Faculty Resources
Digital Accessibility
Overview
We are committed to ensuring that everyone can readily utilize digital content. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1/2.2 AA are international standards for web and digital content accessibility which include best practices for digital instructional materials. The requirement for 100% accessible digital documents on websites and Canvas is extended until April 26, 2027.
- ADA.gov Fact Sheet Title II Rule
- WCAG 2.x Overview. This is a technical standard, not a tutorial on how to be accessible
- Getting Started with Accessibility. There are a number of websites available, here is one by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), the international group responsible for developing WCAG.Canvas’ Ally Tool
Canvas Ally Tool
The Canvas Ally tool is useful for quickly checking accessibility of an individual file or page or the entire Canvas class.
- Be sure the Ally tool is enabled.
- Click Settings and then select the Navigation tab.
- Drag the Ally Course Accessibility Report from the hidden list to the course navigation list. You can click the three dots to the right and choose Enable if you prefer and then drag it your preferred position.
- Remember to click Save at the bottom.
- Click on the Ally tool in the Canvas menu on the left. This will check your entire site.
- Click on the speedometer tool to the right of a file or page to check the individual file or page.
Deeper Dive
Writing Mathematics
Overview
When writing beautiful mathematical documents, we have a number of choices. Often workflow dictates the process we should follow, be it article submission or collaborators.
- Word, Google Docs, Etc
- Pros: Very familiar, easy collaboration, and simple formatting. There is WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) so you know how things look.
- Cons: Equations tools are clunky, formatting is somewhat limited. There is WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) so you are limited in how much control you have over formatting.
- LaTeX
- Pros: Industry standard for mathematical typesetting. There is little or no WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) present. You concentrate more on content rather than formatting. The formatting comes later and is readily modifiable. Output is usually PDF, DVI (a legacy output format), but can be HTML, EPUB, PostScript, SVG, and Word when utilizing other tools..
- Cons: Steep learning curve. There is little or no WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) present. It can be difficult giving up control of formatting.
- LaTeX Distributions
- Front Ends. These should all be free and run on Windows, MacOS, and Linux. For you coders out there, this is like an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). They give the user varying degrees of support when writing LaTeX code.
- TeXstudio
- Visual Studio Code
- TeXworks
- LyX: This is listed as a WYSIWYG editor.
- TeXmacs: This is listed as a WYSIWYG editor.
- Quarto Markdown
- Pros: Integrates markdown syntax, LaTeX, and many coding languages such as R, Python, Julia, Observable JavaScript, etc. Output is typically PDF, HTML, or Word docx. This is very good for reproducible research as the coding language is embedded within the document.
- Cons: Steep learning curve.
- Front Ends.