Increasing Accessibility in Your Online Resources Series: Tip #1 

Over the next semester, the goal of this accessibility blog series will be to increase the capacity of all in the university community who work with students with disabilities to have knowledge about how technology can be used to support Universal Design. The impetus of the concept behind Universal Design is one that has a focus on eliminating barriers and this blog series will focus on those barriers in teaching and learning.

As faculty in higher education, there is always a need to think about alternative ways to make content available. One such way is to add voice to your PowerPoint is one way to increase the universal design of your lecture points. Adding a narration to your slides give students who may have a visual impairment an alternative method to access the core material of the lesson or subject material. One tool for adding this feature easily is through the use of Impactica.

 Using Impatica allows you add narration to your slide as well as decrease the size of your PowerPoint presentations before uploading them to Blackboard. By reducing the size of the files, you are able to load more presentations to your course.I n addition, the java feature of the software allows students to see the file in a web browser format which presents a more user friendly interface.

Impactica is available for all faculty and staff use in the elab 106 in Building 41. Come stop in and  use the software licenses on the computers to create more dynamic and engaging material for any of your courses or projects.