The Access Blog

With the final phase of the Desire2Learn implementation plan scheduled to be completed by May 31, 2014 – at which time D2L will be the exclusive learning management system used at the University of Calgary – now is a good time to review the accessibility features of D2L.

For students, the Desire2Learn Resource Centre provides an overview of using assistive technology in D2L, while instructors can review suggestions for accessible course design.

Filed by SAS at 10:49 am under Accessibility,Assistive Technology,Campus Resources,Current Students,Learning Supports  Tagged accessibility, Desire2Learn, universal design
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Instructors are encouraged to design, create and provide accessible course content. In doing so, instructors ensure that course content is accessible to the widest possible audience, including but not limited to students with disabilities and/or those class members using assistive technologies.

For information on best practices in the creation of accessible course documents and presentations, please consult the following links from the University of Minnesota.

• Creating accessible Microsoft Office Word documents
• Creating accessible Microsoft Office Excel documents
• Creating accessible PDF documents
• Creating accessible Microsoft Office PowerPoint presentations
• Creating accessible Adobe Presenter presentations
• Creating accessible Apple Keynote presentations
• Creating accessible multimedia

This information is also available on the Student Accessibility Services website.

Filed by SAS at 10:36 am under Accessibility,Campus Resources,Current Students,Learning Supports  Tagged accessibility, content, UDL
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As reported by Dr. Michael Ullyot, Assistant Professor of English and Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning) in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Calgary, the Learning Technologies Task Force, a committee of the Provost and Vice-President Academic at U of C, is nearing completion and will soon issue its report.

As part of this, the committee is looking creatively at Learning Spaces, and wants to hear from students:

How do spaces— classrooms, labs, onscreen interfaces, libraries, studios, study spaces, or wherever else you learn — enable or disable your learning? What are the University of Calgary’s best and worst learning spaces? What kinds of space enhance your learning, and why? If you ran the university, what would they look and feel like?

To share your thoughts, tweet @ https://twitter.com/artsadtl, use the hashtag #LearningSpaces, or post on Dr. Ullyot’s blog.

Filed by SAS at 1:43 pm under Accessibility,Campus Resources,Current Students,Learning Supports
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Over at ProfHacker, an overview of best practices for creating accessible print documents, excerpted from the Guidelines for Print Document Design offered by the American Printing House for the Blind.

Filed by SAS at 10:58 am under Accessibility
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