Upcoming Office of Disability Access Events

Courtesy Notification

Courtesy notifications are sent to faculty who have a Blind or Low Vision student enrolled in their course. The purpose of this communication is to allow faculty time to remediate any content so that it is accessible for all of their students. The Office of Disability Access is here to partner with faculty in accomplishing this task. It is often easier to make content accessible when initially creating the content; however, if your content is already created, please reach out to us if we can help you in making it accessible.

This information is posted on our website, in addition to sending an email, to allow a greater audience to access this information. The trainings listed below are for any Faculty and Staff member of the UNT System, including student staff. 

Access Considerations

  • Third Party Websites/Platforms: All third-party sites, including third party platforms through a publisher, must be accessible to students who utilize assistive technology, such as screen magnifiers and screen readers. Please be conscious of this when linking to other websites and adopting one of these tools from a publisher. A few examples are platforms through Cengage, Pearson, McGraw-Hill, etc. CLEAR has provided additional guidance on this topic, and also has a request form for requesting an accessibility review of third-party software or platform. Some products are accessible, while many are not. If you will be utilizing a third-party platform, please email our office (Jessica.Stone@unt.edu) and Dr. Tania Heap, Director of Learning Research and Accessibility at CLEAR (CLEAR.Compliance@unt.edu) immediately so that we can explore if there may be any barriers the student will face. All websites must also be accessible only utilizing a keyboard as screen reader users don't often use a mouse. 
  • Alternative Format: ·Most of our students who are blind or visually impaired require an alternative format of their textbook and course materials for equal access. It helps our office if you finalize your course adoptions with the Bookstore as soon as possible, so that we can easily pull the textbook information and begin working on the conversion when a student makes a request. If your student utilizes Braille, our Braille Assistant will send a separate communication to you regarding this. If you have any questions about your course materials and this accommodation, please email us at Books.ODA@unt.edu at your earliest convenience and we would be glad to assist. Please be mindful that if the semester has started, it may take us a little time to get materials converted and adjustments may need to be made for students who did not have equal access to their materials while we convert them. For this reason, it is extremely helpful for you to provide our team as much of the content as possible in advance.
  • Document Accessibility: Please make sure all of your documents, such as PowerPoints, PDFs, and Word documents, are accessible to assistive technology users. If you have questions on how to do this, please view CLEAR's Accessibility Resources for Word files or PDF files. You may also contact CLEAR at CLEAR.Compliance@unt.edu. 
  • Audio Descriptions:  If you utilize video in your lectures in class or on Canvas, please note that depending on the level of vision the student has, they may not be able to see what is displayed on the video. They may require you to describe any text or important visual information that is displayed on screen. This is called “audio descriptions” and may be on the student's accommodation letter. Please note that this is different than closed captions. If you have questions about whether this is required for your student, please contact Jessica.Stone@unt.edu. The Office of Disability Access does not provide audio description services at this time for video course content. Many departments will utilize a TA to voice over their videos to make sure they are accessible. We are working on setting up third-party providers which Departments may contact to pay for this service, if they are not able to provide it themselves. For further information, please contact Jessica.Stone@unt.edu. 
  • Captioning: All audio and video content is required to have accurate and edited captions. This is extremely important, especially for our Deafblind students. he Office of Disability Access does not provide captions or transcripts for Audio or Video course content. Many departments will utilize a TA to add captions and review them for accuracy. If your Department is unable to add and edit the captions, you can contact Rev.com and they can edit the captions for you. This will then be billed to the department. Please contact ASLCART.ODA@unt.edu for instructions on how to setup your department to use this service.

Please also take time to review the CLEAR Accessibility Compliance Checklist (hyperlinked) as well as their Accessibility page for other helpful information. 

Faculty/Staff Training Opportunities

ODA has hosted training focused specifically on working with our Blind or Visually Impaired students. This training will be conducted via Zoom and will occur on the dates listed below. Please note that all of the trainings are identical so you do not need to attend multiple occurrences of these trainings. If you would like to have a follow-up training or additional training topic, please complete our Presentation Request form. If you require reasonable accommodations for this presentation, please contact the Office of Disability Access (940-565-4323). These trainings have been approved for ABCA credit through the UNT Provost's office.

Fall 2023: 
Trainings will be hosted on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 10:00am (presenter: Valerie Adell), and the second Wednesday of the month at 12:30pm (presenter: Jessica Stone).

  • September 5, 2023 at 10:00am

  • September 13, 2023 at 12:30pm

  • September 19, 2023 at 10:00am

  • October 3, 2023 at 10:00am

  • October 11, 2023 at 12:30pm

  • October 17, 2023 at 10:00am

  • November 7, 2023 at 10:00am

  • November 8, 2023 at 12:30pm

  • November 21, 2023 at 10:00am

  • December 5, 2023 - NO training as we prepare for Fall 2023 Finals

  • December 13, 2023 - NO training as we administer Fall 2023 Finals 

  • December 19, 2023 at 10:00am

Collaboration Meeting:

Providing an equitable experience for all of our students is incredibly important. Each student navigates this world in a variety of different ways. By ensuring your content is accessible, you are ensuring that no matter what student you have in your class, they have access. While federal law and University policy have accessibility requirements to make sure course offerings and programs are accessible to all of our students, we understand that you may want to know more about your specific student or discuss your specific class. We'd be glad to setup a meeting to discuss this further with you. Please contact Keeley Glogau, ODA Digital Accessibility Specialist, at Keeley.Glogau@unt.edu to setup a meeting.