Digital Accessibility UpdatesNews you can use to make your digital resources, classrooms, and events more inclusive and accessible to the Mason community!
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In This Newsletter- Changes in CDE...
- Training & Collaboration Opportunities
- Productivity Solutions for Faculty & Staff
- Services Available to You
- Coming Soon...
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Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
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Compliance, Diversity, and Ethics (CDE) will be transitioning to the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) this upcoming fall semester. Effective Sept. 1st, Dr. Sharnnia Artis will be taking over as the Chief Diversity Officer and new VP for DEI.
To learn more, select the link below.
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Sharnnia Artis, VP for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer
Dr. Sharnnia Artis has been named Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer, effective September 1.
Dr. Artis currently serves as Assistant Dean of Access and Inclusion in the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences and Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, one of the most diverse engineering programs in the nation.
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Crystal C. Coombes, University ADA Coordinator
Crystal C. Coombes is the new University Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Coordinator. The ADA Coordinator works within the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to oversee accessibility and accommodation for visitors and employees with disabilities. She joins Mason with a wealth of experience in higher education, ADA, and Title IX, as well as mental health-related causes.
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Training & collaboration Opportunities
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ATi Open HOuses, AUG. 19 - Aug. 20
The ATI is hosting open-house, drop-in sessions from Aug. 19th - Aug. 20th to answer any questions you may have about the digital accessibility resources available to those in the Mason community.
See below for the schedule (Select the link to attend the Zoom session -- no registration required):
- Thursday, August 19 - 11:00am-12:00pm
- Friday, August 20 - 11:00am-12:00pm
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Blind/Low Vision Faculty Drop-Ins
This semester, Disability Services c/o the ATI will be hosting drop-in workshops for faculty members teaching courses that have students with visual impairments enrolled in them. Faculty would have received an email from Lisa Coats (Disability Services) within the past couple of weeks.
Feel free to reach to her directly or attend one of the drop-in sessions listed below (Select the link to attend the Zoom session -- no registration required):
Contact Lisa Coats ( lcoats@gmu.edu), Disability Services, if you have any questions or concerns.
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FALL digital Accessibility Workshops
This fall, ATI staff will be hosting the following training workshops. Select a link below to register:
Creating Accessible Documents Series, Oct. 5 - Oct. 12
Accessible Web Design Series, Oct. 19 - 21
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Join DEI's
Digital Accessibility and Inclusion Community
Group
DEI's Digital Accessibility and Inclusion Community Group will hold it's next meeting on October 21st. Session agenda coming soon...
The DAIC's mission is to bring together community partners to share and learn about the digital solutions already in place to support access and inclusion at Mason. Sessions are open to all members of the Mason community.
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productivity solutions for Faculty/staff
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Microsoft 365 Accessibility checker
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Use microsoft's built-in accessibility check tool
Microsoft 365 apps (Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, and Visio) include a tool that allows you to check the accessibility of your email messages, syllabi, PPT presentations, etc. This features help you to identify issues (e.g., images without alternative text descriptions, illegible hyperlink text, etc.) that could present accessibility challenges for many members of the Mason community.
Try adding this one step to your editing and proofreading workflow. This will greatly improve access to the digital content you create.
To view a short video (1:04) on how this feature works, select the link below.
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Blackboard ally is automatically enabled in your online course
This is just a reminder that the Accessibility Score Icons you see in this image are a part of the Blackboard Ally tool in your online course.
Ally empowers students by enabling them to select the alternate formats (e.g., electronic braille, PDFs, audio/MP3, etc.) that best support their specific learning needs. In the 2020-2021 academic year, there were over 61,000 unique alternative format downloads. This tells us, our students like having alternative learning options!
To learn more about what Ally can do for faculty and students, select the link below.
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Microsoft Accessibility options
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Microsft 365 has accessibility tools to support increased productivity in the workplace...
Microsoft 365 offers apps and tools with accessibility features to support all types of end users. Follow the links below to see what features are available:
To learn more, select the link below.
