Accessibility Assistance

A professor interacting with several students in a classroom.

The Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Online Education (CETLOE) offers consultations, workshops, and support to help instructors ensure their courses and materials meet accessibility requirements. These inclusive standards improve access for all students, not just those with disabilities.

CETLOE also reviews iCollege content for accessibility. Priority is given to courses with disabled students enrolled.

Workshops

Visit the CETLOE Events calendar for the schedule of workshops on accessibility and inclusive teaching topics. Our Mastering Online Teaching series introduces accessible course design, including Universal Design for Learning.

Trainings for students on using iCollege’s accessibility features are also available on demand—request a custom workshop to help improve their studying or engagement.

Student Accommodations

Please direct questions about accommodation letters and assistive technologies for disabled students to the Access & Accommodations Center (AACE).

If you were referred to CETLOE because the question pertains to iCollege or course technologies, use the Course Accessibility Requests form to contact us.

Contact

If you have questions about course accessibility, please let us know. CETLOE strives to provide teaching and university technology support that makes learning accessible to each and every student.

Tools for Content Accessibility

Adobe Acrobat Pro – Convert scanned PDFs to text, or use Acrobat’s accessibility checker to identify and repair PDF errors.

BrightSpace Accessibility Checker – Identify accessibility errors in iCollege content and assessments, and repair inaccessible text and images with this built-in tool.

Microsoft Accessibility Checker – Create accessible documents by running the checker in Word or PowerPoint.

ReadSpeaker (Text to Speech) – Listen to pages and documents in iCollege, or customize their display to improve reading and studying. Use TextAid on external sites or files.

Special Access on Quizzes – Set extended time or availability on iCollege quizzes, for students with accommodations.

Video Captions – Upload or import video/audio to Kaltura Media for automated captioning. Corrected, “human” captioning is available by request.

Creating Accessible Course Materials

Text, graphics, media (video/audio), webpages and documents (PDF, Word, PPT, etc.) offered to GSU students must be designed from the start to meet digital content standards:

Format text as headings, lists, paragraphs, etc. to create structure/outline
Write descriptive link text that identifies where the link goes (avoid URLs or "https")
Select high-contrast colors (sufficiently light and dark) for text and visuals
Build data tables with logical columns and rows
Add descriptive alternative text to images
Enable accurate captions on video/audio
Provide searchable, selectable text that is legible when magnified (avoid scanning documents as graphics)
Move content from PDFs or print documents onto webpages for ease of access