Faculty Resources

QLT Section 8: Accessibility and Universal Design

• For a better definition of what “accessible” means, CSUN turns to the Quality Learning and Teaching (QLT) rubric, Section 8:
• 8.1 Course design and activities enact the core principles of Universal Design for Learning by incorporating multiple means of representation, action and expression, and engagement. Accessibility is therefore embedded in the course design rather than a reactive accommodation for those with registered disabilities
• 8.2 (CORE) The Syllabus must include links to the campus’ disability support services resources and policy related to the accessibility of courses and/or instructional materials, and may be included in the LMS whether it is required or recommended by the institution. Students can clearly ascertain the role of the instructor in providing support for those officially registered with the campus disability support services office.
• 8.3 (CORE) Course design, documents, and learning materials created by the instructor or from external sources are in formats that are accessible to students using assistive technologies. A “met” score does not imply that all materials are fully accessible to all students, but that 85% or more of the materials meet general standards for accessibility.
• 8.4 When utilized, the instructor and course use officially supported campus technologies, which are already fully accessible and assistive technology ready. Any third-party tools used are accessible and assistive technology ready when feasible.

How do you know if you’re met QLT’s 85% standard? Several of the tools, notably Cidi Labs: Course Accessibility Report, provide scores.

Visit What is Accessibility and What is Universal Design?

Course Accessibility Report

The Course Accessibility Report within your Canvas courses is now powered by Cidi Labs’ “Universal Design Online content Inspection Tool” (UDOIT). Cidi Labs offers the same features as the previous tool, including alternate file formats, while adding new options to help you with the accessibility of your materials. While the familiar features are present, the interface is different; for example, the colored dials have gone away and the tool is accessed through the report in the course menu. 

PDF to a Canvas Page

Cidi Labs also lets you convert a PDF to a Canvas Page in one step. This won’t solve every PDF, and the Page still needs to be checked for accessibility, but this option may be a good alternative for some intractable files.

In the Review Files area, click Review. Next to "Canvas Page," click Request. Optional: Click the "Replace file with a Page" button to replace all instances of the file in your course with the new page.

See how it's done:

Convert a PDF Document to a Canvas Page Step by Step Guide

TidyUp

TidyUp finds unused files and pages within your Canvas course and helps you easily remove extraneous content. 

Watch how to use TidyUp Files & Folders Video

University Library

Your Subject Specialist at the University Library may be able to help you find a more accessible digital copy of textbooks, journals, articles, or publications for your courses.

Use Accessibility Checker in Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel to check your email messages, documents, slides, and spreadsheets for accessibility issues while you work. This way you can make sure your Microsoft 365 content is easy for people with disabilities to read and edit. Visit Improve Accessibility with the Accessibility Checker.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be a useful tool for accessibility, for example, describing complex images. However, AI tools themselves may have accessibility barriers. The University provides

• ChatGPT Edu
• Microsoft CoPilot

Or you can use an external AI tool from Arizona State University's Image Accessibility Creator to describe complex images.

Visit UDC:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI), Accessibility, and Accommodations
• Describing Image Examples

Web Accessibility ensures everyone can access, understand and interact with digital content on the web, without barriers, and regardless of device, software, or product used.
 

It requires implementation of best practices and criteria defined in Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) in order to eliminate barriers from interacting and utilizing a webpage.

Please refer to Web Accessibility Criteria page to learn more about:

Alternative Descriptions and Multimedia:

images, user controls, captioning

Structure and Design:

Headings, color, links

Keyboard Navigation:

Visual focus, Tab order

Forms:

Instructions, labels, errors

WAVE® is a suite of evaluation tools that helps authors make their web content more accessible to individuals with disabilities. WAVE can identify many accessibility and Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) errors, but also facilitates human evaluation of web content. Our philosophy is to focus on issues that we know impact end users, facilitate human evaluation, and to educate about web accessibility. Visit the WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool.

Use TPGi's free color contrast checker to optimize your content - including text and visual elements - for individuals with color-blindness or low vision impairments. Visit Colour Contrast Analyser (CCA)

Important accessibility questions can be answered without any special software or training; we call this a basic or eight-point accessibility evaluation. You can use these evaluation techniques with most types of information and communication technologies (ICT) such as web pages, course materials, documents (PDFs, etc.), web and mobile applications, software, etc. If you are considering a product for purchase, a basic evaluation will provide useful preliminary information about potential barriers the product may present. Learn more about Basic Accessibility Evaluations: 8 Questions

CSUN has more options around captioning than ever!

If a class has a student with a relevant approved accommodation - whether the class will be taught live or feature pre-recorded videos - contact NCOD: Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services ncod@csun.edu | (818) 677-2054

For instructor-created videos, start with Panopto, a service for faculty and staff that will caption videos automatically while offering a simple interface to edit captions. csun.edu/it/panopto

For all other instructional videos, contact NCOD: Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services.

The Universal Design Center (UDC) offers training and resources to make videos accessible. Visit UDC Video page. 

If you’re using videos for instruction and they are not captioned, the University will caption them for you at no cost to your department. If you have a blind or visually impaired student, contact Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES) or UDC about next steps.  

 
Tseng College Distance Learning faculty should contact their assigned Instructional Designer.

Screen readers are a form of assistive technology (AT) software that enables access to a computer, and all the things a computer does, by attempting to identify and interpret what is being displayed on the computer screen using text-to-speech. Screen readers can only access and process live text (fully editable or selectable text).

Learn more about Screen Readers