Learning Edge

2020, kick-start the New Year with several staff development activities and resources, designed to help you make your content accessible.   

Learning Services are offering a range of sessions and resources to assist staff with issues raised by Blackboard Ally, from training sessions on making accessible documents, small steps videos that target a range of specific issues and guides that help with more complex document structures and conversions. 

Attend a Drop-in Session.

Sessions are being run from 8^th Jan to 26^th Feb, every Wednesday between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. Catalyst Oak Room (session on Wed 12^th Feb will run from 11-1pm).

No appointment necessary, drop into the Catalyst Oak Room (top floor) & get individual help with making your content accessible. Bring up issues you are having with particular documents and we will help you find a solution following best practice.

Book on a Digital Proficiency Staff Development Session. 

Improve your ICT skills with software that you use frequently, sessions such as ‘PowerPoint: Get Creative with Presentations’ and ‘Microsoft Word: Making Documents Accessible’ sessions. These sessions are vital in making presentations and documents more accessible and inclusive to all users. 

View Small Steps Videos. 

Learning Services are producing a series of short how-to videos for the most common accessibility issues found in content uploaded to Blackboard Courses.  All videos will be available by February and will walk you through a step by step approach to resolving issues such as; adding alt text to an image, using Header Styles in Word, saving a Word file to an accessible PDF and linking to 3^rd party resources.

How-to Videos:

• Add Alternative Text to images in Word and PowerPoint – Office 365 (transcript).
• Third-party Content and Digitised Versions in Learning Edge (transcript).
• Using Header Styles in MS Word for improved structure – Office 365 (transcript).
• Saving a Word file to an Accessible PDF – Office 365 (transcript).
• Avoiding Poor Colour Combinations and Contrast (transcript).

Access Good Practice User Guides. 

Create documents that are usable to more people, follow some key tips to make PDF files and their alternative versions accessible for all your students.

• Creating a PDF from Microsoft Word and PowerPoint.
• Adding Document Structure to a PDF File (Adobe Acrobat).
• Tags and Reading (Adobe Acrobat).
• Accessibility Check (Adobe Acrobat).

LinkedIn Learning – Creating Accessible PDFs

LinkedIn Learning specifically focuses on professional development. Industry experts provide insights and guidance to you on what you should know about in the production and remediation of PDFs. ‘Creating Accessible PDFs’ course is broken down into six key areas: 

1. Understanding Accessibility.
2. Accessibility in PDF Files.
3. Make an existing PDF File Accessible.
4. Create an Accessible PDF from Word.
5. Create an Accessible PDF File from PowerPoint and Excel.
6. Create an Accessible PDF File from Adobe InDesign.      

Each category is delivered in short manageable chunks, between 2 – 12 minutes sections, this means you can dip in and out of your learning as and when it suits you.

Want to know more about accessibility and what the new legislation means for your modules in Blackboard?

Contact your Learning Technology Development Officer: AskLTD or Tel. 7755