Posted on No Comments on Disability Inclusion in Marketing and Social Media

Disability Inclusion in Marketing and Social Media

Recently I hosted a workshop about social media accessibility [recorded workshop]. One of the many tips that I shared is about including representations of people with diverse abilities in your media and content. This can be a challenge without the right resources. I received some excellent recommendations from peers about inclusive stock image archives and I’d like to pass along a few of the best ones here. A few notes before selecting photos and sharing your content:

  • Please read Lainey Feingold’s excellent blog about choosing the right photos of people with disabilities.
  • Be aware that some photos may include their own license info for purchase and reuse, even within the same archive.
  • Always include an alternative text description (alt text) for your images no matter where you share them. For example, all social media platforms have alt text [Veronica with Four Eyes blog].

Inclusive Stock Image Archives

Example Image from Disabled and Here.
Six disabled people of color smile and pose in front of a concrete wall. Five people stand in the back, with the Black woman in the center holding up a chalkboard sign reading "disabled and here." A South Asian person in a wheelchair sits in front.
Example alt text: “Six disabled people of color smile and pose in front of a concrete wall. Five people stand in the back, with the Black woman in the center holding up a chalkboard sign reading “disabled and here.” A South Asian person in a wheelchair sits in front.”

Posted on No Comments on Digital Accessibility Workshops for Everyone

Digital Accessibility Workshops for Everyone

Is February too late to make a New Year’s resolution? We don’t think so and we’ve got the perfect idea for you:
Make 2022 the year you commit 2 digital accessibility!
We can help you stick to that resolution with a new series of accessibility workshops throughout the month of February.
We’re even trying something a little different this time.

We’ve organized workshops into four main tracks based on different roles including web content, documents, communications, and teaching. We also have Accessibility Office Hours each Friday at 11 AM. Of course, there’s overlap in all of these areas, so feel free to sign up for any sessions that are relevant to your role.

If you prefer to see all of the training events in a monthly calendar, check out the Canvas Training Center.

Start Here

No matter what your role might be, or what track(s) you choose, everyone can get started by attending one of two workshops to learn some basic accessibility design principles.

How 2 A11y: Basic Accessibility Design Principles

    • Session 1: Wed. 2/02/22 @ 2 PM (closed)
    • Session 2: Tue. 2/22/22 @ 2 PM* (closed)

We also recommend that you attend one of the workshops about the Digital Information Accessibility Policy if you can. Read on for more info about training tracks and signing up for sessions.

* indicates repeated session.

Training Tracks

Web Content Track

  • Get to Know Rice’s Digital Accessibility Policy.
    Session 1: Mon. 1/31/22 @ 3 PM (closed)
    Session 2: Mon. 2/21/22 @ 10 AM* (closed)
    .
  • How 2 A11y: Basic Accessibility Design Principles.
    Session 1: Wed. 2/02/22 @ 2 PM (closed)
  • Session 2: Tue. 2/22/22 @ 2 PM* (closed)
    .
  • Check Your Website Content for Accessibility.
    Session 1: Tue. 2/01/22 @ 10 AM (closed)
    Session2: Wed. 2/23/22 @ 10 AM* (closed)
    .
  • PDF and Acrobat Accessibility Essentials, Tue. 2/08/22 @ 3 PM (closed)
    .
  • Better Video Captions, Wed. 3/02/22 @ 3 PM.

Documents Track

  • Get to Know Rice’s Digital Accessibility Policy.
    Session 1: Mon. 1/31/22 @ 3 PM (closed)
    Session 2: Mon. 2/21/22 @ 10 AM* (closed)
    .
  • How 2 A11y: Basic Accessibility Design Principles.
    Session 1: Wed. 2/02/22 @ 2 PM (closed)
    Session 2: Tue. 2/22/22 @ 2 PM* (closed)
    .
  • Microsoft PowerPoint Accessibility Essentials, Mon. 2/07/22, 10 AM (closed)
    .
  • PDF and Acrobat Accessibility Essentials, Tue. 2/08/22 @ 3 PM (closed)
    .
  • Microsoft Word Accessibility Essentials, Tue. 2/15/22 @10 AM (closed)
    .
  • InDesign Accessibility Essentials, Wed. 2/16/22 @ 3 PM (closed)

