As campus efforts continue to meet Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, the digital accessibility team is providing weekly articles on creating accessible content.
This week’s focus is on creating accessible courses using the Accessibility Checker Widget in Brightspace & Ally.
The Course Accessibility Checker widget is located on each Course Homepage in Brightspace. The widget uses the current Brightspace accessibility tool, Anthology Ally, to provide instructors with feedback to improve course content accessibility. Please note this tool is only visible to course instructors.
Key features for faculty
The widget serves two main functions for faculty:
- Displays the course’s overall Ally score.
- Provides a direct link to the Full Accessibility Report.
The Full Accessibility Report offers a comprehensive dashboard that is designed to help faculty prioritize remediation efforts. This report includes:
- A breakdown of content by type (e.g., PDFs, Word documents or images)
- Identification of content with the most severe issues
- Highlighting items that are easiest to fix
Guided remediation
The report's true power lies in its ability to offer guided, step-by-step instructions for fixing accessibility problems. For instance, the report can:
- Direct an instructor to a low-scoring PDF and provide steps to ensure it has proper structure and is machine-readable.
- Point out images missing alternative text.
- Identify videos without captions.
The Course Accessibility Checker widget / Ally Course Accessibility Report knowledge-base article provides additional guidance on using these tools.
Professional development and support
To further assist the campus community, the following list includes various professional development :
The Digital Accessibility team is available to visit departments, offices, or student groups for training or discussion.
Additional learning opportunities include:
- Accessibility tutorials on creating and checking accessible documents
- The asynchronous “Access: A Quest Toward Inclusion” course
- SUNY Access for All webinar series
- Winter breakout workshop recordings through CELT
- Digital Accessibility website resources
Staying informed
Additional updates on campus accessibility efforts and Title II implementation will continue to be shared through Oswego Today and occasional campus emails.
Creating an inclusive digital environment is a shared responsibility. Thank you for your attention to this important initiative and for helping ensure that SUNY Oswego remains a welcoming, accessible community for all.
–- Submitted by members of the Digital Accessibility Steering Committee and the Workgroup on Accessibility Practices who can be reached at accessibilitypractices@oswego.edu