This chapter offers guidelines and best practices for accessibility, usability, and EDI (Equity, Diversity & Inclusion), as well as making your OER textbook locally relevant.

TOC: Accessibility, Usability

• Accessibility Overview
• Universal Design for Learning
• Accessibility Assessments, Rubrics, and Checklists
• Localization & Representation

Accessibility Overview — William Meinke, UH Mānoa

Introduction

Content should be created in a way that makes it accessible to all learners. As you plan an OER adoption or adaptation, plan to check the accessibility of your content before making it available to others. Not only is this a generally good practice, content published by public institutions may be subject to state and/or federal mandates for accessibility. In short, making your OER accessible from the get-go will help learners consume the content in the way that best suits their needs.

This section will explain techniques towards making instructional content more accessible, including OER. More thorough recommendations for making content accessible can be found in this adaptation of the Accessibility Toolkit originally published by BCCampus.

Lowest common denominator

While it is often fun to use different font types (“fonts”), colors, and clip art on your instructional materials, content that follows a more structured approach will likely be more accessible. As OER is passed between authors and editing tools, it’s advisable to leave the fancy styling as a last step and share out “clean” versions of the content without custom fonts and floating elements. When in doubt, leave your custom styles out.

Four steps towards authoring accessible content

When writing text-based content, sticking to these four suggestions will greatly improve the accessibility of your content. In particular using stricter markup will help screen readers convey the content more clearly. MS Word, Google Docs, and many other common tools used for OER editing will have these built in into their menus, making it easy to structure your content cleanly.

Use heading levels (h1, h2, h3)

Text-based OER benefits from being structured with heading levels. Many editing tools support TOC (table of contents) generation based on where these section markers are placed. Individuals using screen readers will also more easily navigate the sections of your content when headings levels have been applied consistently throughout.

Use true lists (ordered, unordered)

While they may “look” similar to bulleted lists, using asterisks with hand-spacing to create lists can really jam up a screen reader that is expecting structured content. Whenever listing items, use the true list features of your content editor. This applies to both unordered (often bulleted) and ordered (numbered or lettered) lists.

Example  — clear and accessible:

• First list item
• Second one
• And a third

Nonexample  — unclear:

*  First list item

*  Second item

*   And a third

Give alt text descriptions to images

No matter the subject of an image or figure used in your content, we need to offer descriptive text to support those with visual impairments. A screen reader will look for a contextual description of an image to share with the learner, which should live in the text surrounding the image (title or caption) or as alternative (“alt”) text. This is one of the most common overlooked accessibility aspects of content created for instruction, but editors for both online and offline content nearly all include tools for adding alt text to images.

Use descriptive link text

Ensure that all web pages and weblinks have titles that describe a topic or purpose. The purpose of the link can be determined by the text alone. That is, you don’t need to include additional information justifying the use of the link. You want the link to be meaningful in context. For example, do not use generic text such as “click here” or “read more” unless the purpose of the link can be determined by meaning in the surrounding content.

Example  — clear and accessible:

Information on the BC Open Textbook Project is available online.

Nonexample  — unclear:

Click here for information on the BC Open Textbook Project.

Use the WAVE tool

A great deal of OER content is displayed on websites, where we can use accessibility-checking tools to identify areas that can make it difficult for assistive technology tools to work properly. The WAVE tool does just that: identifies errors and possible issues with the accessibility of webpages.

For example, we can see the WAVE tool’s accessibility check on opencontent.org/definition. As far as content structure and formatting is concerned, the page looks great. The WAVE tool caught a couple small errors (a missing page title, missing language declaration) and had a couple warnings for parts of the page that may be troublesome from an accessibility perspective.

Quiz: Accessibility Overview

Universal Design for Learning — BC Campus, Amanda Coolidge, Sue Doner, Tara Robertson, and Josie Gray

Universal Design is the process of creating products (devices, environments, systems, and processes) that are usable by people with the widest possible range of abilities, operating within the widest possible range of situations (environments, conditions, and circumstances). Universal Design emerged from the slightly earlier concept of being barrier-free, the broader accessibility movement, and adaptive technology and assistive technology. It also seeks to blend aesthetics into these core considerations.

Let’s review two common definitions of Universal Design.

Definition 1

Universal Design or Universal Instructional Design (UID)

an approach to teaching that consists of the proactive design and use of inclusive instructional and evaluation strategies. This approach provides academic access to a broad range of learners, including students with disabilities, while:

• maintaining academic standards […]
• reducing the need to having to retrofit after a course is already underway

Definition 2

Universal Instructional Design (UID)

an approach to designing course instruction, materials and content to benefit people of all learning styles without adaptation or retrofitting. UID provides equal access to learning, not simply equal access to information. UID allows the student to control the method of accessing information while the instructor monitors the learning process and initiates any beneficial methods… It should be noted that UID does not remove academic challenges; it removes barriers to access.

Why Universal Design?

For our purposes, we frame the practice of using Universal Design in a holistic and manageable way and begin by addressing the barriers that are easy to anticipate and proactively remediate. This toolkit, therefore, will provide guidance if the answer to any of the following questions is “yes.”

• Do I have visual materials that present core concepts that not all students may be able to see or understand?
• Do I have multimedia materials (e.g., audio, video) that present core concepts that not all students may be able to be hear, see, or otherwise access?
• Do I have documents that present core concepts in a format that not all students may be able to access?

In the Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition, we focus on an adjunct to Universal Design: Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL is a set of principles for curriculum development that gives all individuals equal opportunities to learn and provides a blueprint for creating instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that work for everyone. Rather than a single, one-size-fits-all solution, it offers a flexible approach that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs.

Using Personas

Designers use personas to represent the different types of people who might access a website or product. In this toolkit, we have used personas to help you keep in mind the types of students and their various abilities while you’re developing content. We’ve also used these personas to introduce different types of hardware and software that students typically use.

We’ve adapted personas from Sarah Horton and Whitney Quesenbery’s book A Web for Everyone: Designing Accessible User Experience so they are specific to post-secondary students with print disabilities in British Columbia (based on data from CAPER-BC Annual Report [PDF] and the students who attended our focus group).

These are some of the students who will be reading the open textbooks that you write.

Mark

Mark is 17 years old. He is a future heavy-duty mechanic with a learning disability that was diagnosed in Grade 8. Mark absorbs information best by hearing it and enjoys making and fixing stuff with his hands. He’s in his first semester of college, taking trades courses and loving it. Mark can’t wait to complete the foundation courses and move into his first apprenticeship placement. He lives at home with his family; they all share one computer.