Communication Track

Teaching Track

  • Get to Know Rice’s Digital Accessibility Policy.
    Session 1: Mon. 1/31/22 @ 3 PM (closed)
    Session 2: Mon. 2/21/22 @ 10 AM* (closed)
    .
  • How 2 A11y: Basic Accessibility Design Principles.
    Session 1: Wed. 2/02/22 @ 2 PM (closed)
    Session 2: Tue. 2/22/22 @ 2 PM* (closed)
    .
  • Microsoft PowerPoint Accessibility Essentials, Mon. 2/07/22, 10 AM (closed)
    .
  • PDF and Acrobat Accessibility Essentials, Tue. 2/08/22 @ 3 PM. (closed)
    .
  • Universal Design in Canvas, Wed. 2.09, @ 10 AM. (closed)
    .
  • Microsoft Word Accessibility Essentials, Tue. 2/15/22 @10 AM (closed)
    .
  • Better Video Captions, Wed. 3/02/22 @ 3 PM.

A11y Office Hour at 11 AM

A11y means Accessibility. Join me Fridays between 11 AM and noon to talk about anything related to digital a11y. Sign up for a session.

  • Fri. 2/04/22 @ 11 AM (closed)
  • Fri. 2/11/22, No session, out for conference.
  • Fri. 2/18/22 @ 11 AM
  • Fri. 2/25/22 @ 11 AM
  • Fri. 3/04/22 @ 11 AM
Posted on No Comments on Happy 2022! Starting with a Quick Look Back.

Happy 2022! Starting with a Quick Look Back.

Well, we made it. It’s already a new year somehow and today is the first day of the spring 2022 semester.

I’ve been wrapping up some projects and organizing data from all of our 2021 accessibility workshops. Looking over the numbers, I can’t help but feel a strong since of pride about the work we’re all doing together to make Rice a more inclusive and accessible place for everyone, inside and outside of the hedges.

Here are some numbers for you:

We hosted a total of 60 accessibility workshops over five different months on about 15 unique topics. That averaged out to about three one-hour workshops per week during those five months of training.

All workshops were hosted remotely on Zoom to help keep us safe during this second year of the pandemic. Fortunately, this enabled us to start producing a pretty nice little library of training videos. Check out our Kaltura Media Gallery. We’re really optimistic about the possibility of bringing back some in-person learning opportunities this year (fingers crossed).

We had a total of 242 registrations from 84 unique individuals across more than 50 Rice departments. That averages to just slightly less than three workshops per person, so we’re feeling pretty good about how accessibility knowledge continues to grow within our community. Keep it up, y’all!

The most popular workshops were:

  1. Basic Accessible Design Principles (a.k.a. Design with WCAG) with 38 registrations.
  2. Acrobat and PDF Accessibility Essentials with 34 registrations.
  3. Microsoft PowerPoint Accessibility Essentials with 29 registrations.
  4. A tie between Better Video Captions and Accessible PDF Forms with 21 registrations each.

We are planning a new month of accessibility workshops for February 2022, so stay tuned for our announcements about that series. Of course, if there are any workshop topics you’d like to see us cover, or if there are any you’re hoping we’ll repeat again, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Also, let us know what delivery modes you prefer (i.e. remote live, in-person, asynchronous).

Let’s make 2022 the best year yet for expanding access, diversity, and inclusion at Rice University and beyond. Cheers!

Posted on No Comments on New Workshop Recording: Social Media Accessibility Tips

New Workshop Recording: Social Media Accessibility Tips

What a fun-filled month of accessibility workshops October turned out to be! Thank you for your interest and attendance.

If you were unable to be there for a live session, never fear, you can check out all of our accessibility recordings on the Learning Environments Media Gallery, including our latest workshop about Social Media Accessibility. In this recording, we discuss important things to consider when writing text and sharing all kinds of content like links, hashtags, emojis, images, and videos.

Also, check out the companion PowerPoint Presentation, which is loaded with helpful resources for creating accessible posts in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, and more. Note that you should be in presentation view to activate links, or right click links and choose “Open Link.”

Update: The Social Media Accessibility workshop recording now has 98%-99% accurate closed captions as of 11/02/21.

 

Posted on No Comments on October 2021 Accessibility Workshop Schedule

October 2021 Accessibility Workshop Schedule

October is here and so is the fall-like weather! Objectively the best time of year 🎃. To keep the good vibes flowing and the grim specter of inaccessibility away, we’ve scheduled a series of workshops so good…IT’S SCARY (lightning crash)! Okay, that’s enough of the Halloween schtick.

