Faculty Digital Accessibility Toolkit
Faculty Digital Accessibility Toolkit
The Faculty Digital Accessibility Toolkit
The Faculty Digital Accessibility Toolkit is designed to support Faculty in creating accessible digital content as part of their courses. It serves as a central, always-available resource that provides clear guidance, practical tools, and ready-to-use templates to help reduce uncertainty and build confidence around digital accessibility.
Why Digital Accessibility Matters to Your Work
Digital accessibility is not just a technical requirement—it is part of how we serve students, colleagues, and the public.
It is the law: New ADA Title II regulations require public universities to ensure digital content is digitally accessible.
Faculty create a large amount of instructional content: Syllabi, slides, readings, assignments, videos, and LMS content all count as digital content that students must be able to access.
Accessibility supports teaching continuity: Creating accessible materials from the start reduces last-minute fixes, individual accommodations, and course disruptions.
Accessible design benefits all students:Clear structure, readable materials, captions, and well-organized content support diverse learning needs and improve comprehension for everyone.
You are not expected to be an expert:This toolkit, Blackboard Ally, and upcoming trainings are designed to support a practical, fix-as-you-go approach with clear guidance and next steps.
What Is Digital Accessibility?
Digital accessibility means that online information and documents can be used by everyone— including people who use screen readers, captions, keyboard navigation, or other assistive technologies.
In practical terms, it means that emails, documents, forms, and web content are created in ways that do not create barriers for people with disabilities.
About Digital Accessibility at the University System of Maryland (USM)
Coppin State University is part of the University System of Maryland (USM), which provides systemwide guidance and resources to support digital accessibility across all member institutions.
The USM Digital Accessibility Hub offers:
Systemwide guidance on digital accessibility expectations
Background information on accessibility laws and standards
Shared resources and training opportunities
These resources help ensure a consistent approach to digital accessibility across the system.
👉 Visit the USM Digital Accessibility Hub
How This Toolkit Fits In
While the USM Digital Accessibility Hub provides system-level guidance, the Faculty Digital Accessibility Toolkit is designed to support Coppin-specific teaching workflows and instructional tools.
This toolkit:
Focuses on the tools faculty use every day (LMS, Blackboard Ally, Word, PowerPoint, PDFs, and multimedia)
Provides practical examples, checklists, and guidance tailored to Coppin courses
Aligns with upcoming faculty accessibility trainings and local instructional support
Think of the USM hub as the big-picture reference, and this toolkit as your day-to-day, teaching-focused guide.
Toolkit Table of Contents
Faculty Course Audit Checklists/Templates
Templates that help you make your content accessible to everyone. Microsoft has tried to make this easier for you.You can get to them straight from your Office application.
Go to File > New and type "accessible templates" in the Search for online templates box.
Use these templates when creating new documents, emails, or announcements. They are already set up with accessible structure and formatting, so you don’t have to start from scratch or worry about missing key accessibility elements.
Accessible Templates in Microsoft Products Video Link
Templates
The templates are digitally accessible. Download them and simply plug in your information.
Checklists
These short checklists help you quickly review content before sending or publishing it. They focus on the most common accessibility issues and are designed to take just a few minutes to complete.
These guides walk you through how to use built-in accessibility tools in the software you already use. Follow the steps as you work—no technical background required.
Word Documents
Document Accessibility Checkers( Word, PPT and Adobe)
Document Properties, Plain Language, and Fonts(Word)
Document structure for Microsoft Word(Headings, Tables, Columns, Text Boxes, Lists)
Alt text, Images, and Links in Word
PowerPoint
PowerPoint Accessibility Quick Start Guide
PowerPoint placeholders(layout) for Slide Content
Structure of Slides( Slide layouts,Tables, Lists) in PowerPoint
Accessibility Checkers
Microsoft Office Accessibility Checker (Word/PowerPoint/Excel/Outlook): Built-in checker with guided fixes.
• Go to Review > Check Accessibility and follow prompts.
Accessibility Checker in Office 365
Using Anthology Ally for Accessible Course Design
Blackboard's Accessibility Checker (Powered by Ally): Live score with guided fixes.
Faculty need to ensure that the materials they use to interact and engage with their students are accessible to all.
At Coppin State University, we are committed to inclusive learning. As part of our Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach, we support faculty in using tools like Anthology Ally to identify and remove barriers—creating more accessible and equitable experiences for all students.
How to access Ally in your courses
You can access Ally’s features in two ways:
Inline indicators next to your uploaded content (colored meter icons)
Instructor Accessibility Report for a course-wide overview
Step-by-step instructions Tutorial for Accessing Ally for Faculty
Visit our Video Tutorials Page
Find all our quick, practical accessibility videos in one place—including how‑to guides for captions, creating accessible Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and emails, plus PDF remediation and more.
A fast, one‑stop resource to help you make your materials accessible.
