Creating Accessible Electronic Course Materials

As part of Michigan State University’s goal to provide universally accessible web content, the library’s Course Materials Program has been focusing on ways to make electronic course packs more accessible. This lightning round will address our approach and workflow in creating accessible electronic documents, which in turn create a better user experience for all students. We will demonstrate how each step in the creation of these materials contributes to meaningful accessibility, and how we’ve adapted several technologies to streamline the labor component while enhancing quality. From the initial stages of scanning materials and ensuring accurate Optical Character Recognition, to structuring a navigational Word document that is made available alongside PDFs, the steps we present will have broad application for anyone interested in creating accessible electronic documents