WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:05.500 [MUSIC PLAYING] 00:00:05.500 --> 00:00:07.600 Creating accessible documents. 00:00:09.800 --> 00:00:12.300 I'm Sheryl Burgstahler at the University 00:00:12.300 --> 00:00:14.070 of Washington in Seattle. 00:00:14.070 --> 00:00:16.560 We on our campus, like other campuses, 00:00:16.560 --> 00:00:18.600 produce tons of documents to share 00:00:18.600 --> 00:00:21.570 with our students-- copies of PowerPoint presentations, 00:00:21.570 --> 00:00:25.740 of journal articles, of book chapters, you name it. 00:00:25.740 --> 00:00:28.530 It can be a massive amount of reading for any student. 00:00:28.530 --> 00:00:31.200 It's even more of a challenge for students with disabilities. 00:00:34.423 --> 00:00:36.340 Everybody creates documents, 00:00:36.340 --> 00:00:39.790 and most people don't realize that all documents are not 00:00:39.790 --> 00:00:40.660 equal. 00:00:40.660 --> 00:00:43.578 That some are more accessible than others. 00:00:43.578 --> 00:00:45.370 Students who are blind, 00:00:45.370 --> 00:00:48.070 use screen readers and speech synthesis 00:00:48.070 --> 00:00:50.320 to read the content aloud to them 00:00:50.320 --> 00:00:52.330 that appears on the screen. 00:00:52.330 --> 00:00:54.670 Students with dyslexia and other conditions 00:00:54.670 --> 00:00:57.940 that impact their reading, they use screen readers too. 00:00:57.940 --> 00:01:00.370 Even though they can see the content on the screen, 00:01:00.370 --> 00:01:04.599 the voice output helps them comprehend that content. 00:01:04.599 --> 00:01:07.300 But assistive technology benefits many other students 00:01:07.300 --> 00:01:09.310 as well. 00:01:09.310 --> 00:01:11.200 Scanned or photocopied pages. 00:01:13.765 --> 00:01:15.890 The most inaccessible documents 00:01:15.890 --> 00:01:18.410 are scanned in or photocopied. 00:01:18.410 --> 00:01:20.480 Because they're essentially images, 00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:23.540 screen readers can't access the text. 00:01:23.540 --> 00:01:28.520 A scanner accompanied by optical character recognition or OCR 00:01:28.520 --> 00:01:30.830 can turn a document into one that is 00:01:30.830 --> 00:01:32.870 accessible to a screen reader. 00:01:32.870 --> 00:01:34.757 It also benefits other students. 00:01:34.757 --> 00:01:36.590 For instance, somebody using a mobile device 00:01:36.590 --> 00:01:38.588 to access the content or someone who 00:01:38.588 --> 00:01:40.880 wants to search through the content to find the content 00:01:40.880 --> 00:01:42.530 that they're interested in. 00:01:42.530 --> 00:01:43.280 Headings. 00:01:47.188 --> 00:01:48.980 In order for a document 00:01:48.980 --> 00:01:51.860 to be accessible to a person who's blind and using a screen 00:01:51.860 --> 00:01:55.670 reader, it's important that the heading structure be used. 00:01:55.670 --> 00:01:58.880 For example, in Microsoft Word, you 00:01:58.880 --> 00:02:00.980 should use the heading styles. 00:02:00.980 --> 00:02:05.000 Headings serve a couple of important functions 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:07.340 for a screen reader user. 00:02:07.340 --> 00:02:10.910 One is that they can navigate through a document 00:02:10.910 --> 00:02:12.350 by its headings. 00:02:12.350 --> 00:02:15.050 So they can jump from heading to heading to heading, 00:02:15.050 --> 00:02:19.400 and their assistive technology will inform them 00:02:19.400 --> 00:02:22.790 that they're on a heading of a particular level. 00:02:22.790 --> 00:02:24.590 So they know this is a heading level 00:02:24.590 --> 00:02:29.930 two that then is a subheading underneath a heading level one. 00:02:29.930 --> 00:02:31.910 And so that helps them to develop 00:02:31.910 --> 00:02:36.650 a kind of a mental outline of the structure of the document. 00:02:36.650 --> 00:02:40.640 For a few seconds, you skim through the document. 00:02:40.640 --> 00:02:44.250 You just want to know that what is on this document. 00:02:44.250 --> 00:02:49.790 How it is built. What are the major component of this article 00:02:49.790 --> 00:02:51.170 that you are reading? 00:02:51.170 --> 00:02:55.250 This helps you to focus on the desired section 00:02:55.250 --> 00:02:58.190 that you would like to study further. 00:02:58.190 --> 00:03:02.030 Without that, you have to read from top to bottom 00:03:02.030 --> 00:03:05.865 because everything has the same weight. 00:03:05.865 --> 00:03:08.240 It's easier to build in accessibility 00:03:08.240 --> 00:03:11.060 when a document's being created than waiting 00:03:11.060 --> 00:03:13.110 until after the fact. 00:03:13.110 --> 00:03:15.080 And if you build in accessibility, 00:03:15.080 --> 00:03:17.600 it will diminish the need for accommodations 00:03:17.600 --> 00:03:20.260 for students with disabilities.