Course-related content

Any ODI staff member teaching a class (an ACADAFF course or in conjunction with any other academic unit) who is responsible for creating, providing, and uploading materials to CARMEN must create digitally accessible electronic course materials.*

For All Classes (in-person or online)

1. All new and/or updated digital content such as textbooks, documents, videos, etc. must be checked for digital accessibility. Documents must undergo an automated disability check and be remediated for any accessibility issues before being provided to students.
2. All new and/or updated videos must have closed cations that are accurate and human reviewed. In addition, videos must have audio descriptions or transcripts (see a, b, c below for definitions). All new and/or audio materials must have transcripts.
   1. An audio description is a spoken narration that describes the visual elements of a video (body language; expressions and movements; actions; characters; scene changes; surroundings; costumes; and on-screen text), primarily used to make content accessible for people with visual impairments.
   2. A transcript is a written text version of the audio content in a video, including both spoken dialogue and relevant visual information, providing a complete record of what was said and shown on screen.
   3. Essentially, an audio description is a spoken commentary on the visuals, while a transcript is a written summary of both audio and visual aspects of a video.

Guidance on producing and evaluating digital content within your course [Login required]

• Producing Accessible Digital Content
• Evaluating Digital Content for Accessibility

Additional links

• Using the Canvas Accessibility Checker
• Carmen Canvas Accessibility Guides | Engineering Technology Services (ETS)
• Five Ways to Improve Accessibility in Your Carmen Course
• General Accessibility Design Guidelines - Instructure Community - 252642
• College of Arts and Sciences Accessible Course Content in CarmenCanvas
• Designing an Accessible Online Course

In addition, ODI’s annual digital accessibility report for the university collects information on courses taught within the university. Near the end of the year, please be prepared to provide information on any class(es) that you taught:

• The number of textbooks or documents posted in Carmen.
  • How many of these documents were checked for accessibility and remediated.
• The number of new and/or updated videos proved to students electronically
  • How many of these new and/or updated videos had closed captions, audios descriptions or transcripts.
• The number of audio recordings provided.
  • How many of these audio recordings had transcripts
• The number of online courses produced (Multiple sections/instances of the same course should be counted as 1 unless they have different content.)
  • How many of these courses underwent an accessibility evaluation and were remediated prior to students gaining access?

*Please note that the university is currently working on additional guidance for online courses.