Ability: Difficulty absorbing a lot of information when reading

Aptitude: Basic technology user

Attitude: Prefers to do things himself, but can get easily frustrated or impatient, especially with technology

Assistive technology: MP3 player

Format preference: MP3 so he can listen on the go

Listen to an MP3 recording of a synthetic voice.

Jacob

Jacob is a fourth-year business administration student who is blind and a bit of a geek. Jacob is 28 years old and can’t wait to get his last few classes out of the way so he can start his career. He shares an apartment with his girlfriend.

Ability: Blind since birth

Aptitude: Skilled technology user

Attitude: Digital native, early adopter, persists until he gets it

Assistive technologies:

• Screen reader (JAWS on his laptop, VoiceOver on his iPhone)
• Victor Reader Stream
• Audio recorder (to take notes)
• Refreshable Braille display

Format preference: Electronic text, which he can easily use in JAWS and with VoiceOver; detests PDFs

Watch a student using JAWS (4:08-6:18s).

Listen to a computer-science student’s screen reader.

Diana

Diana is retraining to be a personal coach after she experienced vision loss and was unable to continue working as a bus driver. She is 48 years old and taking many of her classes online. She lives with her husband.

Ability: Gradual loss of vision; can easily read using a magnifier, but her eyes fatigue quickly

Aptitude: Intermediate technology user

Attitude: Has a routine and likes to stick to it

Assistive technologies:

• ZoomText
• TextAloud text to speech software

Format preference: PDF or electronic text that she can enlarge on her computer or listen to using TextAloud

Watch a student using ZoomText (0-1:31).

Trish

Trish is a college student taking university transfer courses who prefers using print books. An accident left Trish with several physical disabilities. She is 18 years old and lives with her family.

Ability: Suffers from brain damage, paralysis, and has motor issues

Aptitude: Basic computer user, intermediate iPad user

Attitude: Generally dependent on family, so enjoys reading and studying independently

Assistive technologies:

• iPad
• Motorized wheelchair

Format preference: eBook formats, such as PDF, that can be easily loaded onto her iPad

Ann

Ann is a chemistry major with ADHD, a learning disability that makes it difficult for her to concentrate. She is 20 years old and hopes to become a pharmacist. Ann lives in a dorm on campus with two other female students.

Ability: ADHD, has difficulty concentrating

Aptitude: Intermediate computer user

Attitude: Struggles at times, but is very appreciative of how much learning software helps her

Assistive technology: Kurzweil learning software (on laptop)

Format preference: Reading and listening at the same time

Watch a student using Kurzweil on a computer (1:32-4:07).

Steven

Steven is an English major who is deaf. He is 23 years old and likes the flexibility of taking online classes. He lives by himself.

Ability: Native language is ASL; can speak and read lips

Aptitude: Intermediate technology user

Attitude: Can get annoyed about accessibility, such as lack of captions

Assistive technologies:

• CART (communication access real-time translation) for lectures
• Captions
• Video chat

Format preference: No preference in regards to textbook formats; but, videos without captions are meaningless

Watch a video demonstration of CART. Note: this video is also captioned.

Accessibility — Best Practices — BC Campus, Amanda Coolidge, Sue Doner, Tara Robertson, and Josie Gray

Organizing Content

Organizing content so it has a logical flow just makes sense. Using chapters, headings, and sub-headings to organize a resource allows students to clearly see how the main concepts are related. In addition, headings are one of the main ways that students using a screen reader navigate through a chapter.

Who are you doing this for?

Everyone benefits from having content that’s clearly organized. Well-organized content supports students who:

• Have a learning disability, like Ann
• Are blind or have low vision, like Jacob

Why is this important?

Headings help to identify the hierarchical structure of a document (e.g., sections, sub-sections). They provide a visual cue that helps sighted readers quickly navigate through sections of a document, skimming until they find the section they are looking for. Similarly, headings create logical divisions in the content and allow a non-sighted user to navigate a page or document easily using a screen reader.

When it comes to using visual references to indicate the hierarchy and structure of a document, you might be accustomed to changing the font style, enlarging the type size, or highlighting the text with bold, underline or italics to create the impression of a heading. This approach presents problems when creating material with accessibility in mind because screen readers won’t identify the text as a heading. Instead, the screen reader will just “read” through the text of a heading as if it were regular content, missing your intended cues about structure and organization.

What do you need to do?

In Pressbooks, use the visual editor to tag sections with Heading 1, sub-sections with Heading 2, sub-sections of sub-sections with Heading 3, and so on.

Media Attributions

• Ann: Original artwork by Hilda Anggraeni (BCcampus). © Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
• Jacob: “WFE003: Jacob” by Rosenfeld Media. © Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic Licence.

Images

In this section, we provide recommendations to guide your inclusion of accessible, image-based content.

What are images?

Images are non-text elements that include photographs, illustrations, diagrams, pictures, charts, graphs, and maps.

File types used: GIF, JPG, PNG

Why are you including the images you have selected?

Before you can determine what to do to make an image accessible, you must identify its purpose or value to your textbook. Consider the following questions:

1. Does your image serve a functional purpose? In other words, is it conveying non-text content to students? If so, you should:
   1. provide a text alternative that serves the equivalent purpose of the non-text material^[1]
   2. not use color as the only visual means of conveying information^[2]
2. Does your image serve more of a decorative purpose? In other words, is it primarily a design element that does not convey content? If so, you should:
   1. avoid unnecessary text descriptions

Who are you doing this for?

This work supports students who:

• Are blind or have low vision, like Jacob
• Have poor contrast vision
• Are color blind and cannot differentiate between certain colors
• Use a device with monochrome display
• Use a print copy that is in black and white
• Have limited Internet access and cannot download images
• Have a form of cognitive disability

What do you need to do?

Determine the role of each image used in content as either functional or decorative. Once that has been decided, select how each image will meet accessibility needs by providing descriptive text in a variety of ways. Figures, such as charts and graphs that rely on color to convey information, should also be evaluated for accessibility by students who are unable to distinguish between or see color.

Functional images

Consider what your content page would look like if the images didn’t load. Now try writing alternative text for each image that would work as a replacement and provide the same information as the image.

There are three ways to provide alternative text descriptions for images:

1. Describe the image in the surrounding text.
2. Describe the image in the alt tag.
3. Create and link to a long description of the image.

