Documents

Contact the Accessible Media Coordinator

Robert Starr
Accessible Media Coordinator

Assistive Technology Initiative
MS: 6A11
Voice: 703-993-5644
Fax: 703-993-4743
rstarr@gmu.edu

ATI supports faculty and staff with creating and providing accessible documents for course materials.  Partnering with Disability Services and the Stearns Center, course documents are identified and sent to the ATI for an accessibility review and remediation.  The most commonly used formats are Word, PowerPoint, and PDF.

Document Preparation by Faculty and Staff

In order to provide accessible documents in a timely manner, we ask faculty and staff to prepare documents prior to submitting a request by including the following:

  1. Add alternative text for all meaningful images, charts, graphs, and objects.
  1. Use built-in slide layouts!
  2. Add alternative text for all meaningful images, charts, graphs, and objects.
  3. For multiple images on one slide, group image and then add alt text for the grouped image.
  1. Send as is!
    • However, scanned material, such as chapters from books or articles, must be good quality scans.  Good quality scans are clear of highlights, underlines, or other elements which distort the image or text.

For additional information on making your documents accessible, visit our Create Accessible Documents webpage for guides, videos, and step-by-step directions.

Document Remediation Plan

Faculty and staff submit a Request Services Form found on ATI Request Services website.

  • Select Document Accessibility Review as the Reason for Request.
  • Fill in all applicable information in the form.
  • Upload the document(s) to the request services form, up to 20 documents can be submitted in one form.
    • Any document over 8MB can be emailed directly to atidocs@gmu.edu after submitting a request.
  • ATI will notify submitter by email when the request is received and is processing.

All requests are reviewed and documented for tracking purposes.  ATI remediates the following areas for accessibility.

  • Word and PowerPoint documents
    • Alternative Text and Images (when added by faculty or staff)
    • Headings
    • Lists
    • Tables
    • Meaningful Hyperlink Text
    • Color Contrast
  • PDF documents
    • Alternative Text and Images
    • Headings
    • Lists
    • Tables
    • Meaningful Hyperlink Text
    • Color Contrast
    • Page Numbers

ATI utilizes JAWS and/or NVDA to verify screen reader access.

ATI will email request submitter with a list of completed documents along with a Dropbox link to download the accessible version of the file(s) upon completion.

Document Remediation Prioritization:

ATI staff prioritizes the remediation of documents used in:

  1. Classrooms with students with sensory impairments (i.e., blind, low vision, deaf, and/or hard of hearing) enrolled
  2. Degree programs with students with sensory impairments enrolled
  3. Front-facing websites hosting documents
  4. Online courses developed c/o Stearns Center

Fiscal Year Statistics

Faculty/Staff Participants: 59Total Processed: Documents - 702. Pages - 10,160.

Number of Documents Processed:

  • 702 documents
  • 10,160 pages

Average turnaround time: Average 8 days (2 weeks during beginning of semester)

Average document length: Approx. 14.5 pages

By Format:

By Format, PDF - 276, 39%. PPT - 295, 42%. Word - 131, 19%.

  • 295 PPT (42%)
  • 131 Word (19%)
  • 276 PDF (39%)

By Type of Request:

  • 52% Compliance (368 requests – 74% SOUPR)
  • 48% Disability Accommodation (334 requests)

Format-specific findings:

By Type of Request: Disability Accommodation 334, 48%. Compliance 368, 52%.

  • Word
    • Syllabi and Assignments most commonly submitted Word documents
  • PPT
    • Most faculty use built-in layouts
  • PDF
    • Articles pulled from databases or web
    • Scans of hard-copy resources/scans of scans

Faculty/Staff Participants: 40Total processed bar chart. Documents 498, Pages 7956

Number of Documents Processed:

  • 498 documents
  • 7,956 pages

Average turnaround time: Approx. 2 weeks (during beginning of semester)

Average document length: Approx. 15 pages

By Format:

By Format pie chart. Powerpoint 196, 39%. Word 147, 30%. PDF 155, 31%

  • 196 PPT (39%)
  • 147 Word (30%)
  • 155 PDF (31%)

By Type of Request:

  • 49% Compliance (244 requests – 62% SOUPR)
  • 51% Disability Accommodation (254 requests)

Format-specific findings:

Type of request pie chart. Compliance 244, 49%. Disability Accommodation 254, 51%

  • Word
    • Syllabi most commonly submitted Word document
    • More common to have tables than images
  • PPT
    • Most faculty use built-in layouts
    • More training needed with respect to use of nested tables, grouping images, alternative text
  • PDF
    • Articles pulled from databases or web
    • Scans of hard-copy resources/scans of scans

Only one instance where same document was used in another course

Faculty/Staff Participants: 78

Number of Documents Processed:

  • 1,315 documents
  • 15,804 pages

Average turnaround time: Average 3.8 days

Average document length: Approx. 12 pages

By Format:

  • 267 PPT (20%)
  • 131 Word (10%)
  • 945 PDF (70%)

By Type of Request:

  • 57% Compliance (764 requests)
  • 43% Disability Accommodation (579 requests)

Faculty/Staff Participants: 124

Number of Documents Processed:

  • 1,710 documents
  • 24,896 pages

Average turnaround time: Average 5.6 days

Average document length: Approx. 14.5 pages

By Format:

  • 198 PPT (12%)
  • 231 Word (14%)
  • 1,276 PDF (75%)

By Type of Request:

  • 54% Compliance (915 requests)
  • 46% Disability Accommodation (795 requests)

Faculty/Staff Participants: 76

Number of Documents Processed:

  • 971 documents
  • 13,261 pages

Average turnaround time: Average 3.9 days

Average document length: Approx. 13.66 pages

By Format:

  • 89 PPT (9%)
  • 60 Word (6%)
  • 822 PDF (85%)

By Type of Request:

  • 62% Compliance (599 requests)
  • 38% Disability Accommodation (372 requests)