Not everything needs to be fixed. This guide helps you decide whether content can be updated quickly, should be replaced with a new version, removed, or escalated for help.
This section highlights common accessibility mistakes and shows simple ways to correct them. Use this as a reference when something doesn’t look quite right or keeps coming up.
Top 12 Common Digital Accessibility Issues and Quick Fixes
Escalation & Support
Some accessibility issues can’t be fixed quickly with Anthology Ally or Microsoft Office tools. This section helps staff recognize when additional support is needed, decide next steps, and continue work without unnecessary delays.
When to Ask for Help
Escalate accessibility issues when:
Ally flags severe issues you don’t know how to resolve
A PDF is scanned or image-based
Tables or reading order do not work correctly with screen readers
Video content lacks captions or audio lacks transcripts
Color contrast fails accessibility checks, even if it looks acceptable visually
What Types of Content Should Be Escalated
Scanned or image-based documents
PDFs missing headings or tags
Files with broken or illogical reading order
PDF files that cannot be edited in Word
Videos require captions
Audio-only content requires transcripts
Auto-generated captions must be reviewed for accuracy
Not every file should be remediated. If the content is outdated or low-use, replacement or removal may be the better option.
Support Options
Contact the I.D.E.A Team for support
Attend Fix-Your-Content Open Office Hours
Reminder: Accessibility is shared, ongoing work. Asking for help is expected and encouraged.
USM Digital Accessibility Resources
Coppin State University is part of the University System of Maryland (USM), which provides systemwide guidance and resources to support digital accessibility across all member institutions.
Quick guides
Vendors, Publishers, Web Tools
Accessibility Questions to Ask Vendors & Publishers:
Empower yourself to choose inclusive tools and content.
Why it’s useful:
Many faculty assume tools or publisher platforms are accessible by default — this guide helps you verify.
Helps vet eBooks, homework platforms, plug-ins, OER, and digital courseware.
Encourages equity-minded procurement decisions and VPAT-informed conversations.
Accessibility Questions for Vendors and Publishers guide
Web 2.0 Score Cards for Online Web Tools
What are Web 2.0 Tools?
Web 2.0 tools are web-based tools that focus on user collaboration, sharing of user-generated content, and social networking. Many are free to use and work on multiple platforms.
While there are many Web 2.0 tools, you should know that not all of them are accessible for people with disabilities.
Web 2.0 Tools and Apps Score Cards:
The Web 2.0 Tools and App Score cards were designed to give faculty members guide points for what to look for in terms of accessibility.
The score cards contain information from the WCAG standards, as well as language from the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT™.) If you want to know more about the WCAG standards in plain, non-technical terms, check out this site "WCAG in Plain English".
The score cards are also used as a tool to ask EdTech vendors questions about the accessibility of their product.
These are basic score cards. The higher the score the tool receives, the better the tool is for accessibility.
There are three versions of the scorecards:
One scorecard is looking at the accessibility of the tool from a creator (instructor) point of view and the other scorecard is looking at the accessibility of the tool from a (student) user point of view.
For those tools that offer app versions of their product, there is also is also an APP scorecard.
Web 2.0 Tools Accessibility Scorecards for Instructors
S.T.E.A.M Resources
Microsoft Office Math/Science Resources
Accessible Math Best Practices
Math Resources:
Accessible Perodic Table of Elements
MathJax Documentation
MathJax is an open-source JavaScript display engine for LaTeX, MathML, and AsciiMath notation that works in all modern browsers, with built-in support for assistive technology like screen readers, including automatic speech generation and an expression explorer that can be used to investigate typeset mathematics on a more granual level than the complete expression.
Math Detective
Math Detective allows user to upload images of math or blocks of text with inaccessible math. The math can then be read aloud of copied as MathML.
Author Guidelines for Preparing Accessible Mathematics Content
Supporting Students in Creating Accessible Content
Students increasingly engage in digital content creation as part of class assignments,and student organizations. While students may not be expected to fully master digital accessibility, faculty play a critical role in guiding and modeling inclusive practices.
Let students know that accessibility is part of good communication — not just a technical requirement.
Include a brief statement in your syllabus or assignment
Include a brief statement in your syllabus or assignment prompt about considering accessibility for digital projects and shared media.
Example: Accessibility and Course Materials
This course uses a variety of digital materials, including documents, presentations, and media. Accessibility is part of effective communication and inclusive learning. When creating or submitting digital content for this course, please consider basic accessibility practices (such as clear structure, readable formatting, and captions for media). If you encounter any accessibility barriers, please let me know so we can address them.
Providing Scaffolding for Student-Created Content
Training & Additional Resources
This section connects you to trainings, recordings, office hours, and other accessibility resources. Use it to deepen your understanding or find support beyond the toolkit.
Professional Development Opportunities(Self-paced courses, trainings)
Training Recordings ( Coming Soon)
Attend Fix-Your-Content Open Office Hours (Coming Soon)