Top Three Barriers our Students Have

“Accessibility sounds like a lot of work. I would love to design my content following the Universal Design for Learning Framework, but where should I start?” I am glad you asked. I would recommend you start with the plus one approach. Take time to review your current course and collect feedback from your students on what you could do to make your content more accessible. Next, set up a timeline for yourself and try to add one new design aspect to your course material monthly.

Do you know the top three barriers access services receive from our students here at ICC? 

1. Audio/video with no captions or transcripts.
2. Using special fonts, highlighting, or color coding to represent emphasis or meaning.
3. PDF’s that are not screen-reader friendly.

So, let’s begin by providing you with resources to tackle our top three barriers here at ICC. Captioning is essential for someone who is deaf, but do you realize it benefits many others? Did you know that 85% of student populations are using captions when only about 10% need them? That’s a big chunk of students using captioning when watching videos. It allows students who are in a busy or loud place to follow along, it helps those learning English to hear and read what is being presented, it helps visual learners focus, and it also provides written transcripts for those who might not have the bandwidth available to watch the video. By providing captioning to the videos, whether live or recorded, it allows our students a higher level of engagement and opportunity to learn.

Here are a few tips and resources for you to explore in terms of creating and captioning videos:

●      When creating a video speak slowly. Go at a pace where your students can absorb and take notes.

●      Keep the video shorter in length (6-8 mins.). Brevity in videos helps students stay focused in learning and takes less time to caption.

o   Evidence Based Video Length

●      Caption your video and provide a transcript. Automatic auto captioning is about 85% accurate, the rest needs to be done by you. I would recommend learning how to edit the automatic generated captioning through YouTube. Once you learn how to use a studio editor, editing will be quick. Studio editor requires you to listen or watch your video one time through, follow along with the transcript created by the automatic caption, then correct mistakes and punctuation. When that is complete you can copy the captioning, paste it into a word doc and have a transcript to upload.

o    Getting Started with Captioning

●      Use audio descriptions. This just means describing what you are doing in your video by using words for those who may not be able to see the video. This suggestion reminds me of a trust activity I used to do with the volleyball team. A player had to verbally direct her blindfolded teammate through a court full of objects. Because of her restrictions, the blindfolded teammate had to focus on the audio descriptions given to her in order to avoid the objects on the floor. In our online learning community, audio descriptions create a richer environment for all of our learners. It might take practice, but it can become a normal routine in the way we design the content we deliver to our students.

o   An example of Audio Descriptions 

Next week, I will share tips with you on creating accessible documents as well as some additional resources you can use. I encourage you to find one design element you want to add to your current toolbox that can increase student learning in your classroom.

Written by Janelle Reeb
Online Learning Coordinator
Feel free to leave comments below

For additional resources, visit icc.edu/tlc webpage