Providing accessible digital materials helps foster an inclusive and welcoming learning environment where all individuals can participate equitably. Digital accessibility focuses on ensuring that digital materials can be accessed and used by people with disabilities, including individuals who rely on assistive technologies such as screen readers, captioning, or keyboard navigation. These practices improve usability for a broad range of users and support compliance efforts.
Digital accessibility guidance is aligned with the Inclusive Excellence Pillar in Wentworth’s Strategic Plan and the Wentworth Digital Accessibility Policy, which requires materials to be compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA standards. It is also informed by federal and state accessibility regulations, which reinforce the responsibility of higher education institutions to ensure that digital content is accessible to individuals with disabilities.
The ATLAS team supports faculty and staff in creating accessible digital course materials and improving existing content. This page will continue to evolve over time, so check back regularly and contact us at teach@wit.edu if there is either something you are looking for or great resources that you’d like to share.
Teaching / Technology Resources
Wentworth provides a number of tools and services to support the creation and maintenance of accessible digital materials. These resources are designed to help faculty and staff identify accessibility issues and take practical steps to address them. Additional hands-on guidance, checklists, and how-to resources are provided below.
Foundational Digital Accessibility Resources
Whether you are creating new materials or updating old ones, using this Digital Accessibility Checklist can help you make your materials more accessible.
While accessibility needs are different for each individual, it may be useful to watch this video depicting use of a screen reader for an example of how inaccessible materials can affect students’ and colleagues’ ability to access learning and work materials.
Image descriptions, called alternative or alt text, help people using screen readers or text only access. When a screen reader reaches an image, it will read the alt text aloud to user gets a sense of what that image is and its purpose in context.
Core Accessibility Support in Brightspace: Panorama
Panorama is a tool embedded in Brightspace including an automated accessibility checker that can review common file formats such as Microsoft Word, PDF files, or images for compliance with accessibility standards. Panorama provides a report to instructors with issues to be addressed, directions for how to fix them, and can generate alternative formats for you or your students. Additionally, Panorama includes an accessibility widget to adjust your individual display settings in Brightspace such as text size and color contrast.
Captioning Videos: Panopto
Panopto is a secure video platform for capturing, managing, and sharing video content. All Wentworth faculty, staff, and students have the ability to create, edit, and share recordings in Panopto. Panopto generates automated closed captions for videos, which can be easily edited for accuracy to comply with accessibility standards. To access Panopto, click the “Panopto Video” link in the “Zoom Meetings” widget on your Brightspace Course Home page.
Microsoft
Microsoft offers an ecosystem of accessibility tools designed to help every user create, collaborate, and communicate with confidence. You can use the Make Your Content Accessible to Everyone guide to learn quick, practical ways to make your documents, slides, and emails more accessible—things like adding clear structure, using alt text, and checking for common accessibility issues.
The Accessibility Tools for Microsoft 365 link shows you the built in tools available across Microsoft 365 that support different learning and working needs, including reading aids, voice input, captions, and screen reader friendly features. Together, these resources help you create more inclusive content and make the most of Microsoft’s accessibility features so everyone can participate fully.
Adobe Acrobat
Licenses are available from DTS for Adobe Acrobat Professional, which can be used to make PDF files more accessible. Acrobat includes tools to convert text from scanned images with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and add alt text or tags.
More Complex Materials
Making features such as equations, graphs, and complex graphics accessible can depend upon both the context and intent of the material and the platform you create it in. A few great resources are provided below; please share additional useful resources. Email teach@wit.edu if you would like to consult on your materials.
- Complex Images – guidance from the Web Accessibility Institute
- Accessible Math Languages & Tools – collaboratively resourced compilation highlighting different tools
- Overleaf – a LaTeX editor that has accessibility features and meets WCAG 2.2 standards
- Desmos – a free math tool with an accessibility focus
- Data, Charts, and Graphs – a useful resource from Harvard University
Related Resources
- WIT Digital Accessibility Resources
- Schuman Library Accessibility Resources LibGuide
- WIT Accessibility & Accommodations
- Web Accessibility Initiative
- Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines
- Universal design focuses on designing materials or learning experiences to be accessible to everyone without modification, the need for individualized accommodations, or a medical “diagnosis.” Both digital accessibility and universal design practices can benefit people with or without disabilities.
- The UDL Guidelines from CAST provide an evidence-based framework for integrating UDL into your teaching.