Brianna Benson talks to students.

Originally posted on Kent State Today.Perhaps the best word to sum up Brianna Benson’s role at Kent State University is “caretaker.”Benson is the assistant director of Community Engaged Learning in University College and oversees the CommUNITY Lab, where students in various scholarship programs, many of whom are first-generation, can find a responsive living-learning community that provides the support they need to succeed at Kent State.“We’re with them from start to finish,” Benson said, “We’re with you the whole four years.”Brianna Benson, assistant director of Community Engaged Learning, te...

Training Questions and Additional Resources for Digital Accessibility Page

Training

Digital and instructional accessibility ensures all members of the Kent State community can engage fully with technology, course materials, and classroom experiences. Our Equal Access Learning hub offers guidance and resources to help faculty and staff reduce barriers, meet legal standards, and design with inclusion in mind.

Accessible Document Formatting

When adding documents to your course, use accessible formats such as Word, tagged PDFs, or PowerPoint. For Word documents, use heading styles, alt text for images, and proper tables and lists. For PDFs, make sure the text is selectable, headings are tagged, and the reading order is correct; avoid scanned pages such as book copies or printed handouts. In PowerPoint, use built-in slide layouts, add alt text to images, and ensure the reading order matches the visual content. Inside all documents, format images, links, tables, and other elements properly to maintain accessibility.

Captioning and Transcripts

For video and audio media in your course, be sure to include captions for all videos and provide written transcripts for audio files. For videos without audio, be sure to add a description of the content. Here at Kent State, we can use Kaltura Reach to add captions to our videos. These are auto-captioned and can be edited for accuracy. Ensure that all media can be paused, stopped, or muted by students and avoid autoplay when possible.

Descriptive Links

Links are an important part of accessibility and navigation. Make sure your link text is descriptive so students know exactly where it will take them. For example, type ‘Read the full course syllabus’ instead of just ‘click here.’ Whenever possible, provide more than one way to reach important content, like including a link in both the Modules and the course navigation menu. This helps all students find what they need quickly and easily.

Tables

Tables are a great way to present data clearly, but they shouldn’t be used just to organize or format a page. When you do use a table, include row and column headers so students, and screen readers, can understand the information. Adding captions can help explain what the table shows. Keeping tables simple and straightforward makes them easier for everyone to read and navigate.

  • Use tables only for data, not for layout or positioning.
  • Include row and column headers.
  • Add captions when needed to clarify content.
  • Keep tables simple and easy to read.

Logical Heading Structures & Clear Organization

Heading styles are built-in formatting tools (like H1, H2, H3) in Canvas and other editors such as Microsoft Word that create structure for a page. Unlike simply making text bold or larger, heading styles tag content so screen readers can recognize and navigate it, allowing students with disabilities to jump between sections easily. They also keep your course organized and visually consistent, showing the relationship between main topics and subtopics.

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