ACCESSIBLE WEB SEMINARS AND LECTURES
This tutorial is about how to plan, execute and follow up
on accessible web seminars and online lectures.
But first: What makes an online course accessible?
That all students are able to use the digital content without outside help.
This means that teaching material, Moodle courses and Zoom meetings are designed to be accessible.
Your attitude is also important - because inclusion begins in the mind.
Show the students that you are ready to provide support and
encourage them to express specific needs right at the beginning of the semester,
so that everyone can successfully take part in the events.
STEP 1: PREPARING THE LESSONS
In addition to planning content and didactics, you should
also consider the issue of accessibility from the start.
Begin by asking yourself
which formats, platforms and materials you want to use
and check their individual accessibility.
All documents provided, e.g. semester plans or seminar reading material, should be accessible PDFs.
So they are easy to read with screen readers and magnifying software.
Learn how to create these documents in the "Accessible PDF documents" tutorial.
When designing your text documents, images and graphs, ensure that they are
clearly structured and use colors that contrast sufficiently with one another.
Complementary colors, such as blue and yellow, differ particularly strongly.
But, be careful: Avoid the complementary colors red and green,
because people with a red-green colorblindness cannot see any difference here.
To ensure the best possible legibility, use
sans serif fonts, e.g. Arial or Helvetica.
If you are using visual or audio content, remember to provide
videos with subtitles and, if possible, audio descriptions.
Audio content also requires a transcript.
All information, documents and the access data for the next Zoom meeting
should be made available at least three days prior to the date
so that all students can prepare for the course according to their needs.
You will most likely make your material available via email, cloud storage
or, even better, on the Moodle learning platform.
You should note the following:
Add an image description to the files, images, and graphs provided.
For example, if you upload a PDF with the seminar reading material,
add the title of the text and a short description, e.g. the exact source.
Likewise for images or graphs.
First upload your picture.
Then give a brief description of the image,
consisting of: 1.) The image type
(e.g. photo, line drawing, pie chart)
2.) a short, objective description
and 3.) the copyright notice.
There are also a few details to consider when it comes to links.
Do not use the actual link in the text,
but rather add a link to a meaningful term.
An example: Instead of copying the link to the homepage of the University of Potsdam
into the text field, write "Universität Potsdam", highlight the word and click on the link symbol.
You can insert the link address here.
You can also choose to have the link open in a new window.
This will ensure that your course remains open in the browser.
A short description for your link is also very helpful.
For example: "Link to the homepage of the University of Potsdam".
STEP 2: HOLDING A SEMINAR OR LECTURE
Now you can start your web seminar or your online lecture.
Set up your monitor so that you are looking straight into the camera
and ensure a lighting in which your face is clearly visible when speaking.
Avoid places with loud background noise and mute your phone.
Carpet and curtains help to reduce room noise.
To be easily understandable, use an external microphone instead of the computer microphone.
Speak into the camera clearly and at a moderate pace
to enable lip reading.
In consideration of participants with visual impairments,
choose a clear, neutral background
and avoid distracting patterns or details.
Most likely, you will conduct your seminar or lecture through Zoom.
This software has some handy tools.
A useful feature is to record the session so that you can provide it later.
Caution: Please ask for the consent of the participants via email BEFORE the first recording
so that everyone involved can decide as anonymously as possible.
Please ask again at the beginning of the first session.
To enable the recording of meetings,
first activate the cloud recording.
To do this, click on the settings wheel in the top right of your zoom start screen.
Under "General" select "View more settings".
A new window will then open in your browser.
Under "Settings" select the "Recording" tab
and select the options for cloud recording.
You can choose from several options.
It is best to choose the active speaker and the gallery view to be recorded.
You can also record the chat history here.
It is also possible to record pure audio.
This can be a good option
in case seminar participants have not consented to video recording.
You can also date your recordings with a time stamp
and record a miniature view of the speaker when screen sharing.
Unfortunately, the option to have a transcript created automatically
is currently only available for meetings in English.
Don't forget to click "Record" at the beginning of every Zoom session.
Another feature allows you to add live captions to your meeting.
To do this, select the "Closed Caption" function at the bottom of the zoom screen.
You can choose to type the subtitles yourself during the meeting
- which could turn out to be a challenge -
or to delegate this task to participants of the meeting.
Alternatively, commercial providers can be included for this.
You can also use the chat function to interact with the students.
You can provide information about the sequence at the beginning
and students can ask questions.
So keep a close eye on the chat during the session.
When using images, graphs, or videos, remember to verbalize their content.
For example:
"I am showing a chalcography from the 15th century that depicts the olive harvest in Apulia."
Or:
"This video shows assembly line production at Ford's Detroit facility in 1928."
In the case of slideshows and presentations, you should mention the respective page numbers.
This enables students to easily locate the content
in the presentation provided after the course.
It is also advisable to assign someone to write minutes of the meeting
to record the results of the discussion in writing.
You then provide the minutes as an accessible PDF or as a plain text document on Moodle.
This helps anyone who wants to rework the session.
It is also important to define the discussion rules
at the beginning of the first session and to write them down in the chat.
You can also post a written summary on Moodle.
Example: The request to talk should be signaled by the participants
in a specific way, e.g. by a visual hand signal or in the chat.
Several people should not be speaking simultaneously
and only the person speaking should turn on their microphone.
Before speaking, participants should briefly introduce themselves.
To enable lip reading, speakers should switch on the video function
of their device and look directly into the screen.
In seminars, it generally makes sense for all participants to switch on the video function.
In lectures, the focus should be on you, the teacher.
STEP 3: FOLLOW UP
You should follow up on the course after it's finished.
First, upload your presentation to Moodle.
As well as the minutes of the meeting, as soon as they're finished.
If you recorded the Zoom meeting and chat history, you can download it now
and also make it available on Moodle.
You can find your recordings online under "Recordings".
Caution: After 30 days, the material in Zoom's cloud storage is automatically deleted.
You can now add subtitles to your video.
You can do this manually or with the help of programs such as YouTube.
A detailed description of this can be found in the video tutorial "Accessible video recordings".
Especially in case the material is to be made available to the public
beyond the framework of the semester,
it makes a lot of sense,
especially for lectures or conference recordings.
CHECKLIST - SUMMARY
I will briefly summarize what to pay attention to when creating an accessible video.
Plan the accessibility right from the start
and show the students that you are happy to respond to their needs.
Make texts, videos, images and links available in an accessible manner.
Establish clear discussion rules
and ensure high lighting and sound quality during meetings.
Verbalize visual content,
add live captions if possible, and record the session.
Provide presentations, minutes and video recordings
after the meeting and add subtitles.
If you do run into technical difficulties,
you may contact the "Zentrum für Informationstechnologie" (short: ZIM).