Welcome
June 18, 2019
This summer the Digital Accessibility Team is keeping busy exploring the many benefits of Siteimprove, a website governance tool freely available to all Yale site owners. Siteimprove, as its name implies, crawls public Yale sites and gives feedback about accessibility improvements and other quality improvements (like broken links or SEO enhancements) that can be made to the sites. We invite any site owner who is interested in learning more to see the Siteimprove article on the Digital Accessibility website.
We have also finalized our Preferred Captioning Vendor agreement with two captioning and transcription services: 3Play Media and Rev.com. If you are not currently captioning your media and are interested in learning more about these services, please reach out to accessibility@yale.edu. We will be happy to walk you through your options and to provide guidance for incorporating this important accessibility practice into your work flow. We’ve also scheduled a training on Central Campus at the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, which you can find in TMS or in the Trainings section of this update, below.
Accessibility Heroes
Want to nominate someone (including yourself) as an Accessibility Hero? Email Michelle Morgan for inclusion in our next update.
Staff
digital strategy and design—julianne hadley, associate director
Julianne has been diligent in incorporating Yale’s Web Accessibility Policy’s guidelines into the work her office performs. With oversight for large Operations departments including Administration, Human Resources, Information Technology, Finance, and Business Operations, her commitment to accessibility is making a notable difference.
Web
oiss—ann kuhlman, alina nevins, parker emerson, molly hampton
OISS—the Office of International Students & Scholars launched their new website, which is now easier to maintain and use and is more accessible. This is an extremely important site serving as the single point of up-to-date information for international students and scholars. This project leveraged a close collaboration between OISS and the ITS Web Tech teams.
Tip of the Month
#HashTagging for #ScreenReaders on #SocialMedia
Did you know that capitalizing the first letter of words in a hashtag make them far more accessible for people who use screen readers as well as for people with cognitive and learning disabilities? A screen reader will read the words separately when camelCase capitalization is used, and visually, they’re easier to process.
Trainings & Workshops
Web Accessibility Training for Content Editors
- Thursday, June 20 from 1-4 pm at 25 Science Park, Rm 321
- Thursday, August 22 from 1-4 pm at 25 Science Park, Rm 321
This half-day workshop is designed to train staff who input content into websites how to do so in ways that meet Yale’s Web Accessibility Policy. Note: This workshop is primarily for people who create content through tools such as Wordpress or YaleSites Drupal. Visual designers and developers who program websites using HTML, CSS, or JavaScript can reach out to accessibility@yale.edu for more information on training targeted to their needs.
Objectives:
- Explain the roles and responsibilities for content editors in improving the accessibility of Yale’s digital campus
- Teach best practice for creating and editing content to be accessible
- Share resources available to assist content editors in maintaining accessible web content
Accessible Word Documents, PowerPoint Presentations and PDFs: Basics
This beginner’s document accessibility workshop is designed to train staff in the basic methods used for making Word documents, PowerPoint Presentations, and PDFs digitally accessible, for inclusion on university websites or for university-related business, including teaching, student services, and other administrative support. It is appropriate for anyone interested in learning how to make documents used in everyday university business more accessible and will cover the fundamentals of document creation and remediation. This training does not require a computer, but attendees are encouraged to bring laptops if possible.
Developer’s Lunch-and-Learn: Accessibility
Yale ITS believes that learning accessibility and front-end best practices should be an ongoing, permanent process of training and skills development. To support developers‘ continuing education, the Digital Accessibility Team is hosting monthly brown-bags where developers can bring their lunches and learn something about accessibility that they can begin implementing right away.
Captioning Your Media @ Yale: Options and Basics*NEW
Have media you need to caption, but unsure what your responsibilities are for captioning under Yale’s Accessibility Policy, where to begin, or what options are available? This two-hour training covers paid options for captioning your media through our Preferred Captioning Vendors 3Play Media and Rev.com, as well as free options, like YouTube. Attendees will leave understanding their obligations under Yale’s policy, the differences between the major captioning file types, and how to create, edit, and sync captions to their media for both Canvas courses and websites.
Events & Resources
Have an event you’d like us to feature or a resource to share? Email Michelle Morgan michelle.morgan@yale.edu for inclusion in our next update.
Events:
DAY (DiversAbility at Yale) Steering Committee Meeting
Thursday, July 11, 2019
12-1 pm
221 Whitney Ave Conference Rm 612
Please join the monthly DAY Steering Committee meetings. The meetings are an opportunity to hear what’s been happening with DAY and what is in the works. We welcome all those who are interested in getting involved and sharing their ideas. Lunch will be provided. Register by sending an email to day@yale.edu. Zoom is available if you cannot attend the meeting in person.
Resources:
Actiview Entertainment App
The free Actiview Entertainment App offers users a way to sync accessibility features to thousands of movies. Features include amplified audio, audio description, audio dubs, closed captioning, sign language interpretation, and subtitles.