Check out our accessibility schedule in the following list. Select the links to sign up for a one-hour Zoom session. All sessions start at 11:00 AM unless otherwise noted. Workshops are limited to Rice faculty, staff, and students, so be sure to include your Rice NetID when signing up. Don’t forget to also check out our full calendar of Teaching and Scholarly Learning events for sessions about Canvas.

Posted on No Comments on Use Automatic Captions Across Different Video Platforms

Use Automatic Captions Across Different Video Platforms

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) captions can be a crucial starting point for improving the accessibility of your video content; especially if you lack the budget to outsource it to vendors, or the time/resources to manually transcribe every word of your (extensive) back catalog. I say “starting point” because even the best ASR technologies are only about 75% to 85% accurate. So it’s up to you to manually correct captions to get them as close to error-free as possible, as recommended by DCMP.

It wasn’t all that long ago when ASR captions seemed like a rare and coveted feature of many video platforms, sometimes available at a premium, but generally scarce. As the most popular video platform, YouTube has applied ASR captions to content for years.  In fact, my previous captioning strategy was 1) upload videos to YouTube, 2) edit the ASR captions, 3) export the edited caption file, and 4) import the caption file into another video platform.

While many additional video platforms now include ASR captions as a standard service, some popular ones like Vimeo still lack this important feature. In cases like these, I still recommend YouTube as a readily available source for generating ASR captions and exporting edited files. Admittedly, it’s been a while since I’ve personally relied on this strategy. In the past couple of years it seems there have been a few changes, the biggest of which is that the exported caption file is only available from YouTube in .sbv format. In the past, you could choose from a variety of widely used formats like .srt and .vtt, but more on this later in the post. I re-familiarized myself with this process, so I’m sharing what I found here.

Edit and Download Captions from YouTube

If you don’t already have one, follow YouTube’s instructions to upload a video. I recommend setting it to unlisted or private, at least until you’ve got everything edited. Also, you will probably have to wait 5 to 10 minutes before the automatic captions become available to edit.

  1. Start by going to your YouTube Studio dashboard, then click on the “Subtitle” link in the left-hand navigation menu.
    .
  2. On the Channel Subtitles page, click on the video you’d like to edit.
    .
  3. On the Video Subtitles page, in the automatic caption row, click the button text labeled “DUPLICATE AND EDIT.”
    .
  4. In the open caption editor dialogue, click the button text labeled “EDIT TIMINGS.” Now play through your video and inspect the text containers to the left of the video player, making edits when needed.
    .
  5. Periodically click the “Save Draft” button near the top right corner of the editor dialogue until you are finished.
    .
  6. To export the edited caption file, click the “Options” ellipses (…) just to the right of the “EDIT AS TEXT” button, and just above the frame timing box and select “Download subtitles” from the listbox. The captions.sbv file will automatically download to your computer.

Convert Captions to .srt or .vtt Formats

Unlike YouTube, other video platforms like Vimeo and Kaltura use caption formats like .srt or .vtt. Converting caption files is easy with the Free Caption Format Converter Tool from 3Play Media, one of the most trusted captioning vendors in the market.

  1. Go to the 3Play Caption Format Converter.
    .
  2. Open the captions.sbv file you exported from YouTube in a plain text editor like Notepad or TextEdit.
    .
  3. Next, copy all of the text in the captions.sbv file.
    • Windows: Ctrl + A to select all, then Ctrl + C to copy.
    • Mac: command + A to select all, then command + C to copy.
      .
  4. Paste the copied text into the text box labeled “Paste Your SRT/SBV File.”
    • Windows: Ctrl + P to paste.
    • Mac: command + P to copy.
      .
  5. Select SRT or WebVTT as the Output Format, then click the “CONVERT MY FILE” button. The file will download to your computer.

Import the Converted Caption File to Vimeo

If you don’t already have one, follow Vimeo’s instructions to upload a video. I recommend setting it to private, at least until you’ve got everything edited.

