Most faculty design course materials thinking about how they look. But for a significant number of students, how course content looks is only part of the picture -- or not the picture at all. Students with disabilities may experience your course through a screen reader that reads text aloud, a magnification tool that enlarges content, voice control software that lets them navigate without a mouse or keyboard, or captions that make lecture videos accessible without sound. 

Understanding how these tools work -- and more so, what gets in their way -- is one of the most useful things you can do to improve your course experience for every student.

1. Screen Readers: Your Course as Sound

Screen readers are software applications that convert on-screen text into synthesized speech or Braille output. Common screen readers include JAWS (license required), NVDA (free, Windows), Narrator (free, Windows), ChromeVox (free, Chromebooks) and VoiceOver (free, Mac). Students who are blind or have low vision rely on screen readers to access course content. Screen readers can also benefit students with learning disabilities, limited mobility, and other disabilities in their interactions with digital content in different ways. 

Watch: Screen Reader Demo for Digital Accessibility (4:44)

Here’s what that means for course materials:

• A screen reader reads content in the order it appears in the document structure, not necessarily in the order it looks onscreen. For example, a visually organized two-column layout might be read as all left-column content, followed by all right-column content. Documents that lack proper heading structure will be read in a jumbled order -- or not read at all. 

• Images without alt text are announced as “image” or are read aloud by the file name. A screen reader user who hears “image001.jpg” as the file name learns nothing from that image.

• Links are often navigated as a list. A list of “click here” links has no meaning without context. Choose action verbs such as “complete survey,” “download article,” or “review before class” as these provide the what and why of the link to screen readers. 

• Heading styles allow screen reader users to jump to sections of a document the way sighted readers can scan headers. A document without proper heading styles, however, must be read in its entirety from beginning to end.

2. Voice Control: Navigating Without Hands

Voice control software (such as Windows Voice Access or Apple’s Voice Control) allows students with motor disabilities to navigate and interact with content using spoken commands. Students might say “click Download Syllabus” to activate a link -- which only works if the link has clear, descriptive text.

• Vague link text cannot be reliably targeted by voice commands. Choose action verbs for web links, avoiding “click here” or “this guide.” 

• Forms and interactive elements without visible labels cannot be activated by voice.

• Accessible,descriptive text throughout your course makes voice navigation faster and less frustrating.

Image: Screen magnification software, such as ZoomText, allow users to enlarge on-screen content to support accessibility and comprehension. 

3. Magnification Tools: Your Course at 4x Original Size

Students with low vision may use screen magnification software (such as ZoomText or Windows Magnifier) to enlarge content to two, four, or even 10 times its original size. At high magnification levels, only a small portion of the screen is visible at once.

• Text that is embedded in images cannot be magnified without becoming blurry. If your content contains images of text instead of real text, that content becomes illegible when enlarged. 

• Low-contrast color combinations (light gray on white, yellow on white) are difficult to read at normal size and become even harder to read at high magnification.

• PDFs that are image-based rather than text-based do not magnify clearly. Tagged, text-based PDFs reflow much better.

Magnification software can have its limits, however, as low vision varies widely from student to student and some tools may not meet every student’s needs. If a student using magnification tools reports issues when accessing physical materials such as handouts, textbooks, or lab worksheets you can refer them to Disability Access and Resources (DAR) for additional assistive technology support. DAR can provide document cameras or mirror-cams which help students magnify physical materials in real time. 

4. Captions and Transcripts: Your Course Without Sound

Students who are deaf or hard of hearing cannot access audio unless it’s captioned or transcribed. Yet captions benefit a much wider group: students in noisy environments; students who process text more easily than audio; multilingual learners; and students who use captions as a study aid.

• Auto-captions are a starting point, not a finished product. Errors in auto-captions (e.g., wrong names, missed phrases or words, misheard sentences) are common and can significantly impact clarity and comprehension. If a video announcement in Blackboard isn’t captioned, for example, students who need them will miss your message entirely.

• Transcripts make audio content searchable and accessible to students who cannot play video at all.

• Audio descriptions, which verbally describe essential visual information in a video, extend access to students who are blind or have low vision.

5. What This Means for Building Your Course

You don’t need to become an assistive technology expert to make a meaningful difference in your students’ experience. Creating accessible content can take only a few minutes using established best practices along with UMBC supported tools. Oftentimes, the barrier is awareness of these methods, not lack of effort. A few consistent habits can go a long way:

• Use heading styles so screen reader users can navigate your documents.

• Write alt text that describes what an image communicates, not just what it depicts.

• Make link text descriptive and self-contained.

• Review and correct auto-captions on your videos.

• Choose real text over images of text whenever possible.

• Check your work using built-in tools like the Accessibility Checker in Word and PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat's accessibility checker, or Blackboard’s Ally.

Accessible course design isn’t about designing for a hypothetical “typical” student. It’s about recognizing all students arrive with a range of needs, preferences, devices, and ways of interacting with digital content -- and ensuring you offer flexible and usable materials across those differences.

