Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2023

• April 13th, 2023
• in GAAD, UA11y News

Please plan to join colleagues from across campus and around the world to celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Thursday, May 18, 2023. This exciting event will include virtual and in-person sessions featuring the following speakers and topics:

• Jennison Asuncion, Head, Accessibility Engineering Evangelism @ LinkedIn. Co-Founder, Global A11y Awareness Day & Vice-Chair GAAD Foundation, interview with UA’s Kristin Kaylor.
• Corbb O’Connor, Director of Accessibility Advocacy, Level Access
• Six Keys for Accessible Online Course Development—Kristin Juhrs Kaylor, based on her book chapter in QM’s Guide to Digital Accessibility
• UA’s Accessibility Toolbox – Kim Smalley and Rachel Thompson
• Using Ally for Learn to make Courses More Accessible – Rachel Thompson and Leslie Kent
• Fix Your Content Day – a worldwide fixathon for Blackboard and beyond.

Full agenda and registration coming soon! Email accessibility@ua.edu with questions or to receive an update when more information is available.

Spring 2021 Accessibility Initiative Update

• March 5th, 2021
• in UA11y News

The University of Alabama Technology Accessibility team, housed in the Office of Information Technology (OIT), continues to lead the initiative to provide our technology users, including those with disabilities, a functional and accessible technology experience and to help our institution’s faculty, staff, and students develop digital resources that are accessible to all. Since March 2020, we have been exerting much of our efforts to help make sure newly virtual and remote resources and events are as accessible as possible.

We have seen substantial growth in the use of captioning grants for public-facing and campus wide media. Captioning grants for live public-facing or campus wide virtual events are also available now.

Additional efforts since January 2020 include:

• Launching Blackboard Ally for Learn, which provides students with accessible versions of course content, offers instructors guidance on course content accessibility and remediation, and gives institutional insight into accessibility progress for course content.
• Resolving more than 1500 tickets in the HelpSpot customer service/support ticket system.
• Offering workshops and webinars, including offerings on web accessibility; best practices for creating accessible documents, presentations, spreadsheets, emails, social media, and other digital content; Universal Design for Learning; and other accessibility-related topics.
• Captioning and/or transcribing over 12,000 minutes of media through UA captioning grants. Captioning grants may be used to caption and/or transcribe UA-owned video and audio that will be shared on public or campus-wide websites.
• Running 2000+ Accessibility Management Platform reports. Accessibility Management Platform (AMP) is a comprehensive accessibility and reporting tool freely available to members of the UA community.
• Continued education, outreach, and enforcement around the The University of Alabama Web Resources Accessibility Policy (PDF), which adopts WCAG 2.0 AA to address the accessibility of public-facing web resources, campus-wide web resources, and web resources needed to conduct core University administrative and academic function, including equally effective alternate access and non-compliance plans.

We continue to:

• Maintain a campus technology and web site inventory, including technology accessibility status.
• Conduct site audits, sharing evaluation reports with area liaisons who can handle remediation with our assistance.
• Provide technology accessibility policy guidance to stakeholders who select, create, or share digital content.
• Facilitate accurate captioning and or transcription of all public-facing and campus wide media, including the administration of captioning grants and training.
• Work with campus stakeholders and accessibility liaisons to ensure the accessibility of instructional content housed in Blackboard Learn or other enterprise instructional technology tools.
• Manage licensing and support of enterprise assistive technology tools (currently ZoomText).
• Consult with and assist campus liaisons and other stakeholders with all technology accessibility concerns and questions.

Plans for this coming year include the continued implementation of The University of Alabama Web Resources Accessibility Policy, including compliance reviews, as well as partnering with the University’s IT Enterprise Development and Application Support team to develop a web inventory portal for accessibility liaisons.

August and September 2020 Technology Accessibility Webinars

• August 4th, 2020
• in Training, UA11y News

The Technology Accessibility team invites you to enhance your technology accessibility skills by participating in these webinars. We are proud to partner with HR Learning and Development to offer webinar registration via UA LMS, the online learning system for faculty and staff. Register for webinars via the links here, or view the entire Accessibility instructor-led training catalog in UA LMS: UA LMS Instructor-Led Training: Accessibility Students unable to register via UA LMS are also welcome to attend and may register by emailing accessibility@ua.edu.

We are also happy to offer private training sessions on these and other accessibility-related topics to members of the University community. Please contact us if we can help with your technology accessibility needs.

