Category Archives: Accessibility
WAVE: A Free Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool
April 30, 2013
WAVE is a free tool created by WebAIM to help individuals evaluate, and thus improve, the accessibility of web pages. It is an automated tool, so by itself it cannot tell you if all aspects of your web content are accessible. (Knowledgeable humans are still necessary!) However, WAVE is a powerful tool that makes [...]
Add Headings to Word Documents in Your Blackboard Course
March 7, 2013
Documents you put into Blackboard, and other web pages, must be accessible to people with disabilities. There are simple techniques you can use to improve the accessibility of documents as they are created. This article will show you how to easily add structural headings in Microsoft Word for Windows 2007 and 2010. Why are structural [...]
Tips for Creating Accessible Online Documents
February 18, 2013
Purdue’s Web Accessibility Committee recently published a new resource. It is designed to help faculty and staff author documents that are accessible to people with disabilities. A wide variety of documents created by Purdue faculty and staff are uploaded into Blackboard or web pages. Each uploaded document — whether Microsoft Word, PDF, or another format [...]
Characteristics of CCTVs
February 15, 2013
I will start out by defining the term CCTV. In this instance the term CCTV refers to a video enlarger for use by a person who has low-vision. These devices have been around since the mid-1970s. In their most basic terms a CCTV is a video camera with a zoom lens and a monitor. The [...]
New Resource Assists in Software Purchasing Decisions
February 13, 2013
How often do you or your department need to identify the best software to purchase? Or do you face situations in which you need to select the best option among several free versions of software? Accessibility to people with disabilities should be one of the criteria used in making a purchasing decision. However, many are [...]
JAWS 13 Available in the Assistive Technology Center for Spring 2013
January 9, 2013
JAWS 13 is available in the Assistive Technology Center. Due to the way JAWS is installed in the ITaP lab environment, JAWS 12 is also still available. The best method to ensure JAWS 13 is being launched instead of JAWS 12 is to type “JAWS 13” into the search edit box in the Start menu. [...]
Using the Word 2010 Accessibility Checker
December 14, 2012
Many of us are familiar with using the spelling checker to find possible spelling errors in our Word documents. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a tool like that to check for possible accessibility issues? Well, there is! It’s called the Accessibility Checker, and it is available in Word, Excel and PowerPoint in Office [...]
Web-based Read & Write Gold Applications
November 27, 2012
Purdue’s license allows all people on Purdue’s West Lafayette campus to use a new web-based service from the makers of Read & Write Gold. This service includes the following features: eBook Reader – allows the user to read books from Bookshare. Bookshare (http://www.bookshare.org) is a service that can provide e-texts to students who have a [...]
Considering e-Texts for your class? Consider these points…
November 7, 2012
Many of us have a tendency to think that if we adopt an eText format for our class textbooks we will be more innovative and provide the students a cheaper service. Here are some common assumptions (if you are interested in the research behind these statements, please send me an email): eTexts cost less – [...]
Setting the Default Speech Output in Windows 7 64-bit
October 23, 2012
Some programs that use Text-To-Speech use the Windows Speech application to set the voice, rate, and other aspects of the speech output. By default, in Windows 7 64-bit the only voice that is available is Microsoft Ana. Even if other voices are available on the computer they cannot be selected as the default voice. Two [...]