Accessibility: Keeping Universal Design for Learning Top of Mind
This Library Guide is created to help students, faculty, and staff learn about the accessible tools Microsoft Office Products comes with to make your work accessible to everyone. The trick to accessibility is to design with accesssiblity from the start.
The goal of this Research Guide is to help you get started on making your documents, PowerPoints, videos accessible one step at a time.
You may be wondering, why should I worry about folks who are disabled? I don't know or have any Deaf or Hard of Hearing family members or students. Well, keeping accessibility top of mind is important because it's the law and it's the right/compassionate thing to do. Lastly, good health isn't promised to any of us - today we may be able to walk, read, and drive on our own, but we don't know what tomorrow brings.
Also, it is well known that accessibility features such as ramps, transcripts, close captions, and other ADA (American with Disability Act) accommodations have benefited the community at large, not just folks with a range of disabilities. For example, transcripts, and close captions help people with disabilities as well as those who are learning English or engaging with the format you created in situations where audio is not an option - imagine a new parent with a sleeping infant in the room finally enjoying their favorite show with the television's audio off and close captions on.