Texthelp Higher Education Summer Camp

• June 9th, 2020
• in Training, UA11y News

The Texthelp tools freely available to all UA students, faculty and staff are: Read&Write, a literacy support toolbar with supports for reading, writing, research, and studying; EquatIO, an application you can use to type, handwrite, or speak to create equations, formulas, and other math and chemistry expressions; and Snapverter, an easy to use add-on for Read&Write for Google Chrome and iOS app that transforms papers and files into readable PDF documents.

—

From Texthelp:

Join us for a summer full of learning, new ideas, and useful strategies! During our seven week series, we’ll focus on the key features within Read&Write and EquatIO, while leaving you with practical strategies when working with students. Be sure to invite campus partners, administrators, instructional designers, or peers who might need to brush up on their knowledge, explore applicability on campus, or to help support the transition to online learning. Both beginners new to the products and experienced users wanting review will take away tidbits to add to their toolboxes.

Summer 2020 Technology Accessibility Webinars

• May 29th, 2020
• in Training, UA11y News

The Technology Accessibility team invites you to enhance your technology accessibility skills by participating in these webinars. We are proud to partner with HR Learning and Development to offer webinar registration via UA LMS, the online learning system for faculty and staff. Register for webinars via the links here, or view the entire Accessibility instructor-led training catalog in UA LMS: UA LMS Instructor-Led Training: Accessibility Students unable to register via UA LMS are also welcome to attend and may register by emailing accessibility@ua.edu.

We are also happy to offer private training sessions on these and other accessibility-related topics to members of the University community. Please contact us if we can help with your technology accessibility needs.

Spring 2020 Technology Accessibility Workshops

• February 2nd, 2020
• in Training, UA11y News

The Technology Accessibility team invites you to enhance your technology accessibility skills by participating in these workshops and webinars. We are proud to partner with HR Learning and Development to offer workshop/webinar registration via UA LMS, the online learning system for faculty and staff. Register for workshops/webinars via the links here, or view the entire Accessibility instructor-led training catalog in UA LMS: UA LMS Instructor-Led Training: Accessibility Students unable to register via UA LMS are also welcome to attend and may register by emailing accessibility@ua.edu.

We are also happy to offer private training sessions on these and other accessibility-related topics to members of the University community. Please contact us if we can help with your technology accessibility needs.

Upcoming accessibility-related learning opportunities

• September 3rd, 2019
• in Training, UA11y News

We’re compiling our team’s favorite sources for accessibility news and professional development opportunities to add to the collection of Accessibility Resources on our website. Let us know if there are organizations, listservs, social media accounts, etc. you find particularly useful, and we’ll add them to the list.

Here are some upcoming accessibility-related learning opportunities:

Fall 2019 Technology Accessibility Workshops

• August 16th, 2019
• in Training, UA11y News

The Technology Accessibility team invites you to enhance your technology accessibility skills by participating in these workshops and webinars. Starting this semester, we are proud to partner with HR Learning and Development to offer workshop/webinar registration via UA LMS, the new online learning system for faculty and staff. Register for workshops/webinars via the links here, or view the entire Accessibility instructor-led training catalog in UA LMS: UA LMS Instructor-Led Training: Accessibility

We are also happy to offer private training sessions on these and other accessibility-related topics to members of the University community. Please contact us if we can help with your technology accessibility needs.

Summer 2019 Technology Accessibility Workshops

• May 31st, 2019
• in Training, UA11y News

The Technology Accessibility team invites you to enhance your technology accessibility skills by participating in these workshops this summer:

• Accessibility Office Hours and Work Session
  Bring your accessibility questions or work to improve the accessibility of your digital content. We’re here to help!
  • Thursday, June 27, 2:00 p.m.
  • Thursday, July 25, 2:00 p.m.
• Advanced PDF Accessibility: Forms
  Participants in this hands-on workshop will learn techniques for creating accessible PDF forms with Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.
  Tuesday, August 6, 2:00 p.m.
• Advanced PDF Accessibility: Lists
  Participants in this hands-on workshop will learn how to correctly tag PDF lists using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.
  Thursday, August 1, 2:00 p.m.
• Advanced PDF Accessibility: Scanned Documents
  Participants in this hands-on workshop will learn how to use Adobe Acrobat Pro DC to correct accessibility issues in a PDF created by scanning a document.
  Thursday, July 18, 2:00 p.m.
• Advanced PDF Accessibility: Tables
  Participants in this hands-on workshop will learn how to correctly tag PDF tables using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.
  Tuesday, July 30, 2:00 p.m.
• Creating Accessible PDFs with Adobe Acrobat Pro DC
  Participants in this introductory hands-on workshop will learn how to use Adobe Acrobat Pro DC to create accessible PDFs from Microsoft Office content.
  Tuesday, June 18, 2:00 p.m.
• Creating Accessible PDFs with Adobe InDesign CC
  Participants in this hands-on workshop will learn how to export an InDesign file as a tagged PDF and other accessibility considerations for InDesign.
  Thursday, August 8, 2:00 p.m.
• Creating Accessible Social Media Content
  Learn how to create Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media content accessible to users with disabilities.
  Monday, July 22, 9:00 a.m.
• Creating Accessible Social Media Content (webinar)
  Learn how to create Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media content accessible to users with disabilities.
  Monday, June 10, 9:00 a.m.
• 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.
  Thursday, June 6, 2:00 p.m.
• Designing for Accessibility (webinar)
  Learn the importance of designing for accessibility and impactful practices you can apply to create accessible documents, images, audio, video, and web content.
  Monday, June 24, 9:00 a.m.
• Interpreting AMP Tests and Reports
  Learn how to navigate and understand accessibility testing results documented in an AMP Report.
  Thursday, July 11, 2:00 p.m.
• Introduction to AMP
  Learn about UA’s Accessibility Management Platform (AMP), a comprehensive accessibility and reporting tool freely available to members of the UA community.
  Tuesday, June 4, 2:00 p.m.
• Manual Testing in AMP
  Learn how to use Access Assistant, a browser toolbar integrated with AMP, to perform guided manual accessibility testing.
  Tuesday, July 9, 2:00 p.m.
• PDF Remediation Basics
  Participants in this hands-on workshop will learn how to use Adobe Acrobat Pro DC to correct basic tagging issues in a PDF.
  Tuesday, July 2, 2:00 p.m.

All classroom workshops are held in A232 Gordon Palmer. Registration is requested but not required.

We are also happy to offer private training sessions on these and other accessibility-related topics to members of the University community. Please contact us if we can help with your technology accessibility needs.

Happy New Year from the Technology Accessibility Team

• January 3rd, 2019
• in Training, UA11y News

Happy New Year! We’re excited to share some news with you as we start a new year and a new semester.

Faculty Resource Center Spring 2019 Workshop Registration is now open! This semester, the Technology Accessibility team will offer workshops and webinars on web accessibility; best practices for creating accessible documents, presentations, spreadsheets, emails, and social media content; and Universal Design for Learning, a set of curriculum development principles that give all individuals equal opportunities to learn. New this semester are Accessibility Testing with NVDA (2/27) and Accessibility Testing with VoiceOver (3/21), workshops in which participants will learn how to use free screen reader programs to test the accessibility of digital content.

We are especially looking forward to our Texthelp expert trainer visit on Wednesday, February 13. Texthelper Kimberly Nix will provide comprehensive introductions to Read&Write for Google Chrome and Read&Write for Windows, literacy support solutions with tools for reading, writing, research, and studying. Read&Write is freely available to all UA students, faculty, and staff on campus and personal machines, as are two additional Texthelp tools: EquatIO, an application you can use to type, handwrite, or speak to create equations, formulas, and other math and chemistry expressions; and Snapverter, an easy to use add-on for Read&Write for Google Chrome and iOS app that transforms papers and files into readable PDF documents. Register online for these and other technology accessibility workshops and other workshops offered by the Faculty Resource Center.

A couple of additional learning opportunities in which you may be interested:

• Microsoft is offering a new series of free Accessibility Learning Webinars, the goal of which is to share the latest technology and accessibility features across Microsoft products and help answer common accessibility questions. Upcoming webinars include Narrator 101 (1/16), Magnifier and Low Vision Features in Windows 10 (2/20), and Navigating the New Office Ribbon (3/20).
• Also from Microsoft, the newly-created Empower every student with an inclusive classroom course enables educators of all subject areas to learn about Microsoft Learning Tools and practice creating accessible learning environments Windows 10 and Office 365. The course is free and is part of Microsoft’s Inclusive Classroom Learning Path.

Keep up with us throughout the semester by following our UA11y News blog, the Technology Accessibility Facebook page, and the UATechAccess Twitter account.

As always, thanks for your efforts in making UA a more inclusive and accessible campus! Best wishes for a great semester, and please contact us if we can help with your technology accessibility needs.