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Creating Accessible Course Materials

Dr. Keira Hambrick (she, her)

HambriKM@BuffaloState.edu

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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Topics Covered Today

Overview of Accessibility
Creating Accessible Word and Google Documents
Creating Accessible Slides
Snack Break!
Creating and Remediating PDFs for Accessibility
Additional Training Resources

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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1. Overview of Accessibility

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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Why an Accessibility Workshop?

Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); a new rule mandates that all public colleges & universities in the U.S. comply with Digital Accessibility Standards by April 24, 2026.
The rule covers:�✔ Websites�✔ Mobile apps�✔ Online course content and digital course materials�✔ Linked documents (PDFs, Word files)�✔ Third-party content delivered through contracts/licenses (like videos or platforms)
Materials must be made accessible, or we will be in violation of federal law; accessibility is also just good pedagogy.

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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What is Accessibility?

“Accessible” means a person with a disability has equal opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and receive the same experience as a person without a disability.
Accessible course materials can be easily perceived, understood, navigated, and used by everyone—including people with disabilities.
Creating accessible materials helps all students!!

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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2. Creating Accessible Word and Google Documents

Please open “Cats a Basic Overview.docx”

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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What does an INACCESSIBLE document look and sound like?

Sometimes, accessibility issues in documents are obvious!

Example: Text is too small to read
Example: Poor color contrast or poor choice of typefaces/fonts
Example: colors used are not suitable for color-blind users

But sometimes, accessibility issues might not be so obvious.

Many people use screen-reader programs to convert text to speech
Screen readers rely on “styled” heading structure

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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Sometimes, accessibility issues in documents are painfully obvious. For example, if the text is just too small to read, it’s inaccessible. If the text is too light to see, or if the typeface is really visually complex, it’s inaccessible. If the color palette is either too low-contrast or uses colors that can’t be differentiated by someone who is color-blind, then it’s inaccessible. My “Cats a Basic Overview_Inaccessible Version” is a good example of the obvious problems that lead to inaccessibility.

But sometimes, a document might appear to be fine—but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is fully accessible.

Many people with and without disabilities use screen reader technology, which basically reads the document out loud to them. Screen reader programs depend upon the accessibility features I will teach you today. But before we jump into that, I want to play you a short video that demonstrates what a student hears when they use a screen-reader on a document that is not accessible.

Demonstration of Screen-reader Technology: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fu6rvrwvgY

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Screen Reader Demonstration

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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Sometimes, accessibility issues in documents are painfully obvious. For example, if the text is just too small to read, it’s inaccessible. If the text is too light, or if the typeface is really visually complex, that’s inaccessible. If the color palette is either too low-contrast or uses colors that can’t be differentiated by someone who is color-blind, then it’s inaccessible. My “Cats a Basic Overview_Inaccessible Version” is a good example of the obvious problems that lead to inaccessibility.

But sometimes, a document might appear to be fine—but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is accessible.

Many people with and without disabilities use screen reader technology, which basically reads the document out loud to them. Screen reader programs depend upon the accessibility features I will teach you today. But before we jump into that, I want to play you a short video that demonstrates what a student hears when they use a screen-reader on a document that is not accessible.

Demonstration of Screen-reader Technology: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fu6rvrwvgY

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Checklist for Accessible Documents

Use “styled” headings (not just bold text)

Heading 1 for Title,

Heading 2 for main sections

Heading 3 for subsections

Use true lists (not manually typed bullets)

Use the built-in list formatting features

Use descriptive Hyperlinks

E.g., Post response to Discussion Board not post to: https://LongWebsiteURLThat’sGoingToBeReadOutByScreenreader

Add “Alt Text” to necessary images

Decorative images can be marked “decorative”
Charts & Figures need to be described in alt-text

Run the Accessibility Checker

Review → Check Accessibility

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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Let’s Practice

Open up “Cats a Basic Overview” from the email I sent this morning
You can follow along in this document as I run through the accessibility checklist
Then you can practice with one of your own documents

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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3. Creating Accessible Slides

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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Checklist for Accessible Slides

Use the Built-In Slide Layouts & Themes

These layout have proper reading order baked into the design for screen readers
Avoid dragging new text boxes onto slides; screen readers won’t keep up

Use Clear, Minimal Text

Size 24pt minimum is recommended
Use high-contrast colors (like light text on a dark background)

Check and Fix Reading Order

Go to Home → Arrange → Selection Pane
Make sure the Title is listed first, and content follows logically. You can drag items up or down in the pane as needed to get them into the correct order.

