Library Accessibility Services

To help ensure students receive their textbooks on time, instructors can:

• submit textbook adoptions to The Campus Store as soon as possible.
  • It can take 4 - 6 weeks to produce a textbook.  If we can obtain the book quickly, the student will be able to keep up with the class.
• post the course outline, with chapters, as soon as possible.
  • We use the course outline to prioritize the order in which we work on transcription.  
• submit tests and exams as soon as possible.
  • We work with the test and exams section of SAS in the production of braille tests.  To ensure the highest quality exams, please submit them to SAS by the due date given.
• use SensusAccess to convert documents before posting them to your website or Avenue.
  • SensusAccess converts a variety of documents into a variety of accessible versions of themselves.  
  • SensusAccess does an amazing job with conversion.  While it is not perfect, it's close and will work for the majority of students.
  • visit SensusAccess to give it a try.

SensusAccess is an amazing tool to create alternate formats.  It can be added to your A2L course to allow students to create their own alternate formats.  Please see the video below to add this tool to your course.

SensusAccess for A2L (Redirects to YouTube)

Infographics combine the requirements of both an image alt-text and a transcript.

Writing good alt-text:

1. Keep it short – ideally, you want to keep your alt-text to one or two sentences describing the non-textual components of the image. Explain the context of the image, why it was chosen for your project, what is essential about this infographic, and only the important points. 
2. Use plain text; do not use bolding, italics, or font settings other than those available in the styles panel for navigation.
3. Ensure the alt-text is a textual representative of the image.  If you were only to receive the alt-text, would you have the same information as someone with the image?

Things to avoid:

1. Include identity (Ethnicity, gender, age or ability) when it is contextually relevant. 
2. Do not use the file name or the image caption for alt-text.
3. Avoid assumptions; only describe what you see.

Once you have created the alt-text for the image, you must create a transcript of the infographic contents.  This can be done in a variety of ways:

• The text can be included in the document below the infographic.
• The text can be included as a linked document.

Important considerations:

• The resultant document must include all the text from the infographic, including any reading order or structure.
• Including a typical heading structure in either transcript will allow for navigation through the document. 

The primary goal of alt-text is to give a textual description of the image, including the context of why it is there. WebAIM’s Alternative Text page is an excellent resource for a better explanation of this.  

 One thing to also think about when writing alt-text is the role of gender, race, and disability in the descriptions.  Visually impaired persons would only have access to this information with this description; however, there are other considerations when writing these descriptions.  

Several excellent resources have been written on this topic, but two stand out:

 The first resource, the Accessible Images Guide, stands out due to its intersectional approach. It's authored by individuals with lived experience who are part of Queerly Represent Me, an organization that was specifically founded to enhance diversity in the gaming industry.  

The second is an alt-text information page on Race, Gender, and Physical Descriptions co-written by several London-based universities, titled Make Things Accessible.  It is well-written and contains excellent resources.  

Things to keep in mind when writing alt-text:

• Keep it short, no more than 1 – 2 sentences, unless it is an Infographic
• Consider the context: why did you add the image to your presentation or paper?
• Don’t repeat the image caption or text that appears around it
• Don’t include ‘image of’, or ‘picture of’ in the text, but 
• Do include information about the source of the image, for example, if it is a painting, a logo, a cartoon, or an illustration.

Closed Captions

Read more about Library Captioning Resources, which will help you determine which path to submit your caption request.

Captioning translates the audio part of a video into captions that appear at the bottom of the screen. The ‘closed’ part means that the text is hidden until it is selected.

Open captions are captions that are burned into the video so they cannot be turned off.  McMaster provides open captions as part of its captioning service.

AODA Requirement:

• Any video added to a McMaster website AFTER 2014 or being used in a class, presentation, public talk, or online course MUST be properly closed-captioned - either as part of the production process or retroactively

McMaster Captioning Standard:

• Where possible, please caption as indicated below: 

Questions / help / guidance - all available at captioning@mcmaster.ca

Described Video is the narration of the visual elements of an audio-visual program.  This narration allows the listener to paint a mental picture of the setting.  Videos that have been described will have a D with two semi-circles radiating from the round side of the D.  This is the universal symbol for Described Video.  
While Described Video is the process of adding narration after the material has been written, Integrated Described Video (IDV) includes the DV process in the scriptwriting process. It is part of the dialogue rather than narrated over the script.  For more information, please see the links in the menu on the right.

Described Video is useful in many ways:
•    for those with a visual impairment 
•    as auditory learning aids
•    for language development
•    as audiobooks
•    for those on the autism spectrum

Described Video can be requested through the Described Video and Captioning Request Tool for students as part of an accommodation.
 

Braille, a system of 6 raised dots created by Louis Braille in 1824, is a tactile language for blind and visually impaired people.  Textual material, mathematical equations, musical notation, graphs, charts and, to a limited degree, images can be converted into braille.  Not every blind or visually impaired person reads Braille.  It is a separate language that requires specific instructors to provide this education.  Currently, only one school in Ontario provides this instruction.

Braille Conversion Service

LAS is pleased to announce that we offer a Braille Conversion Service!!  If you need Braille produced for an event or presentation, please get in touch with us.  There is a nominal charge to cover production charges.  $1/ page printing and $4/book for binding, course-related content is produced at no cost.

Born Digital

One thing to think about when creating a textbook or publishing research is publishing your work in an accessible digital format.  Most researchers are familiar with creating digital content, and with a few minor changes, digital content can also be accessible.  There are many benefits to creating accessible digital content, and the main advantage of being accessible for all.  In addition to improving access for those with disabilities, improving the accessibility of the material benefits those without disabilities, and it improves SEO (search engine optimization).  For more information on how to make those changes, please visit:

The Daisy Accessible Publishing Knowledge Base

Improving the Accessibility of Your Mainstream Digital Content

Book Net Canada: Producing Born Accessible Books

Creating Accessible ePubs

Accessible Information in Education

Under the Information and Communications Standards, producers of educational materials must make textbooks and any other educational or training materials available in accessible formats by January 1st, 2020. For instance, accessibly produced materials include:

• Handouts or lecture notes
• Student records and information on program requirements
• Visual classroom materials such as maps or globes

Equitable and Timely Accommodation

Educational institutions must provide accessible versions of all bought, borrowed, or created materials made available to other students in a timely fashion. Regardless of whether materials were required or optional, accommodated students must not unduly wait to receive material already available to their peers. 

How to Make Educational Materials Accessible

Institutions may make some materials accessible themselves. For instance, school staff can:

• OCR image-only PDF documents using Adobe or SensusAccess type software (link on the right)
• Provide multiple ways to access content (online, PDF, Word)
• Photocopy handouts with enlarged font.
• Emboss them on a Braille printer.
• Post course outlines or calendars on websites.
• Record audio versions of print book excerpts.
• Provide alt-text for images or graphs.
• Create tactile maps, diagrams, or pictures.
• Provide captions for videos.
• Provide transcripts for audio.

Alternatively, institutions may need to contract third-party companies to produce other materials, such as Braille textbooks or tactile maps. Producers of educational materials must provide accessible or conversion-ready formats to assist in conversion processes. Producers who cannot make material accessible must provide a valid explanation of why this was not possible and provide summaries of the non-convertible aspects. 

Read more on the AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act).

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