Universal Design Center
University Library 34
Mail Drop: 8235
Phone: (818) 677-5898
Make an appointment
Faculty Resources
Faculty Resources with Accessible Technology and Support
Faculty play a critical role in fostering inclusive learning environments, and accessible technology is a vital resource in supporting this mission. Ensuring that educational tools, content, and services are accessible to all — including individuals with disabilities — enhances equity, compliance, and academic success.
- Accessibility and ADA Updates
- How to EVALUATE course materials
- Seek Assistance from Campus Resources
- Accessibility Resources
Training Videos
- Use your CSUN username and password to watch the Academic Support Staff in the Panopto.
- Watch other UDC Training Videos
- “a11y” stands for “accessibility.” A numeronym is a number-based word with 11 for the number of letters between the letters a and y.
- A11y often appears on social media platforms like Twitter because space is limited and every character counts #a11y.
- It is always good practice to spell the word and any abbreviations or make a reference to your abbreviation when used for the first time.
- The universal icon for accessibility consists of an image of a person symbol.
- Accessibility is for everyone.
Accessibility ensures everyone can perceive, understand, engage, navigate, and interact with technology regardless of device, software, or product without barriers.
Learn more about what is Accessibility and Universal Design.
Starting April 26, 2027, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) will include specific guidelines about what makes digital content, including course materials, accessible.
These changes to the ADA apply to:
- Applies to Title II (public entities) like CSUN
- New legal standard for web, mobile, documents, videos, and social media
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA
- With specific exceptions
- Compliance date: April 26, 2027
- Disability Support and Accommodations Policy
Documents, Videos, Web, and Social Media
Documents
- Must be fully accessible
- New documents
- Documents "used to apply for, gain access to, or participate in ... services, programs, or activities"
Formats
- Word processor
- Presentations
- Spreadsheets
Web
- CSUN websites and web applications, including Canvas and course websites
Videos
- Pre-recorded videos on a CSUN website must have:
- Captions
- Audio descriptions available
- Live events must have captions
Social Media
- Posts beginning April 26, 2027
- Not responsible for platform
Campus Digital Communications
- Marketing & communication emails
- Newsletters
- Flyers
- Event web pages
- Social media
- And more
Must be fully accessible
Faculty: all other course materials
DRES: physical textbooks for DRES students (and accommodations)
NCOD: captioning videos (and accommodations)
University Library: library materials and course reserves
UDC: support, tools & training
Textbooks
- Fall: April
- Spring: November
SAAS: check for emails from DRES and/or NCOD starting at least 8 weeks before the start of the semester. Visit DRES.
Videos: to NCOD for captioning 6 weeks before showing. Visit NCOD Media Captioning.
Syllabus: 2 weeks before the start of the semester. Visit how to make an Accessible Syllabus.
Library: deadlines and turnaround times listed on How to Put Materials on Reserve
Course materials: accessible before the first day of classes
Quality Learning and Teaching (QLT)
Section 8: Accessibility and Universal Design
8.1 Universal Design for Learning: accessibility embedded in course design
8.2 (CORE) Syllabus include[s] links to the campus’ disability support services
8.3 (CORE) 85% or more of the materials meet standards for accessibility
8.4 [U]se officially supported campus technologies
- What is Accessibility and What is Universal Design
- QLT Section 8
- Cidi Labs: Course Accessibility Report
Accessibility & Accommodations Work Together for Student Success
Accessibility
- Proactive
- Checklist of standards
- Section 508
Accommodations
- Reactive
- Individualized
- Section 504
Screen readers enable access to a computer and digital content by attempting to identify and interpret what is being displayed on the computer screen.
Screen readers can access and process live text (fully editable or selectable text) as well as roles, states and alternative labels provided within HTML.
- Provides access for visually impaired users, to access content on the screen and understand the functionality associated to them.
- Offers same level of independence and privacy as anyone else.
Learn more about Screen Readers
Course Accessibility Report
The Course Accessibility Report within your Canvas courses is now powered by Cidi Labs’ “Universal Design Online content Inspection Tool” (UDOIT). Viewable only by the faculty member(s) for that course, it gives an overview of the accessibility of a course, lets you filter content by status, and highlights issues like “easiest to fix” and “high impact.”
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 Content Cleanup Tool
is available in Canvas to help you quickly identify and clean up unused content in your course. Identifying and deleting extra files, folders, pages, and/or assignments that are no longer used, makes your course easier to manage and more usable for everyone.
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.
The CSU has a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool to make PDFs more accessible: CSU PDF Accessibility Remediation. Easy to use, you feed the tool your PDF and download the “processed” results.
Learn more about the PDF Accessibility Remediation Tool
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
Or you can use an external AI tool from Arizona State University's Image Accessibility Creator to describe complex images.
Visit UDC:
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
Headings, color, links
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 is committed to making sure that campus technology and materials are accessible to everyone. The Universal Design Center (UDC)’s role is to provide tools, training, consultation, and support to help you make your course materials accessible for all of your students.
The Universal Design Center (UDC) is your campus resource for all things digital accessibility.
We offer accessibility training in a variety of formats: live workshops, training videos and resources, and Accessibility Canvas courses. The UDC team is available by appointment.
Want to learn more? Have questions? Need advice? email udc@csun.edu or call us at (818) 677-5898. The UDC team is available by appointment.
Academic Technology
Support and workshops on:
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Canvas
- Panopto
Faculty Development
Programs and resources on:
- Quality Learning and Teaching (QLT)
- eLearning/Online Teaching
Course Reserves & Curricular Resources (CR/CR)
- Accessible copies of library database materials
- Accessible course reserve materials
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
AI Audio Descriptions & Translations
AI Audio Descriptions and Translations use artificial intelligence to automatically generate spoken descriptions of visual content and translate spoken content into multiple languages. Learn more about AI Audio Descriptions & Translations.
Panopto: Closed Captions Self-Service
Panopto now allows faculty and staff to request professionally produced closed captions themselves, directly from within the Panopto interface. Learn more about Panopto: Closed Captions Self-Service
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.
You can’t build accessible content overnight. It’s making progress one step at a time. One small moment of victory propelling you forward to the next. Accessibility is a constant journey, not an end destination.
Accessibility is for everyone.
Textbooks
- Fall: April
- Spring: November
SAAS: check for emails from DRES and/or NCOD starting at least 8 weeks before the start of the semester. Visit DRES.
Videos: to NCOD 6 weeks before showing. Visit NCOD Media Captioning.
Syllabus: 2 weeks before the start of the semester. Visit how to make an Accessible Syllabus.
Course materials: accessible before the first day of classes
- Or prior to use
Library: see How to Put Materials on Reserve
- Canvas
- Colour Contrast Analyser
- Course Accessibility Report (Cidi Labs’ UDOIT)
- Panopto (video captions and audio descriptions)
- Screen readers: JAWS, NVDA
- TidyUP
- Browser extensions like the WAVE toolbar
Training
- UDC
- Live workshops every semester
- Canvas courses
- Video workshops
- Website, slides & handouts
- Academic Technology
- Faculty Development
Universal Design Center
University Library 34
Mail Drop: 8235
Phone: (818) 677-5898
Make an appointment