As we continue to celebrate Online Accessibility Action Week at Shoreline, today’s daily tip is about captioning video content.

We’ve been reading lately about universities such as MIT and Harvard being sued for lack of video captioning. While captioning is absolutely necessary for those who are hard-of-hearing, captions are also incredibly helpful for English language learners. A recent study found that 80% of viewers that use captions are in fact not deaf or hard of hearing, but simply prefer captioned content. Closed captions can improve video comprehension for all viewers, and as we use more video content in our courses, captioning becomes more important.

Live captioning has had a great impact on Business Professor Steve McCloskey’s teaching and on his students’ learning. Please take a few minutes to watch this captioned video of their experience.

We are taking a proactive approach here at Shoreline and faculty were surveyed last year about the types of video content they are using for learning activities. While faculty are welcome to provide their own video captioning, eLearning is here to help!  Unlike many other colleges, we have been able to set aside funds specifically for captioning instructional video content. Do you have videos that you use on a regular basis that need captioning? Contact eLearning: Amy Rovner (arovner@shoreline.edu) or Randy Gottfried (rgottfried@shoreline.edu)

If you want to learn more, join us for our Accessibility Sessions on campus this week!

UDOIT Party!!
Thursday, April 28, 1:30-3:00pm Room 4214
What does UDOIT mean?! UDOIT is a great new tool that is now inside Canvas – a few clicks and it has checked your full course for Accessibility.  It also provides information on how to fix the issues!  Our FLC has also put together a handy checklist if you want to check your course that way.  FLC Members will be present to show you how to use the tools and to help you quickly make improvements.

“Digital Accessibility in Higher Ed: Risk Assessment, Responsibility and Benefits”
with guest speaker Dr. Janet Sedgley, University of Montana
Friday, April 29 11:30-12:30pm, PUB
It feels like a new buzz phrase – digital accessibility.  Those steeped in it, throw the term around daily.  Most others don’t find the term very accessible (aka approachable).  More individuals are starting to understand a little about how to create accessible Word documents and that web images require alt tags.  We have added more steps to our work processes. Why?

Let’s take a step back and get a general view of what’s happening with higher education and digital accessibility.  Is it truly an issue that needs our attention, how involved are each of us and what is higher education’s return on investment as far as digital accessibility.

This presentation is part of the T&L Conference but you are welcome to attend this session even if not registered for the full conference. Please RSVP here so we have enough seats set up for you.

If you cannot attend an on campus training, please reach out to eLearning Services and we can set up individual or small group sessions.