Accessibility Policy

Adopted March 3, 2008, Last Updated April 18, 2008

The Center for Teaching and Faculty Development is dedicated to ensuring all digital materials (including but not limited to documents, presentations, audio clips, and video clips) produced and\or used by the Center are fully accessible. In leading by example, the Center aims to bring more awareness to accessibility issues and provide faculty and staff with the necessary tools to achieve accessibility for everyone.

It is the responsibility of individual staff members to ensure that all digital material created and distributed are fully accessible to everyone. This applies to both internal and external material as well as material created or associated with specific job roles that predate the adoption of this policy. Furthermore, any material from outside resources must either be fully accessible or converted into a fully accessible format.

What is Accessibility?

Accessibility can mean a number of things and encompasses a variety of approaches and aspects. At its core, accessibility ensures that all information is freely available and accessible to everyone. The best way to approach accessibility is to think about the way in which information is presented. Evaluate your material and determine whether or not someone with disabilities can access and use the information in the same capacity as someone who is not disabled.

Accessibility can take the form of providing one accessible format (such as a properly formatted document) or providing multiple accessible formats (such as providing a transcript for a video presentation).

Accessibility at SF State is addressed through the ACCESS which is SF State's Accessible Technology Initiative.

Addressing Accessibility at the Center

The Center's approach to accessibility can be broken down into three areas of focus.

• Internet - Refers to the entire online presence for the Center
• Documents - Refers to all documents (DOC, PDF, etc.)
• Audio\Visual - Refers to all videos and audio content

Internet

The Internet has quickly evolved into an everyday part of life with the World Wide Web being the most noticeable example. Many departments at SF State utilize the web to distribute the majority of information due to its support of multiple formats, convenience, and speed of retrieval.

The Center maintains a central website which is part of the larger Academic Affairs website. Additionally, the Center maintains several iLearn environments for various collaborative projects. Standards have made the web increasingly more accessible due to the ability for HTML and related languages to provide structure for displaying information.

Accessibility for the main web site for the Center is handled through adoption of the SF State Web Template. Accessibility for iLearn environments is managed through the content management systems specific to iLearn and managed by Academic Technology.

Documents

The Center produces a variety of documents for internal and external purposes. Most of these documents originate from Microsoft Word and have either stayed in their native DOC\DOCX format or have been converted to the PDF file format for wider distribution. Regardless of the distribution path, all documents require a specific structure in order to be accessible through screen-reader software. Creating a proper structure for a document allows screen-reading software to accurately read back the information contained within the document. Any images or multimedia content used within the document must be accompanied by alternate text that accurately titles or describes the content.

Audio\Visual

Some information is best conveyed through audio and\or video presentations. It is important to keep in mind that there are special requirements to consider when dealing with audio\visual projects. For audio projects, a transcript of the audio content must be provided. For video projects, the video must be captioned. When distributing audio or video projects, it is acceptable to provide the transcript as a separate file if deemed necessary.

Though each area of focus is unique and requires specific tools and\or resources to achieve full accessibility, all three areas are interrelated due to the nature of the Internet. Most material produced by the Center will either be distributed electronically through email or will appear on the website for the Center or in any of the iLearn environments maintained by the Center. That said, it is imperative that all documents, audio presentations, and video presentations are fully accessible before being distributed either through email or posted online.

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