Accessible Technologies

The Teaching Transformation & Development Academy (TTaDA) works closely with Disability Services for Students (DSS) and University Information Technology (UIT) to provide assistive technologies for UND.  To learn more about faculty responsibilities regarding accessibility visit with DSS.

Creating Accessible Content

It is important to keep in mind that accessibility is not a feature to be added after the design of your course and/or content. It is a set of principles to be considered throughout the design process.  For information on designing your course to meet the needs of all learners visit the Universal Design for Learning webpage.

When creating content, there are a few basic steps that should be followed in order to assure your content is accessible.

Learn More About Creating Accessible Content

Check Accessibility with Blackboard Ally

Blackboard Ally works seamlessly with Blackboard Learn to gauge the accessibility of your content. Ally provides guidance and tips for lasting improvements to your content accessibility.

  • Receive feedback on the accessibility of your content
  • Improve content accessibility with Ally's step-by-step instructions

Learn more about Blackboard Ally

Read&Write

Read&Write is an easy-to-use, intuitive toolbar add-on for PCs and Macs that supports students with reading, writing, studying, and research. Read&Write seamlessly integrates with Microsoft applications, PDFs, e-mail, the Internet, and other software. With over 20 tools available, you can:

  • Hear text read aloud to improve reading comprehension, with a choice of natural voices.
  • Understand unfamiliar words with text and picture dictionaries.
  • Highlight and copy text from documents and web pages to create study guides, outlines or complete assignments.
  • Supports writing skills with word prediction.
  • Turn text from documents and web pages into MP3 sound files for listening on the move.
  • Check writing mistakes with proofreading tools.

Download Read&Write, Information and Tutorials

Jaws

JAWS; Job Access With Speech, is a popular screen reader, developed for computer users whose vision loss prevents them from seeing screen content or navigating with a mouse. JAWS provides speech and Braille output for the most popular computer applications on your PC.

Contact Disability Services to find out if you are eligible to receive a copy of JAWS.