Avoid distracting slide Transitions or Animations

You can select all of your slides and then select “None” in Transitions and Animations

Run the Accessibility Checker

Review → Check Accessibility

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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4. Snack Break!

5 minutes: Please stretch your muscles, rest your eyes, refuel, etc. as needed

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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5. Creating and Remediating PDFs for Accessibility

Please open “Lamott_Bird by Bird_Practice File.pdf”

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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You’ve Already Learned to Create Accessible PDFs!

The best way to provide accessible PDFs is to create them yourself

It is much easier to edit documents in Word, Google, etc. than to do so in Adobe.
From Word, PowerPoint, or Google, simply “Save as” .PDF
You will still need to check the Ally Score on Brightspace to catch and fix any small accessibility issues

If you cannot access the original, editable file from which a PDF was created, you may need to remediate PDFs in Adobe.

If a PDF is a scan, it’s basically a photograph.

Screen readers cannot read images.
Students cannot highlight, annotate, or search images.
Zooming in often blurs the image.

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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Remediating Inaccessible PDFs

Replace; don’t repair

It’s often much faster and more accurate to replace bad PDFs with accessible versions

Find accessible PDFS online
Ask the library for accessible copies, if they exist
Find or create a clean scan of a document (not a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy)

Otherwise, you must have Adobe Acrobat Pro

Only the “Pro” version has the accessibility tools we need.
Tools → Scan & OCR → Recognize Text

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) turns image-only PDFs into selectable, readable text

But it can make lots of mistakes!
OCR alone does not equal accessibility!

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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Remediating Inaccessible PDFs part 1

Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro
Select All Tools → “Scan & OCR” → “Recognize Text”

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) turns image-only PDFs into selectable, readable text
This will make the text searchable, but doesn’t make the whole document fully accessible.

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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Remediating Inaccessible PDFs part 2

Select All Tools → “Prepare for Accessibility”
Select “Check for Accessibility”

Select “Start Checking”

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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Remediating Inaccessible PDFs part 3

Review the issues.

Right click to “fix”

Some of these, like “Language” and “Title” will be easy to fix.
Some, like “Fix Reading Order” are complex jobs

Fix Reading Order

This one can be a headache, but it’s necessary to make OCR-ed PDFs truly accessible

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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6. Additional Training Resources

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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SUNY Accessibility Resources

Free, Asynchronous Online Training Modules through Deque University

Submit a Deque Registration Request. You can select many course options. Our Student Accessibility office suggests:

Fast Track to Accessibility (Role-Specific, for Beginners) 1.0
Document Accessibility "Deep Dive" & IAAP ADS Certification Preparation 1.2:
Basic PDF Accessibility 2.0

SUNY Online Teaching Accessibility Guide

A great summary of best practices and links to even more resources

SUNY Access for All Webinar Series Recordings

SUNY Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Webinar Archives

Inclusive Pedagogy, Neurodiversity, and more!

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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Software-Specific Accessibility Resources

Microsoft Accessibility Guides

Google Accessibility Guides

Overall Accessibility Guide

Adobe Acrobat Pro Accessibility Guides

Yuja Video Platform (available through Buff State)

Yuja Resources and Training

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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Bonus / Pedagogical Accessibility Resources

Accessible Syllabus Project

Strategies & examples for accessible Images, Text, Rhetoric, & Policies

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines

Guidance on how to design multiple means of Engagement, Representation, Action, & Expression.

CWP Pedagogical Resources Folder

Lots of great stuff in here re: online teaching, inclusive and anti-racist teaching, etc.

Transparency in Teaching & Learning (TILT) Resources

Accessible assignments are clear about Purpose, Tasks, & Assessment Criteria; the TILT website offers examples of transparent assignment prompts and helpful videos

https://tinyurl.com/AccessBuffState

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