As you work on developing your alternative text descriptions, keep the following recommendations and guidelines in mind:

• Remember that alternative text must convey the content and functionality of an image, and is rarely a literal description of the image (e.g., “photo of cat”). Rather than providing what the image looks like, alternative text should convey the content of the image and what it does.^[3]
• For relatively simple images (e.g., photographs, illustrations), try to keep your text descriptions short. You should aim to create a brief alternative (one or two short sentences) that is an accurate and concise equivalent to the information in the image.
• For more complex images (e.g., detailed charts, graphs, maps), you will need to provide more than a one- or two-sentence description to ensure all users will benefit from the content or context you intend to provide.
• Leave out unnecessary information. For example, you do not need to include information like “image of…” or “photo of…”; assistive technologies will automatically identify the material as an image, so including that detail in your alternative description is redundant.
• Avoid redundancy of content in your alternative description. Don’t repeat information that already appears in text adjacent to the image.

Descriptions in surrounding text

You can use the surrounding text to provide the same information as conveyed by the image. This is often the best option for complex images because it makes the information available for everyone, not just those using the alt tags.

If you are editing someone else’s work for accessibility, you are probably not at liberty to start adding to the main text. However, if you are the author, this is the best and easiest option.

If an image has been adequately described in the surrounding text, you can either provide a few-word description of the image in the alt tag or follow the procedures for decorative images.

Alt tags

An alt tag refers to the alt attribute (alt is short for alternative) within an IMG tag. All images uploaded into Pressbooks have an alt tag, but for them to be useful, you need to insert an image description.

Alt tags are used in two cases:

1. When an image doesn’t download due slow Internet, the alt tag content will display instead of the image.
2. For people who are visually impaired and use screen readers, when a screen reader finds an image, it will read out the content of the alt tag.

Alt tags should be no longer than 125 characters, including spaces and punctuation.^[4] This is because when a screen reader finds an image, it will say “Graphic” before reading out the alt tag. If the alt tag is longer than 125 characters, the screen reader will interrupt the flow of text and say “Graphic” again, before continuing to read out the alt tag. This can be confusing. For images that require descriptions longer than 125 characters, see the section on long descriptions.

To edit an image’s alt tag in Pressbooks, click on the image and select the PENCIL icon (edit). Under image details, there will be two textboxes: one titled “Caption” and one titled “Alternative Text.” The “Caption” box contains the image’s caption, which appears under the image in the visual editor. The “Alternative Text” box is where you describe the image.

Long descriptions

Complex images, especially charts or graphs, will often require descriptions longer than 125 characters and it may not always be possible to add an explanation to the surrounding text. In this case, you can provide a link to a longer image description or an accessible table. One way to do this is to create a section for long descriptions in your resource and use links to allow people to easily switch between the image and its description and back again.

How to set up a long description for an image in Pressbooks

Figure 1.1 shows an image from Introduction to Sociology – 2nd Canadian Edition that requires a longer description than what can fit in an alt tag. As such, at the end of the caption, there is a link to the image’s description.

Anyone using this textbook can access this image description by clicking on the [Image description] link, which will take them to the image description at the end of the chapter (or by flipping to the end of the chapter in the print version). This will also work for people using screen readers who are navigating through the book with a keyboard.

Curious about how this works? Try clicking on the [Image Description] link in the caption of Figure 1.1.

Adding a long description to an image in Pressbooks can be complicated, but the following four steps will help guide you through the process.

Step 1: Add an alt tag

Even though you will be providing a long description, the image still needs an alt tag. In the Alternative Text field in the image editor, provide a brief image description (only a few words), and state that there is an image description available.

Example alt tag: Wong-Baker Faces pain rating scale. Image description available.

Step 2: Create the image description and insert it at the end of the chapter

1. Create a “Image Descriptions” heading at the end of the chapter. All image descriptions will be added under this heading in the order that the images appear in the chapter.
2. Under the “Image Descriptions” heading, insert the image’s figure number followed by the image description.

Example:

Figure 1.1 image description: The Wong-Baker Faces pain rating scale uses cartoon faces to illustrate the different levels of pain that correspond to a numbered scale from 1 to 10. Zero is smiling, 2 is a small smile, 4 is a straight face, 6 is a slightly sad face, 8 is a big sad face, and 10 is a bigger sad face that is crying.

Step 3: Link to the image description from the image’s caption

Provide a link to the image description in the caption of the image. Because the description will be on the same page of the image, you will be providing a same-page link using anchor tags.

1. Come up with a unique ID for the image description, which will allow you to link directly to the description in the chapter. In this case, we used “fig1.1”. (The ID can be whatever you want, but if you have multiple images that require long descriptions, it is best practice to establish a convention for creating IDs to keep them simple and consistent. Note that IDs are case sensitive.)
2. Insert the ID using the “Anchor” button at the beginning of the image description.
   1. Place your cursor at the beginning of the image description entry.
   2. Select the “Anchor” button from the WYSIWYG visual editor. The button appears in the third row and looks like a ribbon.
   3. A dialogue box will pop up asking you to provide a name for the anchor. Insert the ID you created and select OK.
3. Go back to your image. At the end of the caption, add “[Image Description]” to use for the link text.
4. Link the [Image Description] text to the anchor you created.
   1. Select the [Image Description] text.
   2. Select the “Insert/edit link” button from the WYSIWYG Visual editor. The button appears in the first row and looks like a chain link.
   3. A dialogue box will pop up asking you to provide a URL. Insert a number sign (#) followed by the ID you created and select the “Apply” button.

The following table displays how the caption will look in the visual editor view and in the image editor view.

Step 4: Link the image description back to the image

Insert a link at the end of the image description that takes users back to the original image. This will make it easy for people to navigate back to their spot in the chapter after accessing the image description.

Example:

Figure 1.1 image description: The Wong-Baker Faces pain rating scale uses cartoon faces to illustrate the different levels of pain that correspond to a numbered scale from 1 to 10. Zero is smiling, 2 is a small smile, 4 is a straight face, 6 is a slightly sad face, 8 is a big sad face, and 10 is a bigger sad face that is crying. [Return to Figure 1.1]

1. To link back to the image, you will need a new unique ID. In this case, we used “retfig1.1”.
2. Insert the ID using the “Anchor” button right before the image in the chapter.
3. Link the [Return to Figure 1.1] text to the anchor you just created.

Now that you have reviewed the steps to add a long description to a Pressbooks image, see Chapter 8 of the Introduction to Tourism and Hospitality in B.C. open textbook for an example of what long descriptions look like in practice.

