Tag Archives: accessibility
ITS T&L, DUX, DISC teams partner to redesign crucial Canvas app
U-M leading the way in assistive technology testing, design
U-M will be a beta site for Morphic, a new system that makes technology significantly more usable for individuals with disabilities and others who have difficulty using standard digital setups. Morphic is now available on all Campus Computing Sites computers on the UM-Ann Arbor campus. Learn about how Morphic came to U-M, the benefits of Morphic, and how you can provide your feedback on new features as they are developed.
U-M first university press named as Benetech Global Certified Accessible publisher
University of Michigan Press is now a Benetech Global Certified Accessible™ (GCA) publisher, and is the first university press to receive this certification. Benetech, a nonprofit that empowers communities with software for social good, issues this accreditation to those publishers who produce EPUBs that meet a full range of accessibility features required to support readers with and without disabilities… Read More »
New design for Michigan IT News
Watch: Lessons learned from quick pivots to online education
The winter term that begins in January will be the third term in a row that instructor David Chesney’s unique software design course will be online, and he has learned from each iteration. For the past decade, the U-M electrical engineering and computer science lecturer has taught Software for Accessibility, a class he designed in which undergraduate students… Read More »
Accessibility scanner Deque Comply to become Axe Monitor
This year, Information and Technology Services has been implementing Deque Comply – a best-in-market, cloud-based enterprise accessibility scanner. The product, which is switching its name to Axe Monitor, is designed to help schools, colleges and units have a clearer understanding of the accessibility effectiveness of their websites, and to be able to assess how they are doing. The… Read More »
One ITS in action to address accessibility
A key ITS area of focus is “to work as one ITS team to improve the way we serve the U-M campus.” This has the potential for significant impact. A recent dialogue between the digital accessibility and collaboration teams is an outstanding example of how ITS can benefit users far beyond our campus. Like many vendors of cloud-based… Read More »
Profiles in IT: Jackie Wolf—User experience advocate
Jackie Wolf is a web project manager and an user experience specialist for Michigan Medicine Department of Communication. Primarily she and her team build and support websites for Michigan Medicine. She also ensures that the web technology is robust, flexible, accessible, and secure. Collectively, the team gathers data to look for lessons about how frequently the content is… Read More »
Retooled computer science course goes all-COVID, all-online
A COVID-era redesign of a long-running computer science undergraduate course will put up to 120 U-M computer science and engineering students to work designing software to tackle problems related to the crisis during the 2020 spring/summer semester. Computer science and engineering lecturer David Chesney has run the class for years as an in-person offering called “Software for Accessibility.”… Read More »
Creating a place where kids of all abilities can play together
While adaptive sports provide opportunities for children with mobility disabilities to participate in athletic events, these games are not designed for competitive play between kids with disabilities and those without. iGYM, an augmented reality game system created by a team of U-M researchers, is looking to change that. The current implementation of the system resembles soccer — or… Read More »
ITS and OIE partner with campus to pilot new accessibility tool in Canvas
The Office for Institutional Equity (OIE), the University Library, Information Technology Services (ITS), College of Literature, Sciences and the Arts (LSA), and other campus partners are piloting the Universal Design Online Content Inspection Tool (UDOIT) in Canvas to address more content accessibility issues earlier in the course creation process. The team, collectively the Learning Materials Accessibility Team (LMAT),… Read More »
Tech Tip: Designing for accessibility
This month’s Tech Tip is a little different than my previous tips. Rather than sharing a specific tool, I wanted to share some resources created by Karwai Pun on the topic of designing for accessibility. These easy-to-read posters cover designing for many different users: those with low vision, who are hard of hearing, experience dyslexia, and more. In… Read More »
Knox Center celebrates five years in expanded location
Although many features of Sites computer labs are responsive to the needs of disabled students, there are some types of accommodations that can best be provided from a customized location. This location is the James Edward Knox Adaptive Technology Computing Site, commonly known as the Knox Center, which completed its move to the second floor of the Shapiro… Read More »
IT helps transform medical student’s learning experience
First-year medical student Jacob Lowy has moderate-to-severe hearing loss in his right ear. Working together, HITS, ITS, and other units on campus leveraged IT that has transformed his experience—including adding captions to lecture videos and setting up realtime captioning (CART) during lectures. Lowy realizes that when something isn’t visible, it’s not always easy to understand. This often happens… Read More »
Video: Guiding principles for accessibility
New report highlights ITS’s achievement in DEI
Global Accessibility Awareness Day, May 16
Members of the U-M Accessibility team recently took part in events for Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), May 16. The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking, and learning about digital (web, software, mobile, etc.) access/inclusion and how it affects not only people with disabilities, but also tech usability for everyone. In recognition of the fact… Read More »
“Baking in” digital accessibility at the U-M Library
Web accessibility is a key ingredient to successful product development that can make or break many peoples’ experience. The U-M Library Digital Accessibility Team (DAT) helps library teams “bake in” web accessibility from the beginning of their projects and helps coordinate accessibility work across the Library. The Library’s Digital Accessibility Team collaborates primarily with U-M Library partners to… Read More »