I\u2019ve been using the same Google Slides and scanned PDFs for years, but I\u2019m 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?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n – Accessibly Anxious<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear Accessibly Anxious, <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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<\/a> that goes through the steps to working with Ally. We also did this Blackboard <\/a>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you don’t have the original source file, you can still use the Adobe Acrobat Accessibility Checker<\/strong><\/a> and the Reading Order<\/strong><\/a> tool. (You can access your free ACC Adobe Creative Cloud subscription here<\/a>). For step-by-step guidance, I recommend:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since we are now designing courses in the “AI era,” it\u2019s helpful to use a framework like AI-Responsive Assignment Design (ARAD)<\/strong><\/a>. This approach helps you create assignments that are both accessible and ethically aligned with current technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I know it\u2019s 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\u2019t have to go back and “fix” things later\u2014you\u2019re just doing it right the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Good luck! Let me know if I can be of further assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yours in inclusion,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your Instructional Designer<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Feeling overwhelmed by accessibility standards? You aren\u2019t alone! Learn how to use Blackboard Ally to audit existing content and then take action to make your slide decks, PDFs, and other course materials accessible using the best tools for your situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":19112,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[368],"tags":[479,395,365,420,407,481,412],"class_list":["post-19111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","tag-accessibility","tag-adobe-creative-cloud","tag-ai","tag-ai-tools","tag-ask-an-id","tag-blackboard-ally","tag-student-learning"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/instruction.austincc.edu\/nexus\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/66\/2026\/03\/Updating-Course-Materials-for-Accessibility.png?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/nexus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/nexus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/nexus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/nexus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/nexus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19111"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/nexus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19113,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/nexus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19111\/revisions\/19113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/nexus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/nexus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/nexus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/nexus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/instruction.austincc.edu\/nexus\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/66\/2024\/09\/Blue-Futuristic-Technology-LinkedIn-Banner-2.png?resize=580%2C203&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n1. Audit materials with Blackboard Ally<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
2. Making Slide Decks Accessible<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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3. PDF Accessibility<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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4. Looking Forward: AI and Design<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
General Resources for Your Toolkit<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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