Accessibility Solutions is available to provide assistance with captioning any video/audio material used in a course where there is a student with a captioning accommodation through UM Students with Disabilities Services, as well as creating new or retrofitting existing course materials to ensure accessibility for students who rely on assistive technology to access these materials. It is vital that any electronic course material (video, audio, Powerpoint, Word, PDF, website, digital tools) be accessible for students with accommodations through SDS.
Additionally, basic digital accessibility is recommended as a best practice whenever posting or sharing digital content with students. We ask that you explore some of the Do-it-Yourself Accessibility resources below for creating accessible documents, presentations, and videos.
Accessibility Basics
Doing the following when creating material that will be read or accessed on a computer or mobile device will increase accessibility for everyone:
- Use strong color contrast and avoid using color as only means of relaying information.
- Links should be descriptive, avoiding generic “read more” or “click here.”
- Use clear language and use adequate font size and sans serif font styles (Ariel, Calibri, etc).
- Use true bulleted and numbered lists instead of creating one with tabs and an asterisk or number.
- The document should have a simple, logical structure (use built-in styles menu for Microsoft Word and PDF and use PowerPoint slide layouts).
- Any images, graphics, charts, etc., must include Alternative Text that adequately describes the visual element.
- Any video or audio must include accurate captions/transcripts.
Faculty Assistance
We are available to help with the creation and remediation of course materials, including captioning, for instructors who have a student with an accommodation for captioning or accessible materials. Please contact us through accessibility@olemiss.edu. For guidance on captioning decisions, please visit Accessibility Solutions.
Do-it-Yourself Accessibility Resources
If you would like to explore creating or making your existing electronic material accessible for all students, the following resources from Accessibility Solutions will be helpful:
Accessible Document Guides:
- Creating an Accessible Microsoft Word Document
- Creating an Accessible Microsoft Powerpoint Presentation
- Course Accessibility Checklist
PDF Accessibility:
Due to the complexity of creating accessible PDFs or remediating PDFs, it is recommended that you follow the instructions above for creating an accessible Word or PowerPoint file and exporting that file to PDF only when necessary.
Scanned documents are not accessible, so it is recommended that you avoid scanning materials whenever possible. When scanning is necessary, it is recommended that you supply minimum accessibility by using OCR (optical character recognition) in Acrobat to make the document searchable text. If you do not have Acrobat, please send scanned documents to accessibility@olemiss.edu.