Accessibility Weeks

This session offers an experience-based overview of Penn State’s Courseware and approval processes that is needed for technology to be used as part of classwork that is not Penn State supported. This includes insights of how instructional tools are reviewed for FERPA compliance, accessibility, and security. Participants will learn how to determine a tool’s approval status, how to submit requests, and key considerations such as data privacy, Canvas integration, and accessibility planning. For the latter there will be an introduction to the Equally Effective Alternate Access Plans and ways to think about filling out these for a technology you have in mind. The focus will be on practical tips help faculty and staff navigate the process efficiently.

Presented By:

• Amy Kuntz, Learning Innovation Coordinator, Teaching and Learning with Technology

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No registration is necessary. Note that you must be logged in with your PSU authentication to join the session.

This session will demonstrate and provide resources to a variety of learning tools and assistive technology that are available for free to all Penn State faculty, staff, and students. Tools featured in this session include Read & Write, Immersive Reader, Sensus Access, EquatIO, and more

Presented By:

Sonya Woods, Lead Digital Accessibility Consultant, World Campus and Matt Farley, Digital Accessibility Consultant, World Campus

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While machine-generated captions have come a long way, they’re still not perfect. This session will provide some simple tips for ensuring the captions and transcripts in your Kaltura videos are accurate and accessible for everyone.

Presented By:

Sonya Woods, Lead Digital Accessibility Consultant, World Campus and Matt Farley, Digital Accessibility Consultant, World Campus

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Instructors new to creating accessible content may wonder where to begin. A good place to start is to create an accessible Word syllabus which can be saved as an accessible PDF. This webinar will explain the key requirements of an accessible Word file (such as headings, table headers, image alt text and accessible links), then demo how to use and adapt the templates for a syllabus and other course handouts. We will also introduce techniques to customize a template further.

Presented By:

• Elizabeth Pyatt, IT Accessibility

Register in Advance by Mon, Feb 2, 2026, 3:00 PM

In this session, participants will walk through creating accessible documents in Microsoft Office, specifically Microsoft PowerPoint. We will review the steps to use image ALT text, reading order, and slide titles.

Presented by:

• Matthew Bodek, Instructional Designer, Penn State Brandywine

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Repairing inaccessible PDFs is especially complex and may require different strategies depending on how the PDF was made. This session will review different tools for tagging, optical character recognition (OCR) and conversion to another document type. We will review sort files and fix a range of different PDFs from simple journal articles to complex infographics. The session will focus on tools for remediating external academic such as journal articles.

Hosted by:

• Elizabeth Pyatt, IT Accessibility

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework of brain-based, research-backed teaching and learning strategies that create largely accessible and inclusive learning experiences. In this interactive, UDL-inspired session, participants will be introduced to the UDL framework and explore ways to apply it.

Presented By:

• Mary Ann Tobin, Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence
• Lauraine Hawkins, Mont Alto

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This session will explore different tools presenters using PowerPoint can use to make the creation of accessible slides easier that are more usable for all viewers. This session will review key accessibility requirements for slides including adding image alt text, building accessible tables, links and lists, creating accessible Master Slide Layouts and how to use the reporting and formatting tools within the Accessibility tab.

Presented By:

• Elizabeth Pyatt, IT Accessibility

Register in Advance by Mon, Feb 3, 2026, 1:00 PM

This panel brings together faculty to talk candidly about how they have approached course accessibility in their own teaching. Panelists will describe their journey, biggest hurdles and successes, lessons learned and what they would recommend to others doing this valuable work.

Panelists:

• Gina Gray, Penn State Scranton
• Lori Reno, Penn State Hazleton
• Jeanne Rose, Penn State Berks
• Beth Last, Penn State Behrend

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If you have questions or would like to get live help, please consider attending one of our Raise Your Ally Score Sessions.

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Repairing inaccessible PDFs is especially complex and may require different strategies depending on how the PDF was made. This session will review different tools for tagging, optical character recognition (OCR) and conversion to another document type. We will review sort files and fix a range of different PDFs from simple journal articles to complex infographics. The session will focus on tools for remediating external academic such as journal articles.

Hosted by:

• Elizabeth Pyatt, IT Accessibility

Register in Advance by Wed, Feb 4, 2026, 1:00 PM

If you have questions or would like to get live help, please consider attending one of our Raise Your Ally Score Sessions.