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Microsoft Stream for video Hosting
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create and share accessible video content with microsoft stream
Stream is Microsoft's video content hosting and sharing platform, supporting access to users with differing abilities. Think of it as Mason's internal YouTube channel.
From an accessibility standpoint, Stream does the following:
- Provides autocaptions for video uploads in a number of different languages (e.g., Spanish, Chinese, English, German, etc.). These can be edited easily.
- Includes settings that offer the end user the ability to adjust the look and size of captions for any videos they watch. This differs greatly from YouTube, which does not offer this capability.
- Supports keyboard-only access
To learn more, select the link below.
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Services available to you
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PROFESSIONAL captioning support available!
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Whether you are providing post-production captions and transcripts for an individual with a disability or simply to create more inclusive digital media, Mason supports your captioning, transcription, and audio description needs.
Mason offers two options for post-production captioning and transcription support: professional (human-transcribed) captions and AI-generated captions:
- Professional, human-transcribed captions - This service offers ~99% accuracy with a average turnaround time of 3-4 business days. Available at no cost to faculty and staff in the Mason community.
PLEASE NOTE: Videos hosted in courses with students with sensory impairments (i.e., blind, low vision, deaf, and/or hard of hearing) and videos hosted on public-facing websites are prioritized first. This may impact turnaround times for all other requests. If you need a more immediate solution, see Need Captions in a Pinch?! below for more details.
To learn more, select the link below.
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Need captions in a pinch?!
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Mason offers AI-generated, machine transcription for instructional videos that are uploaded to your Kaltura MyMedia folder:
- Transcriptions can be ordered directly through Kaltura MyMedia.
- Turnaround times mirror length of uploaded video content (i.e., longer video, longer processing time)
While machine captions are AI-generated and not as accurate (varies based upon speaker and quality of audio) as human-transcribed, professional captions (99% accurate), Kaltura MyMedia does offer you the option for correcting the machine captions. This is a good alternative when you are limited on time and resources.
To learn more about requesting machine captions for your Kaltura MyMedia videos, select the link below.
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live captioning options...
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Live captioning options
Mason offers 2 options for live captioning support for your events and/or classrooms:
- Live Remote Captions (Human Transcription) - Live remote captioning support with human transcribers is available by request through Disability Services. Submit a Live Remote Captioning Request through the DS website to get started.
Please note: Accommodation requests for this service are approved and funded at the discretion of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Manager (for student-related accommodations) or the ADA Coordinator (for employee or visitor-related accommodations). All other requests must be paid by the unit or party making the request.
- Live Transcription (AI-generated) - Live AI-generated transcription is available through the Zoom Meetings platform. This service is available at no cost. The host must click on Live Transcript and then Enable Live Transcription for session attendees to have access. See Enabling and managing closed captioning and live transcription in Zoom for more details.
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DubBot HelpS your websites Become more accessible and inclusive
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DubBOT
DubBOT is Mason's new web governance solution, continuously checking your website for accessibility issues, broken links, and misspelled words among other issues.
DubBOT also provides an overall score for issues related to accessibility, spelling, broken links, and flagged words. This allows you to easily track and remediate issues that may result from changes to your website.
Request your FREE DubBot account to get started!
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request ADA accommodations during covid-19
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the AAM request process...
The university has established a process to assist you in requesting ADA accommodation during campus Covid-19 operational status, within its normal Reasonable Accommodation/Adjustment/Modification (AAM) Request process. If you are seeking accommodations in the workplace as a result of an ADA qualifying disability or condition, the AAM will act as your disclosure and request to the university.
To learn more or submit an AAM request,
select the link below.
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Reporting an access barrier!
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Having trouble?
Mason is committed to ensuring individuals with disabilities are afforded equivalent access to all of the university's programs and services. Any member of the Mason community encountering digital (e.g., websites that do not work with your assistive technology) and/or physical accessibility barriers (e.g., automatic doors not working, block walkways/doorways, etc.) can report the issue to the ATI.
To report an Access Barrier, select the link below.
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The Digital Accessibility Updates newsletter will be published at the beginning and end of the fall and spring semesters. The next issue will be distributed on Monday, December 6th.
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Assistive Technology Initiative
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