Decorative images

If an image does not add meaning, i.e., if it’s included for decorative or design purposes only, or if the image is adequately described in the caption and/or surrounding text, it doesn’t need an alt tag. Including alternative text descriptions for decorative images “simply slows the process down with no benefit because the screen-reading software vocalizes the content of the [alternative text description], whether that alternative text adds value or not.”^[5] However, this doesn’t mean that you should leave an alt tag blank.

When a screen reader detects an image with a blank alt tag, it will read out the image file location. If the above picture about the The Wong-Baker Faces pain scale didn’t have an alt tag, a screen reader would say, “Graphic: https://opentextbc.ca/accessibilitytoolkit/wp-content/uploads/sites/184/2017/06/2049201506_0f9b17182a_o.jpg.”

When an image doesn’t require an alt tag, place two double-quotation marks (“”) in the Alternative Text field; this step will prompt the screen reader to say “Graphic” and move on to the caption.

Using color

Consider what your images would look like if they only displayed in black and white. Would any necessary context or content be lost if the color was “turned off?” Images should not rely on color to convey information; if your point requires color, you may need to edit or format the image so the concepts presented are not lost to those who are color blind or require high contrast between colors.

Example 1: Inaccessible Bar Chart

In Chart 1, color is the only means by which information is conveyed. For students who are color blind, have poor contrast vision, or are using a black-and-white print copy (see Chart 2), relevant information is lost.

.

Example 2: Accessible Bar Chart

Students who are color blind can distinguish between high-contrast shades. In Chart 3, contextual labels have been added to each bar at the bottom of the chart. Note that the chart will still require an alt tag.

Long description example

Figure 1.1 image description: The Wong-Baker Faces pain rating scale uses cartoon faces to illustrate the different levels of pain that correspond to a numbered scale from 1 to 10. Zero is smiling, 2 is a small smile, 4 is a straight face, 6 is a slightly sad face, 8 is a big sad face, and 10 is a bigger sad face that is crying. [Return to Figure 1.1]

Media Attributions

• Jacob: “WFE003: Jacob” by Rosenfeld Media. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.
• Figure 1.1: “Pain Scales” by Juhan Sonin. Adapted by BCcampus (cropped). © Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

Links

In this section, we review how to add accessible links to content. Links include weblinks, links between different chapters of a book, links within a chapter, and links to attached files.

What are links?

A link (also called a hyperlink) is found in a file, document, or web page that redirects the reader to additional information found in another online location such as a new web page; links are typically activated by clicking on a highlighted word or image on the screen.

File types used: HTML, PDF, DOCX, XLS

Why are you including the links you have selected?

Generally, links are included within content to point the user to additional information that is available at another location. Links between different parts of a book are also used to facilitate navigation.

Who are you doing this for?

This work supports students who:

• Have a physical disability, like Trish
• Have a form of cognitive disability, like Ann
• Are deaf or hard of hearing, like Steven
• Are blind or have low vision, like Jacob and Diana

What do you need to do?

Links can be helpful. But, like other non-text elements, they must be assessed for how students with a range of challenges can and will access them. Understanding and attending to these needs through descriptive text, proper link opening, and—when needed—a web address will ensure that all students can benefit.

Create descriptive link text

You need to ensure that all links have text that describes the topic or purpose of the link. This is important because people using screen readers might have their screen reader set to read out the text for each link on a page. As such, the link text must describe the content of the link when taken out of context for the surrounding paragraph. While link texts such as “click here” or “read more” will make sense to sighted users, they mean nothing when read on their own.^[6]

Example 1: Click here for information on BCcampus Open Education.

Example 2: You can find more information on BCcampus Open Education at http://open.bccampus.ca/.

Example 3: Information on BCcampus Open Education is available online.

While the first two examples make sense in the context of the sentence, neither link text describes the purpose of its link. While the second example is better than the first, having the web address as the link text still does not make the purpose of the link clear. The third example is the most accessible.

Link to non-web content

If you want to link to something that isn’t a web page—such as a Word document, Excel file, or PDF—you should include this information in the link text.^[7] This is important because it informs the user what will happen when they click on the link, thus preventing confusion. In addition, a user may decide not to click on a link if they know it’s a certain file type. This typically happens when a user doesn’t have the software needed to open the file or when they know the file type is inaccessible to them.

Example: B.C. Open Textbooks Review Rubric [Word file]

New tabs/windows

The default setting for links in Pressbooks is that they not open in a new window or tab. This is the preferred behaviour, since a new window, opening unexpectedly, can be disorienting for people. This is especially true for individuals who have difficulty perceiving visual content.^[8]

However, if a link must open in a new window or tab, the best practice is to include a textual reference.^[9]

Example: Information on BCcampus Open Education [New Tab] is available online.

Pressbooks allows you to edit whether or not a link opens in a new tab. Here is how:

• Click on the link and select the PENCIL icon (edit).
• Select the GEAR icon (link options).

• Check (or uncheck) the “Open link in a new tab” box. Click “Save” or “Add Link.”

Provide web addresses in print copies

One thing to keep in mind is that most open textbooks have a print-on-demand option. For that reason, it is a good idea to provide the web address for external links so people using a print copy of the book can find the online content. You can do this by including the web address in-text (Example 1), providing the web address in a footnote (Example 2), or by providing a list of web addresses on a single page in the back matter of the book organized by chapter (Example 3).

Example 1: Information on BCcampus Open Education (https://open.bccampus.ca) is available online.

Example 2: Information on BCcampus Open Education^[10] is available online.

Example 3: See the List of Links by Chapter for Print Users in the back matter of this toolkit.

Provide web addresses in Print PDF in Pressbooks

If you are working in Pressbooks, there is an easy workaround that will cause the web address to be included in parentheses immediately after the link text in the Print PDF.

All you have to do is add the following to your PDF Custom Styles:^[11]

However, there may be cases where you do not want a web address to be provided in the print copy. For example, the web address for an internal link to a specific chapter is not helpful for people using the print copy. As such, you can edit the Custom Styles to exclude certain links that have a particular class assigned. In this example, we have created a link class called “internal” and asked that all links with class=”internal” not have their web address provided in the PDF. Note that you will have to add the class to the link’s HTML yourself.

For example, the HTML for an internal link would be edited to look like this:

<a class=”internal” href=”/accessibilitytoolkit/chapter/links/”>Links</a>

And the Custom Styles would look like this:

For more information on how to edit the Custom Styles for your book, check out the chapter in the Pressbooks User Guide on Customizing your Exports with Custom Styles.

