Engagement Fair

The Accessible Course Design Learning Community takes a practice-based approach to exploring accessibility and Universal Design for Learning in face to face and online settings. Our goal is to develop our own accessible teaching practices, while creating and promoting accessibility to the MSU community. Learn how to participate in the Learning Community and what we are up to this year.

American Sign Language (ASL) is used by half a million people as a way to communicate non-verbally. Visit this station to learn more about Deaf culture and resources available to begin learning the language.

Planetariums offer immersive spaces that can help people feel transported to different locations. Custom content can be made using 360 cameras that can create video or stills that can be projected on our domed ceiling. This content can also be shared on yotube via 360 streams and videos to offer another means of accessing content.

The Library Accessibility Alliance (LAA) is a partnership between the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) and Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) with the goal of advancing accessibility in libraries. Members from the LAA Steering Committee will share more information about the LAA and its various projects and initiatives.

Jessica Lemond, an MSU undergraduate student with a visual impairment and a passion for accessibility, will demonstrate screen reader functionality in the format of a video demonstration. She will use JAWS to demo materials such as websites, PDFs, google docs, and much more, by allowing viewers to compare what they hear from the screen reader with what’s actually on the screen. The video will provide introductory information about JAWS, and you will be able to ask any questions you may have over email after viewing the demonstration. Send questions to lemondje@msu.edu

Having Accessibility features should not be an “extra” added onto devices, but rather thought of as second nature and available to everyone. Accessibility is wide scoping and should be treated as such, with no need to small. Have you ever used Siri? Many people use Siri in their daily lives without realizing its true function as an Accessibility feature. Apple believes that having accessible options should be a part of everyone’s lives and on every device. These resources will include vision, hearing, mobility, and learning Accessibility features that are built into Mac, iPad, iPhone, Watch, TV, and HomePod.

Apple Accessibility Resources

Developers

• https://developer.apple.com/accessibility/
• How to make your app accessible https://developer.apple.com/accessibility/macos/
• Essentials for Accessibility for macOS including AppKit Elements and a variety of code to make apps accessibly https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appkit/accessibility_for_macos/
• Media Accessibility https://developer.apple.com/documentation/mediaaccessibility/
• Watch a variety of videos about the Accessible app design https://developer.apple.com/videos/frameworks/accessibility/
• Highlight:
• Accessible Reading Experience https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2019/248/
• Visual Design and Accessibility https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2019/244/
• Media and Gaming Accessibility https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2017/217/
• Building Apps with Dynamic Type https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2017/245/

Utilize your current devices 

• Voice Controlhttps://www.apple.com/accessibility/
• Mac https://www.apple.com/accessibility/mac/
• Vision https://www.apple.com/accessibility/mac/vision/
• Hearing https://www.apple.com/accessibility/mac/hearing/
• Mobility https://www.apple.com/accessibility/mac/mobility/
• Learning https://www.apple.com/accessibility/mac/learning/
• iPad https://www.apple.com/accessibility/ipad/
• Vision https://www.apple.com/accessibility/ipad/vision/
• Hearing https://www.apple.com/accessibility/ipad/hearing/
• Mobility https://www.apple.com/accessibility/ipad/mobility/
• Learning https://www.apple.com/accessibility/ipad/learning/
• iPhone https://www.apple.com/accessibility/iphone/
• Vision https://www.apple.com/accessibility/iphone/vision/
• Hearing https://www.apple.com/accessibility/iphone/hearing/
• Mobility https://www.apple.com/accessibility/iphone/mobility/
• Learning https://www.apple.com/accessibility/iphone/learning/
• Watch https://www.apple.com/accessibility/watch/
• Vision https://www.apple.com/accessibility/watch/vision/
• Hearing https://www.apple.com/accessibility/watch/hearing/
• Mobility https://www.apple.com/accessibility/watch/mobility/

This is a look at James – a college student with a visual impairment known as tunnel vision – and a college application form he had to complete in order to apply. Learn some tips and tricks for form layout and how your forms may be hampering your users and costing you customers.

HIVES Research Workshop and Speaker Series Co-Founders Michael and Jessica Stokes will discuss the production of their newly released Buzz-Zine, a collection of poems, art, short stories, and commentary on disability and animal studies in popular culture. Historically, zines have been a cheap format to spread ideas. Early zines were a way for fans of science fiction to rank favorite stories, propagate fan theories, and form social groups; however, they sometimes served gatekeeping functions and limited participation, upholding some (white, male) voices and erasing others. In the decades since, zines have been used to make space for people whose ideas and voices have been suppressed in their subcultures (e.g. Riot Grrrl zines that pushed back against the “male-driven punk world of the past”). Buzz-Zine seeks to make space for scholarship/poetics/art that challenge notions of the boundaries and definitions of each of these genres while reimagining accessibility and community. Jessica and Michael will address the technology and practices that go into crafting accessible zines and building crip community in pandemic times.

RCPD will provide a demonstration of the in-house process used to produce accessible materials, from the original student request, to methods of acquiring a digital version of a material, to creating the end product (be it large print, e-text, braille, etc). RCPD will also describe helpful technology and tools recommended for accessibility.

Live online meetings, classes, conferences, etc. present a real-time challenge to not only people with limited visual and auditory perception but also to those that are trying to present with accessibility inclusivity in mind. Visual captions overcome auditory perception limitations but may block access to critical visual content for all users. Visual captions during a live presentation will also lag the speakers in ways that are not suitable for future replay. There are also the inevitable word and name spelling issues of live transcribers and the occasionally left out meaningful background sounds. A variety of potential solutions will be presented including automatic Google captioning, PowerPoint automatic subtitles, CART, Webcaptioner.com, Otter.ai and other available technologies. These will all be discussed with pros and cons for each that address the issue that occur both during the live event and later with a recording of the event that is being prepared for replay or is being replayed without repair.

Accessible media is integral in online courses. However, balancing accessible design choices with UDL and effective design choices can be a difficult task. We’ll explore design decisions we consider during development and production to accommodate accessibility while keeping UDL principles in mind.

We will discuss the process of adapting a born-analog PDF accessibility workflow for undergraduate student employees and, in response to the global pandemic, modifying said workflow for fully remote undergraduate student employee work. We will cover the highs, lows, and lessons learned from our department which has a long history of utilizing undergraduate student employees and a more recent history of creating accessible PDFs from born-analog images.

This presentation will discuss the implementation and benefits of Spartan Ally, an automated accessibility checker that promotes accessible content and inclusive design through real-time feedback, step-by-step remediation instructions, and the generation of accessible alternative formats that allow learners to choose how they interact with course materials.

Learn how Michigan State University developed the MSU Crowd Source Captioning program in response to the university -wide transition to online learning. The goal of the program is to provide members of the university ease of access to captioning resources while helping employ students who may have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. This session will discuss how this program came about and what it took to get it running. Each member will speak on their role in the project and their struggles and triumphs. For more information please visit the Getting Started with MSU Crowd Sourced Closed Captioning page or email us at webaccess@msu.edu