CriticA11y Important - D2L Course Cleanup (04.10.26)

From Natalie Vandepol

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D2L Course Cleanup PPT slides

Q&A Summary (not recorded)

Do we need to remediate past, closed courses?

No. You only need to remediate this semester and future courses. (answered by LTD)

What is the target D2L course Ally score?

98% is generally our current target, with many legal disclaimers attached. (answered by LTD)

My Ally report is saying that my Word documents don't have titles and headings, but they are clearly there.

While the visual styling may look to a sighted reader like a thorough heading structure, we need to use "Heading Styles" in MS Word to apply "heading metadata" so that the software a visually impaired reader uses can correctly interpret the document's headings. (answered by LTD & MSU IT)

What do I do about slides/documents that a guest speaker provides?

Ask them for permission for us to make accessibility-related changes to their materials.

Communicate that we legally cannot teach with inaccessible materials (including slides presented in person or online that have color contrast issues). MSU IT and LTD are collaborating on a short 1-pager that you can share to outline our legal liabilities, what we need from guest speakers, and the limitations for use that we agree to in modifying their materials.

Beg them to share any materials at least 1 week, ideally 2 weeks, before the presentation date and send those to the LTD team ASAP for remediation. (answered by LTD, MSU IT, & Library)

What do I do about publisher/vendor materials that are not accessible?

Contact a Business Librarian for accessibility help. They can work with the vendor/publisher to have them make the materials accessible. If that avenue fails for whatever reason, they can then help you source a different, comparable material to use instead. (answered by Library)

If I take the PDF copies of course readings out of my course and make students click on links to the library/external sources, they just won't do the readings.

This is a pedagogical issue and does not justify using inaccessible materials instead of linking to the source, especially since it is actually a direct violation of copyright laws to have PDF copies of library materials posted in D2L. If readings are required and students are not doing them, regardless of the reason, then instructors need to enact appropriate consequences within the context of their course. (answered by Library, MSU IT, & LTD)

FAQ about Copyright laws

Guide to replacing PDFs with stable links (i.e., links that won't break and will stay up to date as content versions change)

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