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- Training & Collaboration Opportunities
- Productivity Solutions for Faculty & Staff
- Services Available to You
- Coming Soon...
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Training & collaboration Opportunities
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ATi Open Houses, Feb. 3 - Feb. 4
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, February 3rd (11:00am-12:00pm)
- Friday, February 4th (11:00am-12:00pm)
- Creating Accessible Media (Documents, Videos), Join Session, Robert Starr
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Blind/Low Vision Faculty Drop-In sessions
This semester, Disability Services (c/o ATI) will be hosting drop-in sessions for faculty members teaching courses that have students who are blind or have low vision enrolled in them. Faculty would have received an email from Lisa Coats ( lcoats@gmu.edu) last week.
Feel free to reach to her directly or attend one of the drop-in sessions listed below (Select the link below to attend the Zoom session -- no registration required):
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SPRING digital Accessibility Brown Bag Sessions
This spring, ATI staff will be hosting the following training workshops. Select a link below to register:
Accessible Web Design Series, Feb. 11th, 18th (12pm - 1pm)
Creating Accessible Documents Series, March 4th-25th (12pm - 1pm)
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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 March 23rd from 1:00pm-2:30pm. 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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best practices for makingyour Microsoft 365 Documents Accessible
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Accessible documents improve access for all learners, especially who use assistive technologies. Individuals with print disabilities like dyslexia and low vision benefit from text-to-speech tools that read text aloud. Individuals who are blind benefit from screen readers that read aloud structural elements like headings, lists, and alternative text descriptions for images.
See below for best practices in making your Microsoft 365 documents as accessible and inclusive as possible (select each link for more details):
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Best Practices for Word
- Add alternative text descriptions for all meaningful images
- Add meaningful hyperlink text
- Use sufficient contrast for text and background colors
- Use built-in heading styles to improve navigation
- Add headers for all data tables
- Use sans serif fonts and sufficient white space.
For guidance on how to add these features, select the link below:
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Best Practices for PowerPoint
- Use built-in slide themes/layouts to ensure proper reading order
- Use unique titles for each slide
- Add alternative text descriptions for all meaningful images
- Add meaningful hyperlink text
- Use sufficient contrast for text and background colors
- Add headers for all data tables
- Use a larger font size (18pt or larger), sans serif fonts, and sufficient white space.
- Provide captions or transcripts for embedded video or audio
For guidance on how to add these features, select the link below:
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Create Accessible PDFs from Word and PPT
- Run the accessibility checker to make sure your document does not have any issues.
- Choose File/Export.
- Click Create PDF/XPS Document.
- in the Publish as PDF or XPS window, add a file name and then choose Options.
- In the Include non-printing information section, select Create bookmarks using and then, choose Headings.
- Make sure the Document properties is selected.
- To make the document easier for screen-reading software to read, select Document structure tags for accessibility.
- Click OK.
For guidance on how to add these features, select the link below:
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Testing color contrast on your websites and documents
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Colour Contrast Analyser (Paciello Group)
Good color contrast draws interest to important content on your website or in your document. This also benefits individuals who may have colorblindness, low vision, or other print-related challenges.
The Colour Contrast Analyser tool from Paciello Group is a highly recommended contrast checking tool because it can be used to test documents hosted within a web browser as well as those on your desktop. It is also free, easy-to-use, and works on both Macs and PCs!
Check out the video demo below:
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Services available to you
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How To Request Interpreters for Your event!
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Sign language interpreters, cued language transliteration, and live captioning support services for any Mason classrooms or events are coordinated through the Deaf and Harding of Hearing Services Coordinator in Disability Services.
To request services for deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind students, employees, and visitors (e.g., live captioning, interpreters, etc.), use the link(s) below:
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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, May 2nd.
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Assistive Technology Initiative
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