[Athen] Accessibility tips for foreign language faculty

[Jeffrey Dell]

I agree with Joe that having the prooffing language and the language
set in the code for the web pages is critical.
One problem that I have noticed with online modules for foreign
language materials is very colorful graphics with text embedded in
them.  Usually the color schemes are very low contrast.  If it is just
colors specified in the coding then student can change browser
settings to compensate.
Materials that come from the publisher in PDF usually do not have the
language set to anything but English or had not been run through OCR
engines to recognize multiple languages contained in the documents.
In those cases the screen reader or TTS just reads gibberish.  For
multiple language documents PDF documents are much harder to remediate
than Word.
Many of the professors in our classes create their own handouts or
their own PowerPoints and use the IME keyboards in Windows to type the
content.  This creates the basics of a great document for the student
to read.  The key is for professors to keep the original document and
to give access to it for the student.  The second part of that last
sentence would seem to be obvious but some professors do not like
giving their documents to anyone electronically.  That causes some
unnecessary arguments.
Jeff


On 11/12/15, Humbert, Joe <johumber at iu.edu> wrote:

> Hi Rachel,

>

>

> *         Make sure the primary/default human language for each document,

> website, etc. is specified (WCAG 2.0 Understanding SC

> 3.1.1<http://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/meaning-doc-lang-id.html>)

>

> *         Make sure changes in languages for parts of "documents" are

> specified. (WCAG 2.0 Understanding SC

> 3.1.2<http://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/meaning-other-lang-id.html>)

>

>

>

> The links I have provided have links to techniques for both websites and

> other types of documents.

>

>

>

> I assume specifying the language of parts of a document would be extremely

> important as there are bound to be multilingual documents (e.g., English and

> Spanish mixed).

>

>

> Thankx,

>    Joe

>

> Joe Humbert

> Principal Accessibility Analyst

> Assistive Technology and Accessibility Centers

> University Information Technology Services

> Indiana University, IUPUI IT 210F

> (317) 274-4378

> johumber at iu.edu<mailto:johumber at iu.edu>

> http://atac.iu.edu<http://atac.iu.edu/>

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On

> Behalf Of Thompson, Rachel

> Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2015 12:42 PM

> To: Access Technology Higher Education Network

> <athen-list at u.washington.edu>

> Subject: [Athen] Accessibility tips for foreign language faculty

>

>

>

> Hi, all.

>

>

>

> Our area is soon meeting with a group of faculty from the modern languages

> and classics department regarding ways to make their course materials more

> accessibility from the outset.  Do you have any foreign language specific

> suggestions?

>

>

>

> Some topics we will address include discussing accessibility with publishers

> (and asking my team to evaluate the responses), making sure web content,

> PDFs, and office docs are accessible (via NCDAE cheatsheets and workshops

> and assistance we offer), and keeping communications lines with students

> open. We will also include info about working with our campus disability

> services team.

>

>

>

> Any ideas you have would e much appreciated, Rachel

>

>

>

> Dr. Rachel S. Thompson

>

> Director, Emerging Technology

>

> Center for Instructional Technology

>

> University of Alabama

>

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