Webinar Series Provides Guidance for Improving Accessibility – Register Now!

Created for beginners and non-specialists, the Practical Accessibility: Basics You Can Apply Today webinar series offers practical guidance for improving the accessibility of everyday digital content. Sessions focus on basic techniques and built-in tools you can start using right away to make your content more accessible.

Register for any or all of the following sessions. Please note that you must register and attend using a UC email address.

Practical Accessibility – Documents and PDFs

Presenter: Brian McNeilly – Web Accessibility Specialist – UCOP
Date: March 6, 11am-12pm
Registration: https://UCOP.zoom.us/meeting/register/4CM2EGjxRKW0ZlVm5uv8zg

In this hands-on session, participants will learn how to design a document from the ground up with accessibility in mind. An introduction to accessibility will be provided, along with tips and tricks for ensuring Word files are ready to convert into accessible PDFs.

Learning Objectives:

Understand different types of disabilities people have & what types of assistive technologies they may use to interact with your documents
Use features in Word to structure content semantically, including headings, lists, and tables
Determine what alternative text an image needs & be able to tell when an image is purely decorative
Describe basic features of PDF accessibility, including tags and reading order
Conduct automated scans for accessibility in Word and Acrobat

Practical Accessibility – Video and Zoom

Presenter: Brian McNeilly – Web Accessibility Specialist – UCOP
Date: March 19, 3pm-4pm
Registration: https://UCOP.zoom.us/meeting/register/DNRkXUuoTxiFTrhYkXuVLg

Videos & online calls require different accessibility considerations than documents or websites. In this session, we will discuss what you can do to ensure your audio/visual content – including live meetings – is as accessible as possible to people with disabilities.

Learning Objectives:

Understand accessibility requirements for videos, including captions and audio descriptions
Describe tools and methods for editing or uploading captions after events
Be able to articulate when an audio description is needed & what should be included in them
Understand the various accessibility features included in Zoom

Practical Accessibility – Canvas LMS

Presenter: Rolin Moe – Associate Vice Provost UC Online – UCOP
Date: March 25, 2-3pm
Registration: https://UCOP.zoom.us/meeting/register/rs3o0KvhR9S68kXCpWpJug

Accessibility for the LMS in an Hour is a practical, design-focused webinar for anyone building or teaching online courses in the UC system. In just sixty minutes, we’ll cover what it actually means to create an accessible LMS course—without turning you into a legal expert or a developer. You’ll learn how accessibility shows up in everyday decisions like page structure, documents, media, navigation, and assessments, and how small, intentional changes can make a big difference for learners. While accessibility regulations are evolving, this session focuses on what works now: clear design, inclusive practices, and strategies you can apply immediately in the tools you already use.

Learning Objectives:

Understand the foundations of accessible course structure and why accessibility is both a teaching best practice and a compliance imperative
Build accessible LMS pages using proper headings, descriptive links, meaningful color, and logical reading order
Recognize and resolve common LMS accessibility barriers, including navigation, multimedia, documents, and interactive elements
Use LMS accessibility tools strategically to test, improve, and maintain inclusive course design over time

Practical Accessibility – Presentations and Visual Aids

Presenter: Brian McNeilly – Web Accessibility Specialist – UCOP
Date: April 2, 12-1pm
Registration: https://UCOP.zoom.us/meeting/register/NM6IpEiSSWmZmGkUONGYYA

Presentations often contain a unique hybrid of static documents and an accompanying live presentation or talk. This interface of live discussions along with a displayed visual document creates a unique tension for accessibility. In this session we will discuss ways to ensure not long that your slide deck is accessible, but that the whole presentation experience is as accessible as possible.

Learning Objectives: