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:
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.
Greetings, UA Allies!