Live accessibility training sessions in July

In support of the University’s efforts to improve digital accessibility in course content, there are several live training sessions taking place in July, hosted by the Teaching Transformation & Development Academy.

Visit the full event page for information on other sessions hosted by TTaDA throughout the year. Past sessions are also available to watch on-demand.

Further information and guidance on the topic of digital accessibility can be found on the Accessible UND page.

Upcoming digital accessibility events in July

Making Simple Images Accessible
Thursday, July 2, 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
First in a series of two sessions, this introductory workshop offers an overview of alternative text (alt-text) and its role in making images accessible to screen readers and assistive technology. Participants will learn the definition of alt-text and be introduced to best practices for creating effective alt-text, focusing on techniques for crafting clear, concise, and accurate descriptions. This session also includes a demonstration on adding alt-text to images in Blackboard Ultra and Microsoft Office.

Accessibility Office Hours with Judy Rish
Tuesday, July 14, 2 – 4 p.m.
Thursday, July 16, 9:30 – 10:30 a.m.
Need help making your digital content more accessible? Register for Accessibility Office Hours for one-on-one support and guidance. Participants are encouraged to bring their own documents, PDFs, presentations, emails, or other digital content, along with any accessibility questions they may have. Whether you’re looking for help identifying accessibility issues, learning best practices, or fixing existing content, we’ll work through your questions together in a hands-on setting.

Accessible Email Practices in Microsoft Outlook
Monday, July 20, 1 – 2 p.m.
Discover how to make your communications more accessible with Microsoft Outlook’s built-in accessibility features. Learn practical tips to improve accessibility in everyday email communication, benefiting both senders and recipients at the University of North Dakota.

Accessibility Virtual Office Hours
Tuesday, July 21, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
Working on the accessibility of your digital resources? Need additional support? Meet with TTaDA staff to improve the accessibility of your digital course resources and course effectiveness! These office hours are designed to be active you should plan on sharing a digital course resource or two (e.g., a Microsoft Word document or a PowerPoint slide presentation) with TTaDA staff.

Blackboard Ultra: Ally – Course Accessibility
Tuesday, July 21, 2 – 3 p.m.
This session will demonstrate using Ally for Accessibility within a Blackboard Ultra course. How do you know if your Blackboard course materials are accessible? How do you fix it if they are not? Learn more about Blackboard Ally in Ultra to determine the accessibility of your content and tips for designing your content for all learners. Discussions will include effectively adding descriptions to images, creating accessible Word documents, as well as manipulating specific content in your course to strive toward accessibility for all. The second half of the workshop will include time for assistance in making documents accessible, so have your documents ready.

PowerPoint Accessibility 101: Identifying and Fixing Common Issues
Wednesday, July 22, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Curious why your PowerPoint presentation is receiving a low score in Blackboard Ally? This workshop guides participants through identifying and addressing common accessibility issues in Microsoft PowerPoint, such as reading order, missing alt text, and color contrast. A hands-on tutorial will walk you through a sample presentation, demonstrating how to leverage PowerPoint’s Accessibility Checker to fix accessibility errors.

Getting Started in Adobe Acrobat: PDF Accessibility
Thursday, July 23, 2 – 3 p.m.
Adobe Acrobat offers several tools to help make PDFs more accessible, but knowing where to begin can be challenging. In this introductory workshop, you will learn how to configure Adobe Acrobat’s interface for accessibility, use the Accessibility Checker to identify common accessibility issues, and explore the “Big Three” problem areas in PDF remediation—tags, reading order, and metadata. This session will also include a brief overview of Acrobat’s auto-tagging feature, highlighting its limitations and explaining why manual remediation is often necessary. You will leave with practical next steps and a list of curated resources to continue building your PDF accessibility skills.

Excel Accessibility Essentials
Tuesday, July 28, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Not sure where to start with making your Excel documents accessible? This workshop focuses on accessibility—not basic Excel functionality. Follow a guided walkthrough of a sample workbook with some common accessibility errors. Learn how to identify and fix these issues using practical tools and best practices in Excel.

Blackboard Ultra Document Accessibility, Part 1
Wednesday, July 29, 10 – 11 a.m.
Working on building Blackboard Ultra courses? Want to learn more about how to make your Blackboard Ultra Documents accessible? The Teaching, Transformation, and Development Academy (TTaDA) is here to help! In this first part of a two-part session, you’ll learn how to create a Blackboard Ultra Document and add content to it, including text, lists, links, attachments, images, tables, and video embeds. You’ll then learn how to start to make that content accessible by applying text styles to text and image descriptions to images.

Word Document Accessibility 101: Identifying and Fixing Common Issues
Wednesday, July 29, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Wondering why your Word document is receiving a low score in Blackboard Ally? This workshop will guide participants through identifying and addressing common accessibility issues in Microsoft Word documents. Issues include alt-text for images, heading structure, tables, links, and lists. A hands-on tutorial will walk you through addressing these issues in a sample document, demonstrating how to leverage Word’s Accessibility Checker tool to fix accessibility errors.

Making Complex Images Accessible
Wednesday, July 29, 2 – 3 p.m.
Second in a series of two sessions, this workshop focuses on best practices for creating alt-text for complex images, such as charts, graphs, infographics, cartoons, etc. Participants will learn techniques for crafting detailed descriptions and see demonstrations in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint on how to integrate these long descriptions into their documents. Prerequisite: Must have attended the Making Simple Images Accessible workshop.

Accessibility Virtual Office Hours – In Person
Thursday, July 30, 10:30 – 11:30 a.m.
Working on the accessibility of your digital resources? Need additional support? Meet with TTaDA staff to improve the accessibility of your digital course resources and course effectiveness! These office hours are designed to be active you should plan on sharing a digital course resource or two (e.g., a Microsoft Word document or a PowerPoint slide presentation) with TTaDA staff.

Blackboard Ultra Document Accessibility, Part 2
Friday, July 31, 2 – 3 p.m.
Working on building Blackboard Ultra courses? Want to learn more about how to make your Blackboard Ultra Documents accessible? The Teaching, Transformation, and Development Academy (TTaDA) is here to help! In this second session, you’ll build on what you learned previously and learn how to make your lists, links, tables, and color accessible in Blackboard Ultra Documents. *Important note: This session is the second part of the workshop on Blackboard Ultra Document accessibility. For optimal learning, make sure to take the first half of this session before enrolling in the second.