Media Attributions

• Trish: “WFE002: Emily” by Rosenfeld Media. © Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

Tables

In this section, we provide guidelines and recommendations for formatting tables.

What are tables?

In this context, tables refer to data tables, which include row and/or column header information to categorize content. (Tables that do not have headers are called layout tables.)

File types include: DOCX, HTML, PDF

Are your tables simple or complex?

A simple table includes a maximum of one header column and/or one header row. A complex table includes more than one header column and/or header row, and may include merged or split cells.^[12]

We recommend you make every effort to keep data tables as simple in structure as possible. The more complex the design of a data table, the less accessible it will be for some students using screen-reading technology to access their textbook materials. Screen readers move left-to-right, top-to-bottom, one cell at a time, and because a screen reader does not repeat a cell, merging or splitting cells can affect the reading order of a table.

Who are you doing this for?

This work supports students who:

• Have a form of cognitive disability, like Ann
• Are blind or have low vision, like Jacob

What do you need to do?

In the same way that your content hierarchy needs headings and structure (see Organizing Content), tables need a properly defined structure to be accessible. This means that you must add row and column headers to define the different sections of data. Screen readers read tables horizontally—cell by cell, row by row—and row and column headers help give context to the data in each cell for students who are blind, have low vision, or have a cognitive disability.

Create simple tables

A simple table includes:

1. A table title or caption
2. Maximum of one row of column headers and/or maximum of one column of row headers, with the appropriate scope assigned
3. No merged or split cells
4. Adequate cell padding for visual learners

How to mark cells and rows as headers

As with section headings, it is not enough to bold or enlarge text in table cells that you want to be marked as headers.

If you are familiar with HTML, you can go into the text editor and change tags to tags. Row-header tags are given the scope=”row” attribute and column-header tags get a scope=”col” attribute.^[13] See Example 2 for how to create an accessible HTML table.

For those not comfortable with HTML, here is how you create table row and column headers in Pressbooks.

1. Create your table and fill the cells with data.
2. Select all of the cells that will be your column headers. (This should be all cells in the first row of your table.)
   1. select the table icon from the top menu of the Visual editor: Table icon > Cell > Table cell properties.
   2. set the “Cell type” to “Header cell.”
   3. set the “Scope” to “Column.”
3. Select all of the cells that will be your row headers. (This should be all cells in the first column of your table, except for the cell in the first row, which has already been marked as a column header.)
   1. select the table icon from the top menu of the visual editor: Table icon > Cell > Table cell properties.
   2. set the “Cell type” to “Header cell.”
   3. set the “Scope” to “Row.”

How to create a table caption

Select your table, click the Table icon > Table Properties and check “Caption.” Select the space directly above the centre of the table you created and type your caption.

An example of an inaccessible table header would be one that appears either before or after the table, with no markup connecting the title to the table.

Add a [Skip Table] option

For large data tables, it can be a good idea to add a link which will allow people to skip the content of the table. See Table 2.4 for an example.

As shown, this link is best placed in a row preceding the column headers. That way, someone using a screen reader will hear the caption of the table before being given the option to skip the table.

Media Attributions

• Ann: Original artwork by Hilda Anggraeni (BCcampus). © Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
• Table 2.4. “Main Sociological Research Methods” in Introduction to Sociology – 2nd Canadian Edition by William Little. © Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.

Multimedia

In this section, we provide recommendations to guide your inclusion of accessible multimedia content.

What are multimedia?

The term multimedia refers to a variety of ways, or media, used to communicate information, such as videos, audio, animations, and slideshows.

File types used: MP3, MP4, PPT

What types of multimedia are you including?

Before you can determine what you need to do to make media accessible, you must understand what is required for different types of multimedia. Consider the following questions:

1. Does your multimedia resource include audio narration or instructions? If so, you should:
   • provide a complete transcript of all speech content and relevant non-speech content in the resource
2. Does your multimedia resource include audio that is synchronized with a video presentation? If so, you should:
   • provide captions of all speech content and relevant non-speech content in the resource
3. Does your multimedia resource include contextual visuals (e.g., charts, graphs) that are not addressed in the spoken content? If so, you should:
   • provide audio descriptions of relevant visual materials in the resource

Who are you doing this for?

This work supports students who:

• Are deaf or hard of hearing, like Steven
• Are blind or have low vision, like Jacob
• Have a form of cognitive disability
• Are in a location where they cannot play or hear audio
• Are not native-English speakers and need written-word formats to support understanding

What do you need to do?

Many types of multimedia present information in a non-text manner. For students unable to use the original version of these formats, providing text as a transcript, caption, or written description gives them access.

Transcripts

Consider what your students would get out of your multimedia resource if they were not able to hear the audio portion, or if they had difficulty understanding the spoken word. A text transcript provides students with equivalent information to the audio content in a multimedia resource.^[14]

As you work on developing a text transcript, keep in mind the following recommendations about what to include:

• Speaker’s name
• All speech content. If there is speech that is not relevant, it is usually best to indicate that it has been excluded from the transcript, e.g., “[A & B chatted while slides were loading].”
• Relevant descriptions about the speech. Descriptions that convey emotions and mood are usually provided in brackets, e.g., “Don’t touch that! [shouted].”
• Descriptions of relevant non-speech audio. These are usually provided in brackets, e.g., “[metal pipes crashing to concrete floor].” Background noise that isn’t relevant can be left out.
• Headings and sub-headings. Headings help when they make a transcript more usable or easy to navigate, especially when the transcript is long. When included, put headings in brackets to show they were not part of the original audio, e.g., [Introduction]; [Group Discussion]; [Case Study].

Captions

Captions are the text that is synchronized with the audio in a video presentation. Captions are important when people need to see what’s happening in the video and get the audio information in text at the same time.

The work you put into creating a text transcript for a video resource can be repurposed to provide captions. Keep in mind the following recommendations about what to include in your captions:

• All speech content. If there is speech that is not relevant, it is usually best to indicate that it has been excluded from the captions, e.g., “[A & B chatted while slides were loading].”
• Descriptions of relevant non-speech audio. These are usually provided in brackets, e.g., “[metal pipes crashing to concrete floor]”; “[background music by XXX plays].” Background noise that isn’t relevant can be left out.

