Accessibility and Inclusion

The St. Kate’s community is driven by inclusive excellence and challenges itself to be welcoming and respectful while interacting effectively, sensitively, and with humility in an increasingly diverse, global community. You can read the full Inclusive Excellence statement on the St. Kate’s website. The webpage also includes inclusive excellence events, resources, and related departments for you to learn more and get involved.

Accessibility at St. Kate's

Most of us are aware that students with vision and hearing loss require accessibility accommodations. However, other disabling conditions should be noted. Disabilities like cognitive impairments, limited movement, and color blindness can heavily impact learning in the online environment. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), “An individual with a disability is defined by the ADA as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who has a history or record of such an impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as having such an impairment.” (U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, 2020). Effective use of the tools and practices for making sure all of your materials and activities are accessible to all students up front will create the necessary accommodations for disabilities like these as well.   

One of the practices of accessibility accommodation is to ensure that non-text course materials (such as videos) are provided in alternative formats (such as transcripts or closed captioning). Closed captioning not only supports students with hearing disabilities, but it also supports students whose native language is not English. By ensuring that all students have multimodal ways to access course materials, you enable students to engage their learning preferences. Another practice is to provide readings in a digital format that can be interpreted by assistive technologies like a screen reader, rather than a photocopy, which appears as a sometimes blurry image. Readings in an accessible format are more legible and professional-looking to all students. Access to multimodal materials reinforces student learning by engaging multiple senses. 

Part of the instructor’s role is to be cognizant of what accessibility issues may come into play for the various types of learning tools. Another part is to know how these issues can be addressed. The resources below will help you with checking for accessibility and completing accommodations.

Check for Accessibility

Use the following St. Kate’s resources to learn more about accessibility needs and the tools for checking them. These documents address the four most common concerns for accessibility in online classes:

• Accessibility for Microsoft Word Documents.
• Accessibility for PDFs.
• Accessibility in Kaltura Video.
• Accessibility Checklist for Web Content.

Tools for Accessibility

Accessibility Checker

• The Canvas Rich Content Editor includes an accessibility tool that detects common accessibility errors within the editor. The tool also provides feedback on how to address these issues. For more information, review the Canvas page on the Accessibility Checker.

Immersive Reader in Canvas

• Immersive Reader is a learning tool that enhances students' reading experience by improving accessibility and boosting reading comprehension. It offers text-decoding solutions for students with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, and it encourages independent reading and helps teachers support students’ unique learning needs. Key features include read text out loud, break words into syllables, and increase spacing between lines and letters. 

• Students can use Immersive Reader when viewing the course Home Page or Syllabus, or when viewing an individual assignment or page. For more information about the reader, visit the Canvas Community article on using Immersive Reader.

Texthelp: The Read&Write and EquatIO Tools

• The Immersive Reader tool integrated into Canvas will read Canvas pages, but it will not read all Canvas materials (such as quizzes). For this, you will need a more advanced reader tool. St. Kate’s students have free access to Texthelp’s Read&Write and EquatIO (a reader for more math-focused material). These Texthelp tools can be used to read material in Canvas that Immersive Reader cannot.  

• Please visit the Texthelp website to learn more about their product offerings and functionality. 

Texthelp: The OrbitNote Tool

• St. Kate's students also have access to Texthelp's OrbitNote. OrbitNote is used to turn a regular PDF into a reader-friendly PDF. This is something you can use as an instructor too. In fact, whenever possible, provide accessible materials for your students so they do not need to take the steps themselves. 

• Please visit the ObritNote website to learn more about this tool.

For more information about screen reader tools, see the Immersive Reader and Texthelp Audio Screen Reader Tools KB article.

Additional Accessibility Resources

• AccessibilityOnline webinar series.

• Top free online courses in disability, diversity, and inclusion.

• Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology.

• Learn about accessible text.

• Learn about accessible font styles.

• Learn about accessible colors.

• Learn how to use the accessibility checker built into Canvas.

• Learn about Canvas's Immersive Reader.

• Learn about Texthelp tools.

For a deeper dive into accessibility, please consider enrolling in the Online Course Design Essentials Workshop, which was designed and developed by the St. Kate's Academic Technology team.