Let’s enhance meeting productivity for all attendees! Whether you are hosting a departmental meeting, conducting a 1:1 check-in, or moderating a large-scale event,  the organization and execution of that meeting impacts everyone’s ability to engage meaningfully. Attendees with hearing or vision impairments, audio processing differences, or utilizing assistive technology will benefit if you can reduce barriers that impact their ability to participate. 

Here are 3 tips to ensure your synchronous meetings are accessible. Applicable to both in-person meetings and virtual sessions, these tips focus on UMBC’s primary platforms: Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Webex.

1. Coordinate and Share Materials

All information should be easy to perceive and navigate throughout the entire meeting.

• Pre-Meeting: Provide agendas and supporting files at least 24 hours beforehand to accommodate screen reader users and those who desire or require ample time to prepare.  Use your calendar description to include or share text-based agendas and favor structured documents over PDFs.

• During the Meeting: Ensure text is at least 18 pt (sans serif) for clarity across devices. Narrate visual elements -- like describing specific data points on a chart -- rather than just reading text. Encourage participants to share their screens during collaborative work, if appropriate, for improved compatibility with assistive software.

• Post-Meeting: Provide notes in structured formats rather than long-form, dense and possibly inaccessible emails. Review and fix errors in automated transcripts or captions before distributing recordings. Clearly define and label all deadlines and action items.

2. Use Real-Time Captioning

Providing a visual representation of speech is a fundamental accommodation.

Providing real-time captions allows a diverse range of participants to engage in the meeting meaningfully. While live text displays are essential for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, they also offer vital support for non-native speakers, those in high-noise environments, and attendees who utilize visual reinforcement to process information more effectively.

• Google Meet: Toggle the Captions feature in settings for immediate text display.

• Microsoft Teams: Enable live captions via Language and speech in the ellipsis menu.

• Webex: Use the Accessibility or Closed captions options. 

3. Enhance Audio Quality

Using clear audio helps generate reliable transcripts.

• Prioritize Quality: Use a headset or external microphone instead of built-in speakers for better speech recognition and transcription accuracy. Follow microphone etiquette by muting yourself when not speaking to reduce noise that will hinder captioning.

• Control Speaking Order: Speak clearly and at a moderate pace, ensuring only one person speaks at a time. Overlapping speech confuses transcription engines and makes it difficult for participants using hearing aids to follow.

• Optimize Your Space: In hyflex environments, utilize the installed room microphones and speakers rather than your laptop’s built-in audio. These integrated systems are designed to pick up voices from across the room, ensuring that remote participants can clearly hear in-person contributions. Remember to face the audience to provide essential visual cues for lip-readers.

Accessible meetings take a little more time and intention to plan, yet you can create and facilitate a more equitable meeting where everyone can engage and contribute their full potential.

Video can be one of the most effective teaching tools you use, especially when every student can access the content. Captions and audio descriptions boost clarity, reinforce key ideas, and creative flexible learning pathways that benefit all learners. Compliance with the revised technical standards for the Americans with Disabilities Act is an added advantage, but the primary payoff is student success. And because these practices can fit naturally into your existing video recording workflows, even small improvements can make a meaningful difference in how students engage with your course.

Here are three practical ways you can make your videos more accessible using tools and workflows you already have.

1. Start with captions because everyone benefits!

Captions help students who are deaf or hard of hearing -- and they also help the students riding the bus, in the library, at work, or while a toddler naps across the room. Research shows:

• 80% of adults are more likely to finish a video with captions (Publicis Media, 2019)
• Most Gen Z students watch video in public -- 70% use captions when they are available (Mykhalevych, 2024)
• 75% of students use captioned videos as study aids (Linder, 2016)

Captions are universal design in action. Therefore, always make sure your videos minimally have captions available in the language that is spoken.

2. Always review and edit auto-captions

Sometimes accessibility is the difference between dinner and disaster. Here's an example from the Web Accessibility Initiative that shows how auto-captions can fail students. In one clip, the presenter said, "Broil on high for four to five minutes." But the auto-caption read, "Broil on high for 45 minutes."

One quick edit can completely change meaning. Auto-captions will eventually improve and advancements in AI and audio technology will help strengthen the quality and reliability. For now, it's important to review those auto-captions!

3. Add audio descriptions when visuals carry meaning

Captions make sound visible. Audio descriptions make visuals audible. If students need to see something to understand your content, such as a graph, a diagram, or a demonstration, that information must be spoken aloud with a description. Without audio description, when you say "As you can see here…" it does not provide clear enough information for someone who cannot see the graph. With audio description, one could say, "The line graph shows three trends over 20 years. The blue line increases from 10 to 45." 

In other words: if you closed your eyes and listened to your video, would you still learn something without seeing the content? If not, add the audio description. Accessible teaching is explicit teaching.

Accessible video matters. It takes about 15 minutes to fix captions for a 10-minute video and 30-45 minutes to add audio descriptions. Our new video platform, YuJa, allows you to generate auto-captions and edit them, and you can upload an audio description to publish a fully accessible video for your students. However, if you feel overwhelmed, start small. One video. One hour. That's it. The impact it has will not only meet legal requirements, but will also benefit 100 percent of all learners. 

Ready to take the first step? Visit UMBC's Digital Accessibility site or run an Ally course report today. Support is also available from Student Disability Services and Instructional Technology.