Accessibility

Digital Content Accessibility: Best Practices, with icons for accessibility, vision, touch, speech, and hearing.

Variations Between Accessibility Checkers

Accessibility /

Accessibility checkers available in Microsoft products and MyCourses may provide different recommendations for improving the accessibility of digital content. It is not uncommon for content to ‘pass’ the Microsoft Accessibility Checker and then have more accessibility issues identified by Panorama after being uploaded to MyCourses.  Accessibility checkers are often built to serve different purposes which can impact the recommendations offered by the checker. What […]

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Digital Content Accessibility: Multimedia

Tips for Improving Video Accessibility

Accessibility /

Video content presents unique accessibility challenges. Video is typically paired with audio, so your audio (narration, interview dialogue, background music, etc.) and video must both be accessible. In the event someone is unable to view your video, the audio should provide the necessary content and context. If someone is unable to hear your audio, the video should provide the necessary content and context.  Videos are made accessible primarily through captions and

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Digital Content Accessibility: PDFs, with icons for accessibility, vision, touch, speech, and hearing.

Improving the Accessibility of PDF Files

Accessibility /

PDFs can be created in many ways: exporting, converting, “Save As”, scanning, “Print to PDF”, and even created intentionally through software like Adobe Acrobat. Due to the wide range of origin points for PDFs, the accessibility issues that arise can be incredibly complex, so much so that they are not a recommended file type in most cases.  Information Technology (IT) generally does not advise using PDFs whenever possible. They are one of the least

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Digital Content Accessibility: Multimedia

Accessibility Tips: Dos and Don’ts for Alternative Text

Accessibility /

Alternative text, also known as alt text, describes the content and purpose of an image, chart, or table for people who have visual impairments or use screen reading technologies.  All images, charts, and tables require some form of alt text. The alt text should provide the information a person needs to know about the image, chart, or table

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Digital Content Accessibility: Microsoft 365

Microsoft Office Accessibility Tips

Accessibility /

During Fall 2025, Panorama identified common accessibility issues found in Microsoft Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and Excel spreadsheets used in MyCourses courses.  Many of these issues can be identified and corrected by using Microsoft’s Accessibility Checker prior to adding content to MyCourses.  The following digital accessibility concerns fall under three major categories: color, multimedia, and structure.  Common Accessibility Concerns with Microsoft Content Color Color Used

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Improving Digital Content Accessibility in MyCourses

Accessibility /

As you prepare your MyCourses courses for the spring semester, please review the Panorama Course Report to identify accessibility issues and implement fixes for webpages (HTML), Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, PDF files, and Excel spreadsheets. The example course report shown below indicates that the overall accessibility score for digital content in this course is 73%.

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