Accessibility

In the summer, Fiona and I updated the Library Essentials PowerPoint presentation, and made it more accessible for people who are disabled. To give you an idea of some of the adjustments, the text boxes were read out loud by the computer using the ‘Alt text’ function, images were set to be described out loud, and the reading order of the parts of the slide were set.

Further considerations were made. A non-white background in grey tone is better for dyslexic students (British Dyslexic Association, 2020) and people with sensory needs, as it avoids glare. Additionally, mixing green and red on a slide can make it hard for colour-blind students to distinguish shapes and text. Jessica has uploaded an accessible slides template for PowerPoint on TEAMS for us to use.

I think that all staff should make presentations accessible as standard, where possible. I testing it by installing screen reading software like NVDA. While a blind would have NVDA on all the time and toggle through the page, it can be turned on and off with shortcuts.

Going forward, staff can upskill so that resources can be more inclusive, through training. LEaD runs sessions about making Microsoft Office documents accessible. To know more, go to the booking page. There is also free online Microsoft training for accessibility.

Office 365 has an ‘immersive reader’ function imbedded, which will read your text boxes to you out loud, not available on the desktop version.

 

Reference

British Dyslexia Association (2020) Creating a dyslexia friendly workplace. Available at:

https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/advice/employers/creating-a-dyslexia-friendly-workplace/dyslexia-friendly-style-guide (Accessed: 9 November 2021).

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