What you missed from Global Accessibility Awareness Day
Although Global Accessibility Awareness Day has been celebrated globally for nine years, this is this first year we’ve participated at St Andrews.
Speakers from Student Services, IT Services, Corporate Communications and the Centre for Educational Enhancement and Development (CEED) came together to discuss what measures are in place at the University to support those with disabilities and how you can play your part.
Catch up
If you didn’t manage to watch the session live, you can catch up on Stream.
Questions which were asked
Is there an assistive or inclusive tool that you would like to highlight for online teaching?
The key tools would be the text-to-speech technology. My study bar is an excellent tool for many users as it has a magnifier, it alters contrast and adds colour filters. The Chrome apps are very good so please get in touch with the Disability team if you’re interested.
Are the accessibility tools available for researchers at the University? If so, how can we access them?
Panopto is available to everyone in the University so captioning videos for research participants could be an option. The other tools discussed by our Disability Advisors during the session can be requested as well. It may be worth discussing your requirements with them so they can recommend the best tool for your participants.
Can the AI media and Panopto be used if requested? It could be really useful for those whose first language is not English.
At the moment, this is provided on a request basis – you just need to contact Student Services.
Does the requirement for captioning in September include event videos and special lectures, such as James Gregory Lecture?
We’re still waiting on specific advice for some of our events but we believe if the event is public facing then it needs to be captioned. If in doubt, contact Chris Milne for further advice.
Can we use webcast for students who might be shielding?
Yes, it’s very easy to create a webcast in Panopto and there are video tutorials which anyone can access.
Is there accessibility guidance to schools and units to be taken into account for dual delivery going forward? It would be great to have hints and tips.
Not at the moment but this sounds like a great resource which the University can work towards.
Is there anything we should consider in terms of accessibility when writing emails?
Follow the general web content guidance regarding plain language and accessible hyperlinks and formatting which is covered in the Writing for the Web training. Mark also highlights the accessibility checker within Outlook which is a feature you can use as a starting point.
Where when and how would you advise describing contents of photos? Websites have been mentioned but should we also be offering descriptions for photos in lecture slides/ prerecorded videos (for flipped classrooms)?
Accessibility Checker in Office will ask you to check the automatically generated text in documents and PowerPoint presentations. Panopto uses a similar technology to generate this automatically as well.
Do you know if it’s possible to increase the font size in the Teams Assignment feedback box when typing?
Hold Ctrl and + or – on your keyboard to zoom in and out. You can also change font size at at operating system level which will apply the changes to every programme.
Where session materials are produced by students (i.e. facilitating tutorial) presumably it would also be helpful for them to think about the accessibility of their presentation for their peers. Is there anywhere we have a simple guide we could direct students towards?
- Microsoft Inclusive Design principles
- Microsoft UK
- GAAD website
Are there any future plans to provide training for staff/students on all these functions within Teams?
Nothing planned but we’d be happy to put something on soon – stay tuned!