  1. Start by going to your Vimeo Video Manager.
    .
  2. Click the video to which you’d like to add captions.
    .
  3. On the following video page, click the “Advanced” button in the right-hand sidebar.
    .
  4. On the video settings page, click the “Distribution” link in the left-hand navigation menu, then click the “Subtitles” link.
    .
  5. In the “Captions and Subtitles” heading, near the “My Uploads” heading, click the  “New File” + button.
    .
  6. In the open menu, choose the language of your captions, then choose “Captions” in the “Type” field, then click the “Choose file” button.
    .
  7. Select the converted .srt or .vtt file from the files on your computer, then when the upload is complete, click to toggle the captions ON and click the “Save” button.
    .
  8. Return to your Vimeo video manger and click the video to view it in a video player. You should now see a CC button, which you can click to turn captions on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on No Comments on Big Accessibility Fixes Applied to rice.edu!

Big Accessibility Fixes Applied to rice.edu!

I know I haven’t updated all summer, but I promise it’s not because I’ve been slacking off. Okay, there was that one week when I went to the mountains, but other than that, it’s been full steam ahead.

I’ve got some exciting news to share! We’ve been hard at work making major accessibility upgrades to the rice.edu domain to ensure that our public website meets the standards set by the Digital Information Accessibility policy (851).

I wanted to use this post to highlight these important changes and discuss how they help Rice better align to the WCAG 2.1 A-AA criteria. Most noteworthy are the improvements to keyboard operability and assistive technology support. I hope these examples give you a better idea about how these standards are applied and why they matter. Ultimately, I hope this helps you create and share more accessible web content.

Note: These changes are released to the main rice.edu environment, but some pages within the larger Rice University website may still lack some or all of these features. For example, your department could have used a third party vendor to help create your site with modified styles and JavaScript. I would challenge you to take a look at your own site check if any of these important features are missing. If you identify any deficiencies, please report them to access@rice.edu so the Accessibility Steering Committee can address them ASAP.

Skip Navigation Link

Skip to main content link
What is it? When keyboard-only users navigate webpages, they use the TAB and arrow keys to move to the next interactive item like hyperlinks, form fields, buttons, etc. Most websites have blocks of content like navigation menus which are repeated at the top of each page. Therefore, the first TAB press should focus on a link that allows keyboard-only users to skip over these repeated blocks and jump straight to the main content region of the page.

How to test: Press the TAB key to move forward, and Shift + TAB to move backward. The first TAB press at the top of the page should focus on the “Skip to main content” link. Press ENTER or SPACE to activate the link.

Learn more about relevant WCAG criteria: 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks (Level A); 2.1.1 Keyboard (Level A); 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence (Level A); 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A)

Keyboard Operable Hamburger Navigation

Fully expanded hamburger navigation with submenu item receiving keyboard focus.

What is it? As mentioned above, keyboard-only users press TAB and arrow keys to navigate and ENTER and SPACE to activate links and buttons. All interactive items on webpages must be fully keyboard operable for anyone who cannot use a mouse. Moreover, keyboard operability must make logical sense. Previously, the main hamburger navigation on the Rice website had a several issues that, when combined with the lack of a skip nav link, created real accessibility barriers for blind and low-vision users. We are proud to say that the hamburger navigation, as well as the “share on social media” button and site search, are now fully keyboard operable and include information about their expanded/collapsed state for screen reader users.

How to test: Press TAB to move keyboard focus to the hamburger navigation icon, then press ENTER or SPACE to expand the menu. Press TAB to move forward and SHIFT + TAB to move backward. Press ENTER or SPACE to expand any submenus. Press ESC to close the menu without making a selection.

Learn more about relevant WCAG criteria: 2.1.1 Keyboard (Level A); 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence (Level A); 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A)

Visible Focus Indicators

Menu item with box-style focus indicator around the item receiving keyboard focus.

What is it? For users who have low vision and/or certain cognitive disabilities, all interactive items that are keyboard operable should include visible focus indicators. That means there is an apparent frame or other way of highlighting the item in focus when pressing TAB or arrow keys to navigate to interactive items. Prior to the rice.edu upgrades, not only were all interactive elements not accessible with a keyboard, but some that were keyboard accessible did not include visible focus. We are proud to say that all items are now fully keyboard operable and include visible focus.

Note: Some items like images/graphics are not typically keyboard focusable unless they are also hyperlinks. Likewise, headings and body text aren’t included by default in the TAB order, just interactive elements like links. However, web designers can add elements to the tab order using the tabindex attribute, but that should be used very intentionally.

How to test: Use TAB and arrow keys to move to interactive items and observe if it includes a visible focus indicator.

