[Athen] athen-list Digest, Vol 119, Issue 17
Sarver, Cynthia A.
cynthia.sarver at stthomas.edu
Tue Dec 22 08:20:58 PST 2015
Subject: Re: [Athen] Deaf student in course using VoiceThread
Message-ID:
<7ba32f6ca0fb416486da78ab0f5597ab at exch15-mr04.tu.temple.edu>
Nazely,
We have just held a meeting of our Instructional Designers and technology team to discuss this same issue (albeit in the hypothetical in our case). Our group's feeling was that asking students to caption their own files would not work and would likely undermine adoption and would probably not work to provide access anyway -- especially given how relatively complex captioning is in VT. But recognizing the potential problem with the alternative of sending discussions out for captioning and timely accommodation (never mind associated costs), we decided to institute this policy regarding student discussions on VT:
"When a faculty member is alerted that there is a student who is deaf or hard of hearing in his or her course and VT discussions are required (i.e., students must respond to instructor's and/or student comments), the faculty member will be informed that he or she should instruct all students to discuss using text comments only (i.e., video and audio comments will not be permitted)."
It's not perfect, but it still allows limited use of VT (all faculty pre-recorded content would be captioned ahead of time, of course).
There is also a VT webinar on accessibility, in case you have not seen it, which I found very helpful in getting my head around this issue: https://voicethread.com/myvoice/#thread/7308563/39128298/40291426 (sorry, could not insert hyperlink into text for some reason).
Good luck!
--Cynthia
Cynthia Sarver, M.E.T., Ph.D.
Accessibility Specialist/Instructional Designer
Center for Faculty Development
AQU 311 | Mail 4034
University of St. Thomas
St. Paul, MN 55105-1078
Phone: 651-962-6015
E-mail: cynthia.sarver at stthomas.edu
Twitter: @cynthiasarver
-----Original Message-----
From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of athen-list-request at mailman13.u.washington.edu
Sent: Monday, December 21, 2015 2:02 PM
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu
Subject: athen-list Digest, Vol 119, Issue 17
Send athen-list mailing list submissions to
athen-list at u.washington.edu
To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
http://mailman13.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/athen-list
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
athen-list-request at mailman13.u.washington.edu
You can reach the person managing the list at
athen-list-owner at mailman13.u.washington.edu
When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of athen-list digest..."
Today's Topics:
1. Something interesting to read - about the Blogport (Susan Kelmer)
2. Re: Deaf student in course using VoiceThread (Brent Whiting)
3. Re: Deaf student in course using VoiceThread (Thompson, Rachel)
4. Re: Deaf student in course using VoiceThread
(Poore-Pariseau, Cindy)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2015 15:12:48 +0000
From: Susan Kelmer <Susan.Kelmer at colorado.edu>
To: "dsshe-l at listserv.buffalo.edu" <dsshe-l at listserv.buffalo.edu>,
"Access Technology Higher Education Network"
<athen-list at u.washington.edu>, "altmedia at htclistserv.htctu.fhda.edu"
<altmedia at htclistserv.htctu.fhda.edu>,
"cowyconsortium at yahoogroups.com" <cowyconsortium at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [Athen] Something interesting to read - about the Blogport
Message-ID:
<DM2PR03MB4949D216104A1579CD4D156FBE40 at DM2PR03MB494.namprd03.prod.outlook.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
So, a former student of ours, who still hangs out on campus because she is working for various departments on campus here and there, is part of the small group of people testing out the Brainport. This is a device that will purportedly help the blind actually see - colors, lights, shapes, actual objects. It might even be able to allow them to read things like street signs. You can read more about the Brainport at the following addresses:
http://www.new.wicab.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainport
She is maintaining a blog of her adventures with the device, and the testing that she completes using it. Amelia is a great writer, as well as just being an all around smarty-pants, and I think others should be enjoying her adventure like I am. The blog is here:
https://disblogled.wordpress.com/
I encourage you to go back and read from the beginning. She doesn't post often, just once or twice a month, but her story is just fascinating and I'm hooked. You might be too!
Susan Kelmer
Alternate Format Access Coordinator
Disability Services
University of Colorado Boulder
303-735-4836
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman13.u.washington.edu/pipermail/athen-list/attachments/20151221/aaa4131a/attachment-0001.html>
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2015 16:56:02 +0000
From: Brent Whiting <bwhiting at temple.edu>
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
<athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Deaf student in course using VoiceThread
Message-ID:
<7ba32f6ca0fb416486da78ab0f5597ab at exch15-mr04.tu.temple.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Nazely,
At Temple we are currently working through an evaluation for usage strategy of VoiceThread. Our current proposed direction is that any student that contributes to a thread via audio or video will need to (at minimum) provide a synopsis of the content covered in their audio comments immediately after their post. (we are also hoping to get on VoiceThread?s radar for a feature request that would prompt for this synopsis immediately upon posting any media file)
We?re concerned that waiting for a file to be captioned would potentially leave a deaf student out of an active/live discussion.
