. 

All day –Join the Blackboard Ally “Fix your Content Day Challenge” and fix as many issues in course files as you can.

All day – Participate in some of the hundreds of virtual events the community has created to celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day. 

8:00 – 8:50 CDT: How People with Disabilities Access Digital Content 

Kick off Global Accessibility Awareness Day and gain a fuller appreciation of technology accessibility with this fast-paced overview of some of the technologies and methods people with disabilities use to access websites, documents, audio, video, and other digital content. Join us via Zoom. 

9:00 – 9:50 CDT: Designing for Accessibility 

Learn the importance of designing for accessibility and impactful practices you can apply to create accessible documents, images, audio, video, and web content. Join us via Zoom. 

10:00 – 10:50 CDT: Creating Accessible Course Content 

Accessible course content makes it easier for everyone to read and access your materials and can help improve overall quality and usability. Explore steps you can take to ensure your online course materials are accessible to students of all abilities and get an introduction to Blackboard Ally, a tool that helps make digital course content more accessible by automatically providing alternative formats and providing instructor guidance and feedback on accessibility issues. This session is a great start for those participating in Fix Your Content Day. Join us via Zoom. 

11:00 – 11:50 CDT: Fix Your Content – Keep it Simple

Some accessibility issues are easier to fix than others. This session will demonstrate fixes for simpler issues you might start with when fixing accessibility issues with your course content: adding alt text to images directly through Blackboard Ally, fixing heading issues in Word documents, and replacing scanned PDFs with OCRed PDFs from Ally’s alternative formats. Join us via Zoom. 

2:00 – 4:00 CDT: Blackboard Ally Fix Your Content Day Fixathon 

During this come-and-go web conference, we’ll work on accessibility issues with course files as a group and have fun making our campus more inclusive for everyone. Registration is required. 

4:15 – 4:45 CDT: GAAD/FYCD Reflection and Conclusion 

We’ll end the day by sharing our takeaways and reflecting on how we can make our campus more accessible and inclusive. Join us via Zoom. 

Fix Your Content Day Celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day

• May 13th, 2021
• in Training, UA11y News

Greetings, UA Allies!

Thursday, May 20th marks the annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day. GAAD’s purpose is “to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital (web, software, mobile, etc.) access/inclusion and people with different disabilities.” As part of our campus-wide commitment to inclusive education, and in celebration of GAAD, we are participating in the Blackboard Ally “Fix your Content Day!” For 24-hours, we’ll be on a mission to fix as many accessibility issues with course files as we can. At the end of the day, the campus with the most files fixed will be recognized and awarded a prize.

How can you help? Start clicking those Low (red) and Medium (orange) accessibility score indicators in your courses and fix as many files as you can. Focus on images that need a description and Word documents to start. Aim for a 100% accessibility score, but improvement is what counts!

You are also invited to join us for a Fixathon on Thursday, May 20, 2:00-4:00 p.m.. During this come-and-go web conference, we’ll work on accessibility issues with course files as a group and have fun making our campus more inclusive for everyone. While the Fixathon is a UA community event, keep an eye on our public Facebook page, where we’ll be going live throughout the day as we fix files. Join the Fixathon

For more information on how to fix files through Ally, check out:

• Video: Ally Overview for Instructors
• Blackboard Ally Help Page: Improve File Accessibility

As always, thanks for your efforts in making UA a more inclusive and accessible campus community! Please contact us if we can help with Ally, course content fixes, or other technology accessibility needs.

Blackboard Ally “Fix your Content Day”

• May 20th, 2020
• in UA11y News

May 21st marks the annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day and as part of our campus-wide commitment to inclusive education, we are participating in the first ever Blackboard Ally “Fix your Content Day.” For 24 hours, we’ll be on a mission to fix as many accessibility issues with course files as we can. At the end of the day, the campus with the most files fixed will be recognized and awarded a prize.

How can you help? Blackboard instructors, start selecting those red and orange indicators in your Blackboard courses and fix as many files as you can. Focus on images that need a description and Word documents to start. Aim for 100%, but improvement is what counts!

For more information on how to fix files through Ally, check out these resources:

UA Ally News: Blackboard Ally now enabled in all courses

Video: Overview for Instructors of Ally for Learning Management Systems

Blackboard Ally Help Page: Improve File Accessibility 

As always, thanks for your efforts in making UA a more inclusive and accessible campus. Please contact us if we can help with your technology accessibility needs.

Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2020

• May 20th, 2020
• in UA11y News

Thursday, May 21 is the ninth Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)! GAAD’s purpose is “to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital (web, software, mobile, etc.) access/inclusion and people with different disabilities.” A number of organizations are offering free, online events to celebrate GAAD. We’re particularly looking forward to these; others can be found on the GAAD website: GAAD Events & Activities

• Deque’s GAAD 2020: Digital Accessibility Legal Update, Wednesday, May 20, 2:00PM-3:00PM ET (1:00PM-2:00PM CT)
• Blackboard’s Fix Your Content Day Challenge – fix as many digital course files as possible through Ally on May 21^st! Blackboard Ally is now enabled in all courses.
• Twitch’s GAAD Stream – features streamers with disabilities on the front page throughout the entire day on May 21^st.
• The Paciello Group’s 2020 GAAD Panel: Today’s Challenges, Tomorrow’s Vision, Thursday, May 21, 12:00-1:30PM ET (11:00AM-12:30PM CT)
• Level Access’s Mobile Assistive Technology Overview, Thursday, May 21, 2:00-3:15PM ET (1:00PM-2:15PM CT)
• RedShelf’s Equity in the Classroom: Ensuring Open Educational Resources (OER) Are Accessible to Everyone, Thursday, May 21, 2:00-3:00PM ET (1:00-2:00PM CT)
• 3PlayMedia’s The Second “A” in GAAD: Raising Awareness About the Need for Digital Accessibility, Thursday, May 21, 3:00-4:00PM ET (2:00PM-3:00PM CT)
• Deque’s Intro to Agile Accessibility, Thursday, May 21, 3:00-4:00PM ET (2:00PM-3:00PM CT)
• WordPress’s WordPress Accessibility Day Panel, Thursday, May 21, 4:30-5:30PM ET (3:00PM-4:30PM CT)
• Microsoft’s GAAD Special Virtual Event: Be empowered by technology with Microsoft accessibility tools, Thursday, May 21, 6:00PM-7:30PM ET (5:00PM-6:30PM CT)

In addition to these events, we encourage you to participate by experiencing first-hand the impact of digital accessibility (or lack thereof). Suggested activities:

Gain Perspective

Digital accessibility is essential for people with disabilities and useful for all. Learn about the impact of accessibility and the benefits for everyone in a variety of situations by watching this series of short videos: Web Accessibility Perspectives: Explore the Impact and Benefits for Everyone

Go Mouseless For An Hour

Many people use only the keyboard to navigate websites — either through preference or circumstance. Unplug your mouse and only use your keyboard alone (tab/shift tab, arrow keys, enter, and spacebar) to navigate and interact with your favorite websites and applications. If you use a touchpad, trackpad or similar input method, disable it, and use the keyboard instead.

Developers and designers, we encourage you to visit a site you were involved in creating and take it for a test-drive.

• Is there a visible focus indicator (i.e., do you know where you are) at all times as you navigate each screen using the tab and shift tab keys?
• Are you able to interact with every element that receives focus using the keyboard alone?
• If there is any element that provides functionality if you hover over it with your mouse, such as revealing a tooltip or a set of actions, can you display this strictly using the keyboard alone?

Surf The Web With A Screen Reader

Screen reader software processes content on the desktop and in web browsers and converts it to others forms such as text-to-speech and Braille.  Screen readers typically provide other functions such as shortcut keys, different modes for processing content and interacting with it, and the ability to highlight the text that is being read aloud. Unplug your mouse, launch a screen reader, and spend an hour using some of your favorite sites using the keyboard alone.

There are a number of free/open source screen readers available for Windows users; one of the more popular ones is NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA). Mac users, you have a built-in screen reader called VoiceOver on your systems.

Learn About And Use Other OS/Mobile Accessibility Features

The Windows 10 Operating System has a number of built-in accessibility features, as do the Apple operating systems, Android, and BlackBerry devices. Take an hour to explore them.

Try Other Adaptive Software Tools

The Adaptech Research Network has a library of free or inexpensive software that is useful to people with disabilities. We’re partial to ZoomText and the Texthelp tools, both accessible via the OIT Software catalog.

As always, thanks for your efforts in making UA a more inclusive and accessible campus. Please contact us if we can help with your technology accessibility needs.

Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2019

• May 10th, 2019
• in UA11y News

Thursday, May 16 is the eighth Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). GAAD’s purpose is “to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital (web, software, mobile, etc.) access/inclusion and people with different disabilities.” As part of the global GAAD celebration, UA technology accessibility liaisons will share their success stories, Campus Communicators will learn about Designing for Accessibility, and the Faculty Resource Center’s Technology Accessibility team will host several webinars in A232 Gordon Palmer Hall (see Technology Accessibility events on the UA Events Calendar).

Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2018

• May 15th, 2018
• in UA11y News

Thursday, May 17 is the seventh Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). GAAD’s purpose is “to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital (web, software, mobile, etc.) access/inclusion and people with different disabilities.” As part of the global GAAD celebration, UA web professionals will discuss web accessibility at the WebTide monthly meetup and Emerging Technology will host the Using WordPress for Accessible Web Development webinar in A204 Gordon Palmer Hall.

Here are some ways you might participate in this year’s Global Accessibility Awareness Day activities.