Learn more about relevant WCAG criteria: 2.4.7 Focus Visible (Level AA); 2.1.1 Keyboard (Level A); 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence (Level A); 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A

 

Posted on No Comments on May 2021 Workshop Rewind

May 2021 Workshop Rewind

Well, it’s somehow already Memorial Day weekend, which means it’s pretty much June! We will roll out a whole new schedule of workshops and training sessions soon, so stay tuned.

As for May, we hosted some awesome virtual sessions, which resulted in two new recordings, so it was a great success. Check out the links below to view the edited recordings as well as the workshop outlines/agendas.

One thing that’s been on my to-do list is to create a new section of the Access @ Rice website where you can find archived workshop recordings and workshop handouts. Until then, you can view our previously recorded workshops here.

Please contact me at a11y@rice.edu if you have any questions or comments, and let me know if there are any workshop topics you’d like me to tackle in the future. Also, if you ever encounter accessibility barriers with any of Rice University’s digital information, please contact the accessibility steering committee at access@rice.edu and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

Posted on No Comments on May 2021 Accessibility Workshops

May 2021 Accessibility Workshops

It’s been a little while since my last update here. The good news is that a lot of exciting updates have been taking place behind the scenes in that time, including some improvements to the rice.edu website. More on that in a future post.

There are some exciting accessibility learning opportunities lined up for the month of May, including an interactive workshop on Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD).

There are multiple repeated sessions covering the basic principles of accessible design, so take your pick. There are also sessions on favorite topics like Adobe Acrobat, PDF forms, Microsfoft Word and PowerPoint, and video captions. You’ve also been asking us to add workshops on Adobe Indesign. We listened and we’ve scheduled two!

Check out the full schedule below. Register for each session by clicking the link title.

Date Title/Registration Link Description
Wed. 5/05 Basic Accessible Design Principles Learn the basic principles and how to apply them to your own digital designs.
Thu. 5/06 Microsoft Word Accessibility Essentials Learn how to apply the basic design principles to your Word Documents.
Fri. 5/07 Acrobat & PDF Accessibility Essentials Learn the basics of creating, cleaning up, and remediating accessible PDFs in Adobe Acrobat.
Mon. 5/10 Basic Accessible Design Principles Learn the basic principles and how to apply them to your own digital designs.
Wed. 5/12 InDesign Accessibility Essentials Learn how to apply basic accessible design principles to your InDesign layouts and export options for best result to PDF.
Thu. 5/13 Accessible PDF Forms Learn to design fillable forms for PDF format with emphasis on tags, form field labels, descriptions, and tab order.
Fri. 5/14 Microsoft PowerPoint Accessibility Essentials We will discuss slide layouts, reading order, slide titles, alternative text, font sizes, and more.
Mon. 5/17 Basic Accessible Design Principles Learn the basic principles and how to apply them to your own digital designs.
Tue. 5/18 InDesign Accessibility Essentials Learn how to apply basic accessible design principles to your InDesign layouts and export options for best result to PDF.
Thu. 5/20 Fix Your Web Content with the Pros (GAAD 2021) Learn how to scan your webpages and documents, identify issues, and remove common accessibility barriers. Think of it like a guided hackathon to improve access for all.
Mon. 5/24 Basic Accessible Design Principles Learn the basic principles and how to apply them to your own digital designs.
Wed. 5/26 Better Captions for Everyone An overview of options for live (synchronous) and recorded (asynchronous) closed captions including Zoom, Kaltura, and other options.
Posted on No Comments on 12 Accessibility Workshops for February

12 Accessibility Workshops for February

It’s hard to believe we’re one full month into 2021. How would you qualify that sentence, “only one full month in,” or “already one full month in?” Sometimes, it feels like both.

February may be the shortest month, but we’ve packed it with a really versatile workshop schedule, including sessions on the brand new live caption feature is Zoom. Read more about Zoom live captions.

Each week in February has a kind of theme where most of the Monday and Wednesday sessions are informational and the Friday sessions are hands-on workshops. Week one is an exception though. None of the workshops have any prerequisites, so feel free to sign up for any and all of them.

Take a look at the schedule below and use the links to sign up.

NOTE: All workshops start at 10:00 am and last for one hour.

Week One: Accessibility Essentials

Week Two: PDFs and Adobe Acrobat

Week Three: Online Courses and Canvas

Week Four: Accessible Document Design