Creating Accessible Course Materials

For instructions on making your Word documents and PowerPoint presentations accessible, please review the pages linked below: 

• Microsoft Word Accessibility
• Microsoft PowerPoint Accessibility 

In order to make the most of the Microsoft accessibility features, you must have installed Microsoft Office applications. WKU Faculty, Staff, and Students can download and install Microsoft 365 Pro Plus free of charge and may install the software on up to five devices/computers. If you need access to Microsoft Office 365, please visit the ITS webpage for instructions on how to install Microsoft applications on your device(s). Please note that mobile versions will not have the full feature set that desktop versions will have. 

Converting from Microsoft Word or PowerPoint to PDF 

Simply saving an accessible Microsoft Word document or PowerPoint presentation as a PDF does not create an accessible PDF. You must select some specific options when saving your file to ensure that the work you did to make your document or presentation accessible is not lost in the PDF format.    

For instructions on converting a Word document or PowerPoint presentation to an accessible PDF, please review the page linked below: 

• Converting to Accessible PDFs 

Creating PDF Files from Scanned Documents 

You may want to scan physical copies of journal articles or other artifacts to include in your courses. Assuming your use meets copyright laws, this is generally acceptable to do. However, unless you use a proper tool to enable Optical Character Recognition (OCR) in these scanned documents, they are simply images. This means their content will not be accessible to those students using a screen reader. Scanned documents without OCR cannot be searched for specific terms, which can aid all users in efficient document review and comprehension.  

To ensure your students have access to accessible PDFs generated from physical documents: 

• Use the Ally File Transformer found in the Assist tab within Blackboard. This tool provides options to transform files, including PDFs, into more accessible formats.
• For journal articles, provide students with links to library databases whenever possible, allowing them to directly access accessible versions. 

You can ensure your Blackboard content is easy for everyone to read and access by implementing low-effort strategies like those highlighted in this Accessibility Checklist. To enhance the accessibility of your Blackboard content, we encourage you to leverage the resources and assistance provided by Ally, a tool available to you within Blackboard that has the ability to automatically check course content for accessibility issues. In every Blackboard course site, Ally will:  

• Scan files uploaded into Blackboard and Blackboard content for common accessibility issues 
• Provide feedback on course accessibility as well as guidance on how to fix the identified issues 
• Allow for student choice by providing automatically-generated alternative formats for course documents 

The following resources will walk you through using Ally to create more accessible courses: 

• Ally Quick Start for Instructors
• Course Accessibility Report
• Improve Content Accessibility (includes instructions for addressing specific accessibility issues) 

Ally is a valuable tool for identifying and addressing accessibility challenges, but it doesn’t automatically resolve them. Alternative formats, like OCRed PDFs, improve access but don’t inherently make content accessible. As you are developing the content for your course(s), take advantage of Ally to help you improve your course accessibility score, and once the course is live, remind your students to use this helpful tool that is readily available to them.  

Especially if you have a student(s) who requires an accessibility accommodation through The Student Accessibility Resource Center (SARC), there may be times that you need to grant them additional time on class assessments or provide another type of assignment exception or exemption.  

The resources below will walk you through how to apply student accommodations and create assessment exceptions and exemptions in Blackboard Ultra: 

• Make Student Accommodations in Blackboard Ultra
• Grant Exceptions and Exemptions in Blackboard Ultra 

Including captions for instructional videos and providing a transcript for audio files will ensure learners who are deaf or hard-of-hearing have access to multimedia content. These resources also help non-native English speakers and native speakers when learning difficult content. Mediasite and Zoom are the two video platforms that are supported by WKU ITS, and both of these tools have built-in options for captioning and transcription. 

If you are conducting a demonstration within a video or showing something else visual, be sure to describe verbally what is on the screen in detail. If you forget, you can always provide a written video description along with the link to the video. This will ensure learners with visual needs have equitable access to the multimedia content. 

Mediasite 

Through a partnership with Verbit, WKU offers automatic captioning for videos uploaded to Mediasite. If you need to edit the automated captions for your Mediasite video(s), you can do so by following the steps described on the page linked below:  

• Editing Captions for Mediasite Videos
• Downloading Transcripts for Mediasite Videos 

Zoom 

For Zoom recordings, captions can be automatically generated and edited within the Zoom web portal. The following Zoom support pages provide instructions for managing captions and audio transcriptions: 

• Managing Automated Captions
• Using Audio Transcription for Cloud Recordings 

Transcription Requests 

CITL offers quality checks for Mediasite and Zoom transcripts/captions as well as transcription of 3rd party videos for those students requiring accommodations. Those accommodation requests should go through the Student Accessibility Resource Center (SARC). 

Clarify acronyms upon first use (e.g., Center for Innovative Teaching & Learning (CITL)) or provide a glossary in your course materials for reference. 

Use high-contrast color combinations for text and backgrounds across all course materials. Avoid using color alone to convey meaning and instead use labels, patterns, or shapes.

Follow Microsoft's guidance on creating accessible spreadsheets, such as adding meaningful labels and structuring tables for screen reader compatibility.

Before implementing a third-party educational tool in your course(s), it is important to review the vendor's accessibility documentation. If you have questions or concerns about whether a tool is accessible, please feel free to contact CITL at citl@wku.edu, and we will be happy to examine the tool and provide insight as to whether it is suitable for use in the online learning environment.