Join on Zoom

This panel brings together faculty to talk candidly about how they have approached course accessibility in their own teaching. Panelists will describe their journey, biggest hurdles and successes, lessons learned and what they would recommend to others doing this valuable work.

Faculty Panelists

• Cassandra Miller-Butterworth, Penn State Beaver
• Hal Smith, Information Sciences and Technology, Penn State New Kensington
• Kitty Mussett, Spanish, Penn State Altoona
• Zachary Williams, Accounting, Penn State Behrend

Moderator: Jennifer Wagner, Instructional Designer/Accessibility Specialists, Altoona/OVPCC

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In this session, participants will walk through creating accessible documents in Microsoft Office, specifically Microsoft PowerPoint. We will review the steps to use image ALT text, reading order, and slide titles.

Presented by:

• Matthew Bodek, Instructional Designer, Penn State Brandywine

Register and Join Zoom

If you have questions or would like to get live help, please consider attending one of our Raise Your Ally Score Sessions.

Join on Zoom

This session will guide you through the first steps of using the Anthology Ally tool which is built into Canvas. Ally provides contextualized guidance for how to address accessibility issues in Canvas pages, discussions, assignments, and even documents you upload to Ally.

Presented by:

• Elizabeth Huck, Director of Statewide Instructional Design for the Commonwealth Campuses/Instructional Designer, OVPCC/Hazleton

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Wondering about what is expected under the new Department of Justice Guidelines, Penn State Policy A.D. or other accessibility guidelines? Philip Voorhees, the head of IT Accessibility can help understand what you need to do in your unit or in a specific situation.

Hosted by:

• Philip Voorhees, Penn State Accessibility 

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Using instructional video can increase learner engagement with course material. Video can provide alternatives for representing ideas to students, add relevance and value, and provide options to learners. This workshop will help participants to develop new instructional video that is universally designed and consider the many ways in which learners will consume video content in their classroom. Participants will have time to apply their new skills during the workshop.

Presented by:

• Jennifer Wagner, Instructional Designer/Accessibility Specialists, Altoona/OVPCC

Please register in advance to attend this event, space is limited:  Registration: Designing Course Videos to Engage All Audiences

Graphs and charts are excellent ways to provide useful visualizations of data patterns, but the output can be difficult to make accessible without planning in their development. This webinar will introduce users to Excel charting tools and describe a workflow which produces an optimal output. This session will introduce concepts of color contrast, supplementing color coding and using Excel data to provide a long description.

Presented by:

• Elizabeth Pyatt, IT Accessibility

Please register by Tue, Jan 27, 2026, 12:00 PM.

Using instructional video can increase learner engagement with course material. Video can provide alternatives for representing ideas to students, add relevance and value, and provide options to learners. This workshop will help participants to develop new instructional video that is universally designed and consider the many ways in which learners will consume video content in their classroom. Participants will have time to apply their new skills during the workshop.

Presented by:

• Jennifer Wagner, Instructional Designer/Accessibility Specialists, Altoona/OVPCC

Please register in advance to attend this event, space is limited:  Registration: Designing Course Videos to Engage All Audiences

This hands–on workshop will prepare participants using Canvas to optimize their content for accessibility. Participants will be guided through the steps for identifying areas of content to optimize, optimizing content when using the Rich Content Editor, creating extended deadlines for quiz and assignment submissions, and utilizing recommended guidelines for optimizing quizzes for accessibility.

Presented By

• IT Learning & Development

Please Register in advance. Register by Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 12:00 PM EST

As of 2024 instructors can access multiple tools to create equations which are accessible to all students, even those using a screen reader or needing them read aloud. This webinar will discuss the accessibility of the MathML format and explain how MathML can be created in different tools in Canvas, Microsoft Word or elsewhere. The webinar will also explain how LaTeX files can also be converted to different formats beyond PDF.

Presented By:

• Elizabeth Pyatt, IT Accessibility

Please register by Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 12:00 PM.

This introductory session introduces cores accessibility concepts in Microsoft Word. Topics include headings, accessible tables, color contrast, alt text, and using Word’s Accessibility Assistant, with additional discussion how these elements are evaluated by Ally in Canvas.

Presented By:

• Beth Neail, Instructional Designer, Penn State Harrisburg

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If you have questions or would like to get live help, please consider attending one of our Raise Your Ally Score Sessions.

Join on Zoom