Audio descriptions

Consider what your students would get out of a multimedia resource if they were not able to see embedded visual materials critical for comprehension. Audio descriptions are helpful if visual content (e.g., a chart or map) in a video or presentation provides important context that is not available through the audio alone.^[15]

When describing visual elements in your multimedia resources, keep in mind the following recommendations and guidelines:

• When contextual visual content on the screen is not described in the audio itself, you will need to provide an objective audio description of the visual element.
• Whenever possible, avoid creating the need for audio descriptions in the first place by being proactive at the time of recording. If you pay attention to contextual visuals while recording, you may find opportunities to convey the visual content with the accompanying spoken material instead of inserting audio descriptions of the visual content after the fact.

Media Attributions

• Steven: “WFE005: Steven” by Rosenfeld Media is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic Licence.

Formulas

In this section, we review how to add accessible formulas to content.

What are formulas?

Formulas refer to math equations and science formulas.

File types used:  LaTex, MathType

Who are you doing this for?

This work supports students who:

• Are blind or have low vision
• Have a form of cognitive disability, like Mark
• Have a physical disability

What do you need to do?

There are several ways to handle equations, from images with alt tags to MathML. Having access to an equation editor such as MathType or MathMagic can streamline processing and converting equations. These tools are similar to equation editors found in the Microsoft Office.

MathML

Math ML is a text-based XML (short for “extensible markup language”) designed for math equations. Browsers that support MathML are able to translate the XML into a formatted equation. Since MathML with MathJax can be rendered in many systems, including HTML, sites at Penn State, Angel and Drupal, it is considered the best choice for accessibility.

Here is information about creating and viewing MathML.

MathML may vary from system to system and the content can change rapidly.

Image with an alt tag

A safe option is to create an image of an equation (or export it from an equation editor) and then insert the image into a document with an alt tag.

Note: Alt tags can be written in Nemeth MathSpeak for students who have learned that system.

LaTeX

LaTeX is a math markup language familiar to many in the science and math community. Unfortunately, it is not currently supported by screen reader technology. It is, however, fairly simple to convert LaTeX to an image or MathML in most equation editors.

To import LaTeX, follow these steps in MathMagic and MathType:

1. Copy a piece of LaTeX code such as
   m &= frac{m_0}{sqrt{1-frac{v^2}{c^2}}}
   into an equation editor’s main editing window.
2. The equation should appear fully formatted. Make minor adjustments as needed.

At a BCcampus user-testing session, students indicated that it would be helpful to place an audio file of the formula or equation alongside each, allowing the user to hear exactly how the formula or equation should be interpreted.

Additional resources

Math accessibility at Portland Community College

In 2012, Portland Community College departments took a closer look at making math accessible to blind students. Read more about the math accessibility study.

Watch Math Accessibility at Portland Community College. (This video is an open educational resource.)

Media Attributions

• Mark: Original artwork by Hilda Anggraeni (BCcampus). © Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.

Text Attributions

This chapter is a derivative of Equations: MathML, Images and LaTeX by Penn State. Penn State has provided permission to the authors to use this information under the licence of the toolkit.

Font Size

In this section, we review the two main concerns regarding font size on the web.

What is font size?

Font size is the size of text visible on the screen.

Who are you doing this for?

This work supports students who:

• Are blind or have low vision, like Diana
• Have a form of cognitive disability
• Are deaf or hard of hearing
• Have a physical disability

 What do you need to do?

There are two main concerns when working with font sizes:

1. Ensuring that default font sizes are not too small.
2. Ensuring that text can be expanded to 200% on websites.^[16]

Keep in mind these recommendations and guidelines:

• Use 12 point for body text. For most documents, body text should be around 12 points. Small fonts may be illegible for some audiences.
•  Use 9 point for footnotes. If a document contains footnotes or endnotes, the minimum size should be 9 points.
• The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) recommend ensuring that text can be zoomed to 200%. As well, we recommend using liquid layouts^[17] that can accommodate 200% text.

Media Attributions

• Diana: Original artwork by Hilda Anggraeni (BCcampus). © Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.

Color Contrast

In this section, we provide guidelines and recommendations about color contrast in your textbook materials.

What is color contrast?

Color contrast refers to the hue, lightness and saturation of text, images, and background.

File types include: DOCX, HTML, PDF, JPG, GIF

What role does color play in the delivery of your content?

When documents or web pages do not provide enough contrast between foreground elements (e.g., text, images) and background elements (e.g., color, watermark images), some students will have difficulty reading the content. Consider the following questions:

1. Have you presented text- or image-based content on a colored or textured background? If so, you should:
   • confirm that there is sufficient contrast between your foreground content and the chosen background color or texture
2. Have you included links in your content? If so, you should:
   • confirm that the color of your web links is distinct from both your background color and the color of the surrounding text
3. Have you used color to convey concepts or information? If so, you should:
   • confirm that you are not using color alone to convey this information

Who are you doing this for?

This work supports students who:

• Have low vision, like Diana
• Have poor contrast vision
• Are color blind and cannot differentiate between certain colors
• Use a device with monochrome display
• Use a print copy that is in black and white

What do you need to do?

In order to use color in a way that is most accessible, take into account color contrast between text and background, and whether or not color is used to convey information and the location of a link.

Contrast

Students with low vision and/or a form of color blindness may have difficulty reading text that does not contrast enough with the background color selected. If the color palette you have adopted is too subtle (e.g., white text on a pastel background; medium-grey text on a light-grey background), the contrast between your foreground and background is probably insufficient for some students.

Level AAA of the “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0)” requires that “the visual presentation of text and images of text has a contrast ratio of at least 7:1.”^[18] The following image presents four different foreground/background color-contrast examples to illustrate insufficient and sufficient color contrast ratios.

Link colors

Links must be visually distinct from both the surrounding, non-linked text and the background color. If you do not underline your links (or provide some other non-color cue), you must ensure that you provide both sufficient contrast between the link and background colors and between the link color and that of the surrounding text.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) require a:

• 4.5:1 contrast between the link text color and the background
• 3:1 contrast between the link text color and the surrounding non-link text color^[19]

High-contrast mode

Some students need to see light text on a dark background for it to be readable, while others require dark text on a light background. Students with low vision (like Diana) must be able to see content when it is displayed in high-contrast mode. This can be a subjective experience, based on individual student needs. We recommend testing your text- and image-based content as you go by using high-contrast mode on your own computer and making adjustments as needed.

All content items such as text, images, bullets, and table borders must be visible in both regular and high-contrast modes.

Use of color

You should not rely on color as the sole means of conveying information and instruction. If the point you are making depends on color to be understood, you will need to edit your materials so that concepts presented in the visuals are not lost to those who are color blind or who require high contrast between colors.^[20]

Media Attributions

• Diana: Original artwork by Hilda Anggraeni (BCcampus). © Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.

