Focus Your Efforts on Accessibility

UFIT has online resources and training to bolster the classroom experience and perfect web content so anyone with a disability or impairment can fully engage with your content.

For students with visual, auditory, motor or cognitive impairments, accessing websites or course content can be a challenge if they are not designed with these issues in mind. UFIT has several options for faculty and staff to help bridge the online accessibility gap:

1. Apply these five easy accessibility tips to improve web and social media content. The tips explain how to describe images, provide text alternatives for audio and video, select colors to use, and more to keep content accessible for everyone. There is also an up-to-date web accessibility standards page that lists what website managers should include in their page layout and style sheets to ensure a site meets Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. A link to a just-in-time web accessibility training is also provided on this page.

2. Register for the new SiteImprove training. The one-hour class will next be held on Wednesday, May 25, from 2:00-3:00 p.m. Learn how to automate the process of identifying Electronic Information Technology Accessibility (EITA) issues on websites. The free 60-minute webinar will also explain how to run accessibility reports to pinpoint areas on a website or document that could be improved, such as broken links and misspellings.

Visit UFIT’s Center for Instructional Technology & Training Request Assistance page for assistance with these accessibility options.

Prioritizing Usability in Teaching

UFIT’s Teaching TechXploration is back for its third year. This year’s event features presentations and hands-on workshops to help instructors find technology solutions to teaching challenges. In support of
Word Usability Day on November 11, the theme is usability and accessibility for all students.

Wednesday, November 10, 2021
2:00 ꟷ 5:00 p.m.
Virtual Event via Microsoft Teams
Registration Link

All instructors, TAs, graduate assistants, and instructional designers are invited to attend. After registering, participants will be added to the event’s Teams page where they can select which presentations or workshops to attend. Topics include designing usable Canvas courses, navigating classroom equipment with confidence, setting up learning analytics, improving student engagement with classroom response systems, and creating interactive course videos. Anyone with questions about TechXploration is welcome to contact UFIT Associate Director Ryan Yang.

Supporting Academic Accessibility Efforts

UFIT is hosting Fix Your Content Day sessions as part of UF’s support of of Global Accessibility Awareness Day. These sessions will empower instructors, TAs, and academic support staff to maximize use of Ally and make courses accessible for all learners. Ally is an easy-to-use tool that generates accessibility reports, providing a score that correlates to the accessibility of the content, and offers suggestions for quickly fixing content. Two sessions will be offered on May 20. Participants may drop-in for all or part of either session:

10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Fix Your Content Day is free. Pre-registration is not required. To participate, log in to the Canvas event page, select a session, and enter the Zoom lobby. Attendees will be paired with an e-Learning specialist or instructional designer who will discuss their course’s Ally report and identify ways to make content more accessible. UFIT’s Center for Instructional Technology and Training (CITT) offers several options for creating inclusive courses, including Ally in Canvas, Designing an Inclusive Course, and Accessibility Fundamentals. For more information, please contact the CITT.