Ask an ID: Updating Course Materials for Accessibility
Dear Instructional Designer,
I’ve been using the same Google Slides and scanned PDFs for years, but I’m realizing they probably aren’t accessible for all my students. Between my slide decks and these old documents, the task of updating everything feels overwhelming and I don’t even know where to begin. Do you have any advice or tools for a non-tech expert to help me get my existing course materials up to current standards?
– Accessibly Anxious
Dear Accessibly Anxious,
It’s completely normal to feel overwhelmed by the technical side of accessibility, but you don’t have to become an expert overnight to make a big impact. Here is a curated roadmap of tools and workflows to help you systematically bring your slides and documents up to current accessibility standards.
1. Audit materials with Blackboard Ally
The Accessibility Report on Blackboard Ally is a great place to find out what is flagged in your existing documents. Here’s a help document from the University of Arkansas that goes through the steps to working with Ally. We also did this Blackboard workshop a couple of years ago that talks about Ally and how to use AI to write alt-text for images and help with captioning if you have videos.
2. Making Slide Decks Accessible
When you are ready to remediate your slides for screen readers, the process depends on the tool you used to create them. Here are the go-to guides for the most common platforms:
- Google Slides: One-Page Faculty Guide for Screen Readers
- Canva: Using Accessibility Features and Alt-Text
3. PDF Accessibility
When it comes to PDFs, it is almost always easier to return to the original source file. Research shows that starting with an accessible MS Word or Google Doc produces far more reliable results than trying to “fix” a document inside Adobe Acrobat.
If you don’t have the original source file, you can still use the Adobe Acrobat Accessibility Checker and the Reading Order tool. (You can access your free ACC Adobe Creative Cloud subscription here). For step-by-step guidance, I recommend:
- PopeTech Tutorials: These offer clear video and written instructions on tagging and checking for common issues. They have excellent guides on How to check and fix PDF accessibility issues, When to use HTML instead of PDFs, and here is a great video on How to use the Fix Reading Order tool.
- The Accessibility Guy: This site provides short, skill-specific tutorials that are perfect for those who are already fairly comfortable with technology. Here is the guide to PDF Accessibility.
4. Looking Forward: AI and Design
Since we are now designing courses in the “AI era,” it’s helpful to use a framework like AI-Responsive Assignment Design (ARAD). This approach helps you create assignments that are both accessible and ethically aligned with current technology.
General Resources for Your Toolkit
- WCAG Guidelines: The global standard for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
- Authoring Meaningful Alternative Text: A great resource for learning how to Write Effective Alt-Text.
- AI Alt-Text Generators: Tools like the Arizona AI Alt-Text Generator can give you a head start on describing complex images.
I know it’s a lot, but try to take it one step at a time. The best part? When you start building with accessibility in mind, you won’t have to go back and “fix” things later—you’re just doing it right the first time.
Good luck! Let me know if I can be of further assistance.
Yours in inclusion,
Your Instructional Designer