Brent
-------------------
Brent Whiting
Director of Information Systems
Academic Computing
Temple University
Ambler Learning Center ? Rm 110
bwhiting at temple.edu<mailto:bwhiting at temple.edu>
voice (267) 468-8380
From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Nazely Kurkjian
Sent: Friday, December 18, 2015 4:26 PM
To: DSSHE-L at listserv.buffalo.edu; athen-list at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Athen] Deaf student in course using VoiceThread
Good afternoon & apologies for the cross-post~
A student who is deaf is enrolled in a graduate level Managing Information and Technology course and they use VoiceThread to facilitate online discussions. Students may choose to participate using video, audio only, or text only. The professor intends to provide feedback to the students using text.
The student knows ASL, but what I'm concerned about is how we're going to make the other students responses accessible in a timely and equitable manner. I don't believe any of the other students know ASL, and if they choose to create video or audio discussion, I'm not sure how to go about providing access.
Apparently, you can add captions to VoiceThread files<https://voicethread.com/howto/closed-captioning/>, but is this something we should ask the students (in the class) to provide or should our office provide it as soon as possible after something has been posted? I'm talking to the professor on Tuesday, so maybe that will give me a better idea on the expected student response turnaround time.
I sincerely appreciate any advice or recommendations.
Thank you,
Nazely
--
Nazely Kurkjian
"Shame on us... If we let the wonders of educational technology and broadband internet lead to more inequality as opposed to less"
Adaptive Technology Specialist
Services for Students with Disabilities - UU 119 Binghamton University
Phone: 607-777-2686
Email: kurkjian at binghamton.edu<mailto:kurkjian at binghamton.edu>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman13.u.washington.edu/pipermail/athen-list/attachments/20151221/0aee4078/attachment-0001.html>
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2015 17:25:35 +0000
From: "Thompson, Rachel" <rsthompson2 at ua.edu>
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
<athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Deaf student in course using VoiceThread
Message-ID: <D29D8CF1.3060B%rsthompson2 at ua.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
We are moving to VoiceThread to replace the Blackboard (Collaborate, used to be Wimba) Voice Tools starting in January. The end-of-life for BB Collaborate Voice Tools (according to our blackboard rep) is Aug 2016. We were exploring how the caption upload worked last week and could not find how to upload a transcript if someone has audio-only content. Have you found that out? Has anyone created guides or tutorials you would be willing to share? If not, I will be making some in the spring and will post back to the list.
Dr. Rachel S. Thompson
Director, Emerging Technology and Accessibility Center for Instructional Technology University of Alabama http://accessibility.ua.edu<http://accessibility.ua.edu/>
rsthompson2 at ua.edu
124 Russell Hall
205.348.0216
From: Brent Whiting <bwhiting at temple.edu<mailto:bwhiting at temple.edu>>
Reply-To: "athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>" <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Date: Monday, December 21, 2015 at 10:56 AM
To: "athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>" <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Deaf student in course using VoiceThread
Nazely,
At Temple we are currently working through an evaluation for usage strategy of VoiceThread. Our current proposed direction is that any student that contributes to a thread via audio or video will need to (at minimum) provide a synopsis of the content covered in their audio comments immediately after their post. (we are also hoping to get on VoiceThread?s radar for a feature request that would prompt for this synopsis immediately upon posting any media file)
We?re concerned that waiting for a file to be captioned would potentially leave a deaf student out of an active/live discussion.
Brent
-------------------
Brent Whiting
Director of Information Systems
Academic Computing
Temple University
Ambler Learning Center ? Rm 110
bwhiting at temple.edu<mailto:bwhiting at temple.edu>
voice (267) 468-8380
From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Nazely Kurkjian
Sent: Friday, December 18, 2015 4:26 PM
To: DSSHE-L at listserv.buffalo.edu<mailto:DSSHE-L at listserv.buffalo.edu>; athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Athen] Deaf student in course using VoiceThread
Good afternoon & apologies for the cross-post~
A student who is deaf is enrolled in a graduate level Managing Information and Technology course and they use VoiceThread to facilitate online discussions. Students may choose to participate using video, audio only, or text only. The professor intends to provide feedback to the students using text.
The student knows ASL, but what I'm concerned about is how we're going to make the other students responses accessible in a timely and equitable manner. I don't believe any of the other students know ASL, and if they choose to create video or audio discussion, I'm not sure how to go about providing access.
Apparently, you can add captions to VoiceThread files<https://voicethread.com/howto/closed-captioning/>, but is this something we should ask the students (in the class) to provide or should our office provide it as soon as possible after something has been posted? I'm talking to the professor on Tuesday, so maybe that will give me a better idea on the expected student response turnaround time.
I sincerely appreciate any advice or recommendations.