Accessibility Statements

Once you have created an accessible textbook, you should provide an accessibility statement. While an accessibility statement is not required, it can be an important and useful addition to a resource for which you have worked to make accessible. This section will outline guidelines and recommendations about what to include in an accessibility statement and who the accessibility statement is for.

What is an accessibility statement?

An accessibility statement acts as resource for those who have questions about the accessibility features of your resource. It should provide an overview of accessibility features and contact information in case there are any problems.

Who are you doing this for?

When writing an accessibility statement, it is important to keep in mind who the statement is for. This will guide the language you use and the type of information you include. Ultimately, the accessibility statement is for people who have disabilities or are having problems accessing your resource for whatever reason.

Hassell Inclusion’s blog post on “How to write an effective Accessibility Statement” notes that many accessibility statements ignore who will be accessing the accessibility statement or why. Instead, they make statements about the organization’s commitment to accessibility, combined with technical jargon related to web development, accessibility, and accessibility legislation. Rather than acting as a helpful resource for people with disabilities, this type of accessibility statement “read[s] like a combination of a sales pitch on how socially responsible the organization is, a technology manual, and some legal small print.”^[21]

Chances are, the only time people will be interested in an accessibility statement is when they have trouble accessing content in the textbook or resource. Therefore, make sure your accessibility statement provides the information readers are looking for.

What do you need to do?

Here are tips for writing a useful accessibility statement:

• Use clear and simple language, avoiding jargon and technical terms
• Include information about how people can personalize their experience. This might include information about:
  • features of the platform used for the resource (e.g., if a book is in Pressbooks, mention the ability of users to increase the font size in the web book)
  • the ability to change browser settings
  • a link to each available file format
  • assistive technologies
• Outline specific accessibility features and how to use them when relevant
• Do not make false claims or ignore known accessibility issues. Be as transparent and open about accessibility barriers as possible. This means:
  • describing what is being done to fix the problem and a timeline
  • providing any temporary workarounds
• Include information about who is responsible for the accessibility of the content and their contact information so people can submit issues, suggestions, or complaints related to accessibility.
• Describe the organization’s accessibility policy, and the work that has been done to make the resource accessible. Here, you can provide information like:
  • accessibility guidelines you are following (e.g., WCAG 2.0)
  • any federal, provincial, or state legislation you are conforming to
  • any user testing you performed^[22]

Here is a sample accessibility statement that you can adapt for your own purposes:

Additional resources

For more information, refer to the following resources:

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: Conformance Claims
• Nomensa: How to Write an Accessibility Statement
• Access 8878’s Accessibility Statement

For sample accessibility statements, refer to the following pages:

• B.C. Government Website’s Accessibility Statement
• Hassell Inclusion’s Accessibility Statement

Accessibility — Assessments, Rubrics, and Checklists

Checklist for Accessibility

Organizing content

• ☐ Content is organized under headings and subheadings.
• ☐ Headings and subheadings are used sequentially (e.g., Heading 1, Heading 2).

Images

• ☐ Images that convey information include alternative text (alt text) descriptions of the image’s content or function.
• ☐ Graphs, charts, and maps also include contextual or supporting details in the text surrounding the image.
• ☐ Images do not rely on color to convey information.
• ☐ Images that are purely decorative do not have alt-tag descriptions. (Descriptive text is unnecessary if the image doesn’t convey contextual content information).

Links

• ☐ The link is meaningful in context and does not use generic text such as “click here” or “read more.”
• ☐ Links do not open in new windows or tabs.
• ☐ If a link must open in a new window or tab, a textual reference is included in the link information (e.g., [NewTab]).

Tables

• ☐ Tables include row and column headers.
• ☐ Row and column headers have the correct scope assigned.
• ☐ Tables include a caption.
• ☐ Tables do not have merged or split cells.
• ☐ Tables have adequate cell padding.
  

Multimedia

• ☐ A transcript is available for each multimedia resource including relevant non-speech content.
  • Transcript includes:
    • speaker’s name
    • all speech content
    • relevant descriptions of speech
    • descriptions of relevant non-speech audio
    • headings and subheadings
• ☐ Captions of all speech content and relevant non-speech content are included in the multimedia resource; this includes the audio synchronized with a video presentation.
• ☐ Audio descriptions of contextual visuals (e.g., graphs, charts) are included in the multimedia resource.

Formulas

• ☐ Formulas have been created using MathML.
• ☐ Formulas are images with alternative text descriptions if MathML is not an option.

Font size

• ☐ Font size is 12 point or higher for body text.
• ☐ Font size is 9 point for footnotes or endnotes.
• ☐ Font size can be zoomed to 200%.

Redesign or Accommodation Activity Guidelines

We have grounded the “Redesign or Accommodation?” activity in student-centered Universal Design for Learning (UDL)—a framework that recognizes that we cannot design learning experiences for a specific type of student.

“Redesign or Accommodation?” also incorporates the humanizing element of student Personas, some who you will recognize from this accessibility toolkit. Each participant adopts a Persona and advocates from that student’s perspective when presented with a Scenario that is based on common or recurring components of course delivery.

In facilitated discussions, participants identify potential barriers that the Scenario presents for their Persona-selves, consider what accommodations to address the barrier would look like—and if their Persona would even qualify to receive one, and then determine if the barrier/s could be avoided entirely by applying a UDL-based redesign to the course components in question.

We have created several Scenarios for this activity, but we also recommend you try running Scenarios arising from your own practice and within your own institution against your Persona-based selves; it may help to proactively identify and address barriers before they affect your students.

Below are assorted “Redesign or Accommodation?” activity materials.

• Redesign or Accommodation Activity Guidelines [PDF file]
• Redesign or Accommodation Scenarios [PDF file]

Personas

• Redesign or Accommodation Persona Cards (Detailed) [PDF file]
• Persona Cards for Printing [PDF file]
• Additional Personas for Course Design by OSU Ecampus [PDF file]

Attributions

Thank you to the University of Prince Edward Island (Alex, Khaleed,  Maridee, and Natalie) for developing and contributing four new persona to the “Redesign or Accommodation?” activity, a collaborative effort between UPEI’s Accessibility Services and the E-Learning Office. And thank you to Elisabeth McBrien and Heather Garcia of Oregon State University for creating an additional set of personas to facilitate accessible and inclusive course design.

Inclusive Design Webinar Series

In February 2019, BCcampus hosted a four-part webinar series on inclusive design. Each webinar focused on a different topic to address the varying ways that inclusive design practices can influence post-secondary education.

