The University of Toledo

Electronic Text What Faculty Should Know

All students need to have access to textbooks, course materials such as reserve readings, course packets, shared instructor notes, posted PowerPoint slides, and all readings or other materials posted on course specific websites. Your assistance is required in order to ensure the University meets it’s legal obligation to ensure that students with a documented disability which qualifies the student for electronic text as an academic adjustment under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 has access to all course materials.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) can assist instructors in creating a learning environment that enhances the learning experience for all students with or without a disability. UDL is the process of making our course concepts educationally accessible regardless of learning style, physical or sensory ability.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) allows instructors to write documents that are useful to a variety of students including:

• International students
• Returning veterans and older adult learners
• Students with undiagnosed or undisclosed learning disabilities
• Students with visible or invisible learning disabilities
• ESL students

Most studenets utilizing electronic text materials have invisiable learning disabilities. Additionally students with mobility impairments or who are blind or have low vision require Electronic Text Books and course materials that will read out loud to them. To learn more about one blind student who uses Electronic Text please click on the following link: Svetlana

Please note: Not all blind students read Braille, many use adaptive software to read materials to them rather than Braille. Please review the advocacy memo from the Office of Accessibility to determine if an individual student uses Braille, electronic materials, or both. Students with low vision usually do not read Braille, but do require electronic text materials.

Best Practices

Providing Accessible Textbooks, and Course Materials

Textbooks

1. Ask your publisher sales representative if an electronic version of the book is available. Order books only from publishers that will make electronic copies of the book available to students with disabilities. Publishers that consistently provide electronic text and that we suggest you order from are: cengage Learning CQ Press, F.A. Davis Company, John Wiley & Sons, McGraw-Hill Education, Pearson Education, Reed Elsevier, Inc., and W.W. Norton. Please DO NOT order from publishers such as Penguin, Rnadom House, or Oxford University Press. These publishers typically will not provide electronic versions.
2. Consider ordering electronic versions of the books for the class. Many students with disabilities in this technological age prefer electronic books as well. If you choose not to make an electronic version an option for all students, order at least a few electronic versions and work with the bookstore and OA to put those copies aside for students with disabilities to pick up at the bookstore. Here are a list of Publishers which provide electronic text:
   
   • Bedford/St. Martin's, W.H. Freeman, Worth Publishers
   • Cengage Learning
   • CQ Press
   • McGraw-Hill Education
   • Pearson Education
   • Reed Elsevier Inc.
   • John Wiley & Sons
   • W.W. Norton
   
   
3. Make your book selection early. A good rule of thumb is to order books at least 6 weeks prior to the start of the semester.  

Course Materials/ Syllabus

Ensure that your course materials are accessible to all students in your class. This includes course packets, materials in library reserve, posted to course specific websites, sent by email, or given out in class.   

Creating Accessible Documents

 “MS Word” files generally require that the computer used has adaptive screen reading software, like “JAWS” loaded. Most, but not all, blind students have reading software installed on their personal computers, however if you plan on using “MS Word” documents , please check with the student to ensure they have software installed that will allow them to read the document. TIP: If you create files using Word “Headers” it will allow the student to search the document.

 Scanning PDF files.

PDF files  have screen reading software embedded and so can be read without any adaptive software. In order for the “Read Out Loud” functionality to work:

1. Scan original documents. The printing must be very clear in order for optical character recognition software to identify the letters. Copies that have any marks, underlining, shadows, writing in margins, blurred, light, or specked printing will not scan appropriately, and should be re-typed prior to scanning.
2. If scanning portions of a book, we suggest you use a book scanner to avoid “binder shadows” that are caused when the binding of the book is pressed down to scan using a flatbed scanner. A book scanner is available in the Office of Accessibility, and may be used free of charge.
3. Scan the document as a PDF Image/Text file. PDFs scanned as image files will not read.
4. Check the file after scanning to ensure that:
   1. The magnifying glass functions works.
   2. The “Read Out loud” function works. For instructions on checking that the Read Out Loud function works click here.

 

Quick Tips to Creating Accessible Documents

When done correctly, the document ensures correct reading-order and allows it to re-flow to fit the display when the magnification or display size is changed.

• Create files in “Word” and if needed convert to PDF files after created as a .Doc file.
• Use the Word “Header” function to allow a student to search within the document.
• Place content in logical reading order. This is fundamental to creating accessible document.
• Do not use TAB, Spacebar and Enter keys to format for tables, columns, lists etc.
• Use the application's built-in features to encode semantic structure (headings, paragraphs, lists, sections, headers/footers, tables, columns, forms etc.).
• Define and use styles to format structural elements like headings, paragraphs etc. to control typography and layout.
• Use standard fonts. Do not use fonts that do not map to Unicode.
• Avoid complex layout, sidebars and other ornamentation as they make it difficult to maintain a logical reading order.
• Avoid placing content in drawing-canvases or text-boxes as these are floating objects and flow to the bottom of a page's reading-order.
• Group multiple graphic elements (created by drawing tools, charts etc) into one image.
• Provide alternative text descriptors for all non-textual elements (graphs, images, illustration, pictures, multimedia, etc) that provide essential information.
• Ensure that all navigation and interactivity can be performed using the keyboard.

Resources at Microsoft

• Online Tutorial on Creating Accessible Office Documents
• Office 2007 Accessibility Resources
• Office 2007 System Accessibility Tutorials
• Accessibility in MS Products

Resources at Adobe

• Accessibility Center at Adobe
• Online Tutorials on Creating Accessible PDF

 

Material in Library Reserve- When giving hard copy materials to the library reserve staff to scan and post, please send original documents. Copies that have any marks, underlining, shadows, writing in margins, blurred, light, or specked printing will not scan appropriately. Please inform the library reserve staff that the materials need to be accessible to a student who requires e-text, to ensure the materials are checked for accessibility. For more information on putting materials on reserve click here

DL and web assisted materials- Please inform your Learning Ventures designer that the materials need to be accessible to a student who requires e-text, to ensure the materials are checked for accessibility.

 

In Class Handouts

If you handout assignments in class you have a couple options:

1. Make an electronic version of all in-class handouts available via an email to the class list, or a course website either before or after the material is passed out in class as appropriate given the nature of the material/assignment. This allows all students the ability to review the handouts. Review of those materials can be critical to students with a disability that made it difficult to read, or fully process the information in the handout during class.
2. Most students with a learning or mobility disability will be able to use the same handouts as other in the class, but may need to review an electronic version after class.
3. Ask low vision students if an enlarged copy of handouts would work for him/her and if so what font size would be best. Low vision students also benefit greatly from an electronic copy that will read to them to avoid eye strain.
4. Ask the blind/low vision students if he/she can bring a laptop computer and headphones or BrailleNote to class. If the student has access to a laptop, or BrailleNote you can create and save the document to a flash drive and give it to the student during class, or email the document to the student so that the student can listen to the document as classmates read the document. Please ensure the materials are accessible (See the section above about creating accessible documents)
   1. If using an electronic version in the classroom is not an option for a blind student, you may send the document to be converted to Braille. Send documents via email, as “MS Word” documents, to offacc@utnet.utoledo.edu Please allow at least 48 hours for processing. Pick up the Braille document in the Office of Accessibility, 1820 Rocket Hall so that it can be given out during class at the same time other students receive the handout.

• Documents emailed in an electronic format other than “MS Word” or dropped off as a hard copy to our office in 1820 Rocket Hall usually need to be re-typed, or scanned and significantly edited, and so take significantly longer to convert to Braille. Please allow at least 5 business days for short documents of 10 pages or less to be converted to Braille. Longer documents may take several weeks to Braille.