Thank you,
Nazely
--
Nazely Kurkjian
"Shame on us... If we let the wonders of educational technology and broadband internet lead to more inequality as opposed to less"
Adaptive Technology Specialist
Services for Students with Disabilities - UU 119 Binghamton University
Phone: 607-777-2686
Email: kurkjian at binghamton.edu<mailto:kurkjian at binghamton.edu>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman13.u.washington.edu/pipermail/athen-list/attachments/20151221/8db69683/attachment-0001.html>
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2015 18:43:52 +0000
From: "Poore-Pariseau, Cindy" <Cindy.Poore-Pariseau at bristolcc.edu>
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
<athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Deaf student in course using VoiceThread
Message-ID: <6a92345834ba40388d6e93a08af4e307 at srvmail>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
A while ago, the Voice Thread ?folks? had a workshop in which we were able to ask about accessibility. Below is their response. Note: I personally do not like this alternative and hope they come up with something else, but this is where they are at for now.
Hi Cindy,
Here is the information about the new Voice Thread. It really is much nicer than the old version. The new version (which we won?t migrate to until after spring break) allows for keyboard shortcuts, and better readability with browser based readers. They still suggest using VoiceThread universal which is a streamlined version of the full website. The new version allows for easier access to CC for videos, however, they do not have it for voice yet. They are working on it.
Accessibility:
A summary of the accessibility options available in the new version of VoiceThread can be found at the following link:
http://docs.voicethread.com/category/web-application/accessibility-web-application/
Information on mobile options can be found below:
http://docs.voicethread.com/category/mobile-app/accessibility/
The VoiceThread Universal site option, optimized for screen readers, can be read about here:
http://docs.voicethread.com/web-application/accessibility-web-application/voicethread-universal/
At present, the VoiceThread Universal option is usable for viewing and participation in VoiceThread content, but not creation. In order to create content, users will still need to visit the default VoiceThread site. This is one feature we are currently working to improve.
Regarding captioning: currently, we do not have the ability to upload caption files to audio comments; however, one workaround for this is to enter the transcription in a text comment following the audio. We will inform all of our users when any changes have been made to this or other captioning functionality, as well as any changes to the Universal option.
Here is a link to our whitepaper on accessibility:
https://voicethread.com/resources/VoiceThread-Accessibility-Whitepaper.pdf
? Email: cindy.poore-pariseau at bristolcc.edu
? Phone: (508) 678-2811 x 2470
? Fax: (508) 730-3297
http://www.bristolcc.edu/students/disabilityservices/
From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Brent Whiting
Sent: Monday, December 21, 2015 11:56 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Deaf student in course using VoiceThread
Nazely,
At Temple we are currently working through an evaluation for usage strategy of VoiceThread. Our current proposed direction is that any student that contributes to a thread via audio or video will need to (at minimum) provide a synopsis of the content covered in their audio comments immediately after their post. (we are also hoping to get on VoiceThread?s radar for a feature request that would prompt for this synopsis immediately upon posting any media file)
We?re concerned that waiting for a file to be captioned would potentially leave a deaf student out of an active/live discussion.
Brent
-------------------
Brent Whiting
Director of Information Systems
Academic Computing
Temple University
Ambler Learning Center ? Rm 110
bwhiting at temple.edu<mailto:bwhiting at temple.edu>
voice (267) 468-8380
From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Nazely Kurkjian
Sent: Friday, December 18, 2015 4:26 PM
To: DSSHE-L at listserv.buffalo.edu<mailto:DSSHE-L at listserv.buffalo.edu>; athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Athen] Deaf student in course using VoiceThread
Good afternoon & apologies for the cross-post~
A student who is deaf is enrolled in a graduate level Managing Information and Technology course and they use VoiceThread to facilitate online discussions. Students may choose to participate using video, audio only, or text only. The professor intends to provide feedback to the students using text.
The student knows ASL, but what I'm concerned about is how we're going to make the other students responses accessible in a timely and equitable manner. I don't believe any of the other students know ASL, and if they choose to create video or audio discussion, I'm not sure how to go about providing access.
Apparently, you can add captions to VoiceThread files<https://voicethread.com/howto/closed-captioning/>, but is this something we should ask the students (in the class) to provide or should our office provide it as soon as possible after something has been posted? I'm talking to the professor on Tuesday, so maybe that will give me a better idea on the expected student response turnaround time.
I sincerely appreciate any advice or recommendations.
Thank you,
Nazely
--
Nazely Kurkjian
"Shame on us... If we let the wonders of educational technology and broadband internet lead to more inequality as opposed to less"
Adaptive Technology Specialist
Services for Students with Disabilities - UU 119 Binghamton University
Phone: 607-777-2686
Email: kurkjian at binghamton.edu<mailto:kurkjian at binghamton.edu>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman13.u.washington.edu/pipermail/athen-list/attachments/20151221/012e4e6b/attachment-0001.html>
------------------------------
Subject: Digest Footer
_______________________________________________
athen-list mailing list
athen-list at mailman13.u.washington.edu
http://mailman13.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/athen-list
------------------------------
End of athen-list Digest, Vol 119, Issue 17
*******************************************
More information about the athen-list
mailing list