Inclusive design is never something that we complete. Nor is it something that can be perfected. It is not a finish line we can cross. Instead, it is something to practice, integrate with our everyday work, and continually revisit and reevaluate. And we hope that these webinars can act as a starting place for that process.

Part 1: Inclusive Design

In the first webinar, Jess Mitchell, Senior Manager of Research and Design at the Inclusive Design Research Centre, joined us to introduce the concept of inclusive design. Jess explained that inclusive design is “design that considers the full range of human diversity” and highlighted the importance of creating adaptable and flexible resources that allow people to customize their experience in a way that works best for them.

https://video.bccampus.ca/id/0_vo0at97w?width=608&height=402&playerId=23448552

Part 2: Presentations

In week two, we looked at inclusive design in presentations. Here, we covered how to create accessible PowerPoint slides, how to present in an accessible way, and how sharing presentation materials in multiple formats can make your talk or lecture more accessible.

Presentations [PPT]

https://video.bccampus.ca/id/0_pcdaqr83?width=608&height=402&playerId=23448552

Part 3: Pressbooks

When it comes to creating open textbooks, Pressbooks is a powerful tool. And applying inclusive design practices to the OER that we are creating in Pressbooks can help ensure that the book is easy to use and navigate in all formats.

Pressbooks [PPT]

https://video.bccampus.ca/id/0_hh8rsbxz?width=608&height=402&playerId=23448552

Part 4: Inaccessibility

In the final week, we worked on expanding our conceptions of what inaccessibility may look like to illustrate the diverse needs and barriers that students face. We offer a way to think more critically about digital and print accessibility, especially as it relates to open textbooks and open educational resources.

Inaccessibility [PPT]

https://video.bccampus.ca/id/0_qglxcen1?width=608&height=402&playerId=23448552

CARL Webinar: How to Create Inclusive and Accessible OER

In this webinar, we will talk about how to design OER so they are more inclusive and accessible for all students. This will include an overview of the technical considerations of digital accessibility. For example, what are the minimum technical requirements that ensure students with print disabilities can access and navigate through the resource? We will also look at how inclusive design practices can help us create educational materials that are more versatile and useful for students. For example, what does an accessible resource look like for a student with no personal computer? Or a student with a learning disability that makes reading difficult? Ultimately, students can be very different from each other, and what may work for one student may not work for another. But by designing for those differences, we can create educational materials that are more useful, powerful, and accessible to all.

Accessibility Bibliography

“Alt Text Blunders.” WebAIM. Accessed March 27, 2018. http://webaim.org/articles/gonewild/#alttext.

“Ensure Link Text Is Meaningful within Context.” Web Accessibility. Accessed March 28, 2018. https://www.webaccessibility.com/best_practices.php?best_practice_id=1301.

“Font Size on the Web.” Accessibility and Usability at Penn State. Accessed April 17, 2018. http://accessibility.psu.edu/fontsizehtml/.

“G200: Opening new windows and tabs from a link only when necessary.” W3C. Accessed March 28, 2018. http://www.w3.org/TR/2014/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20140916/G200.

“Accessibility Statement.” Hassellinclusion. Accessed August 23, 2018. http://www.hassellinclusion.com/accessibility/.

“Links to Non-HTML Resources.” WebAIM. Accessed March 28, 2018. https://webaim.org/techniques/hypertext/hypertext_links#non_html.

Penn State. “Links on a Web Page.” Accessibility. Accessed March 28, 2018. http://accessibility.psu.edu/linkshtml.

Penn State. “Tables.” Accessibility. Accessed March 28, 2018. http://accessibility.psu.edu/tables..

“Tables with Two Headers.” Web Accessibility Tutorials. Accessed January 17, 2018. https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/tables/two-headers/.

“Top 10 Tips for Making Your Website Accessible.” UC Berkeley: Web Access. Accessed March 27, 2018. https://webaccess.berkeley.edu/resources/tips/web-accessibility#accessible-alt.

“WCAG 2.0 and Link Colors” WebAIM. Accessed June 7, 2018. http://webaim.org/blog/wcag-2-0-and-link-colors/.

“Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0: Guideline 1.1.” W3C. Accessed March 27, 2018. http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#text-equiv.

“Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0: Guideline 1.2.” W3C. Accessed April 17, 2018. http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#media-equiv.

“Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0: Guideline 1.2.3.” W3C. Accessed April 17, 2018. http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#media-equiv.

“Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0: Guideline 1.4.1.” W3C. Accessed March 27, 2018. http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#visual-audio-contrast.

“What is UDL.” National Center on Universal Design for Learning. Accessed March 27, 2018. http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/whatisudl.

Accessibility at UH

For more information about accessibility at UH, please see the website Accessibility at UH.

Localization & Representation

• • • • Native Hawaiian & Indigenous Place of Learning

      • Language(s)

Representation

The Open Educational Textbook Opening Eyes Onto Inclusion and Diversity, from the University of Southern Queensland in Australia, offers a guide to equity, diversity, and inclusion. The book description follows:

In Australia and internationally much still needs to occur to promote inclusive practices in education and society with many educators not feeling equipped to recognise or appreciate diversity or cater effectively for inclusion (Hardy & Woodcock, 2015). It is into this space that a University of Southern Queensland team of  researchers, practitioners, and academics intends to contribute an open textbook “Opening Eyes onto Inclusion and Diversity”. With embedded audio–visual components, the Open Textbook is designed to enhance the quality of the reader’s experience with each chapter posing  key understandings underpinning  inclusion and diversity. Readers are encouraged to answer questions on culture, special learning needs, varied educational contexts, gender diversity and more.  The key expected outcome of this  open textbook is  to engage  readers  in making meaning of inclusion and diversity and applying  their learning to their own individual contexts.

Major Student Populations at UH

UH Mānoa offers guidelines and links on supporting student populations at UHM on the website UH Mānoa SEED: Student Equity, Excellence, Diversity.  The document “Mānoa’s Racial and Ethnic Diversity Profile” offers further information about student populations at UHM.

See also the resources for teaching for populations and contexts offered by the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching.

• • • • • People with disabilities

        • Resources for teaching in Hawaiʻi

        • Resources for anti-racist pedagogy

        • Resources for LGBTQ Inclusivity & Nonbinary Gender Inclusivity & Other Resources

        • Resources for Navigating Difficult Dialogue

        • Resources for Reducing Student Stress

      • Geographic localization

      • Major student populations

      • Vanderbilt Pedagogies & Strategies Guide