Six essentials to ensure digital accessibility
These six essentials below will help you reach the basic level of digital accessibility.Ìý
- Documents
- Captions
- Audio description
- Learning Management System (LMS) - CanvasÌý
- Web
Email is an essential communication tool and must be accessible. In general, follow website accessibility best practices in your email messages. Accessible email basics include fonts, good color contrast, readability, headings, self-describing links, and alternative text (alt text) for images. Learn more about email accessibility.
Documents
Like email, digital documents are vital tools. All digital documents must be created with accessibility in mind. The documents include Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and PDF files. Incorporate the five essential elements listed below for accessibility.
- Good heading structure
- Accurate and equivalent alternative text for images
- Descriptive links - avoid ambiguous links such as "click here."Ìý
- High color contrast
- Use of an accessibility checkerÌý
Use Accessibility Checker,Ìýwhich is 91ÊÓƵ in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook, to identify and fix accessibility errors.
Course materialsÌý
When using electronic documents such as articles, use original scans instead of photocopies. Photocopies are less accessible for screen readers and text-to-speech software.
Resources
Microsoft
Microsoft guides you onÌý in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. The Ìýinclude the Accessibility Checker, headings, images, lists, tables, color contrasts, and steps to create accessible PDF documents (2-3 minutes per video).
WebAIM Contrast Checker
is a user-friendly tool that allows you to enter foreground and background colors to check whether the color contrast is acceptable.
UM OCR Converter
The Information Technology offers the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) document converter service to convert image-based PDFs to text-based Word documents.
Accessible Technology Services (ATS)
ATS provides consultation to faculty to create accessible documents. Contact ATS at ats@umontana.edu
Captions
The media must include accurate captions toÌýensure the videos you produce or post at the 91ÊÓƵ. Accurate captions have proper punctuation and correct spelling.Ìý
- Captions automatically generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) may not be accurate.ÌýCheck and edit auto-generated captions before you post the video online.
Contacts
- For general closed captioning requests. Contact Accessible Technology Services (ATS). Submit a service request through theÌý.Ìý
- For faculty implementing an ODE student request for closed captioned media. Contact Brandy Reinhardt at 406-243-5136 orÌýbrandy.reinhardt@mso.umt.eduÌý
Audio Description
Audio description (AD) provides descriptive narrations of essential visual elements in videos or multimedia products. When a video's content is only presented visually in images, graphics, charts, or animations, the visual information must be described to be accessible to individuals who cannot see it. Audio description allows users to understand what is happening in the video by listening to the narrations.
Contacts
- For general audio description requests. Contact Accessible Technology Services (ATS) at ats@umontana.edu
- For faculty implementing an ODE student request for audio description in media.ÌýContact Brandy Reinhardt at 406-243-5136 orÌýbrandy.reinhardt@mso.umt.edu
Learning Management System (LMS)
CanvasÌý
- Ìý
Contact
UMOnline Technical Support Team atÌýumonline-help@umontana.edu or 406-243-4999.
Web accessibility evaluation tool
The is an evaluation tool that checks web accessibility.Ìý
Enter the web address in a box or run a WAVE report using a browser extension. The report provides common error alerts and tells why it matters and what to do to resolve the error.