Technical Accessibility Standards

You can ensure that any technical items used for your courses are accessible and compliant by using the following information. Please note that this is simply the minimum requirement for technical accessibility. We encourage you to use additional strategies and solutions. For assistance, contact DSP&S.

Note: In accordance with California Government Code - 11135, and in accordance with the Chancellor’s office Legal Opinion M 03-09 and Legal Opinion M 01-17, the California Community College system follows Section 508 of Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards.

Making Documents Accessible

These strategies can help make your documents more accessible:

  • Use built-in styles to provide structure to the document.

  • Only use tables when absolutely necessary. If you use a table, use header rows on tables and learn to use tab stops instead of using multiple tabs.

  • Use alternative text on pictures.

  • Word documents are typically easier to access than PDFs. Please consider providing original working documents upon student request. 

  • Additional help is available for instructors serving students with disabilities, please contact Danielle Barbaro for more information.

Making Videos Accessible

You can make videos accessible by keeping the following in mind:

  • Closed captioning videos can be expensive, so you should see if there is an alternative video you can use first. The library can help you determine if the same video has already been captioned or if a closed captioned video is available from another library.

  • You can receive funding through the DECT grant for online or hybrid courses. You can also use 3C Media Solutions to have captions created on your behalf. 

  • If you already have a transcript or you can make one, you can upload the video to YouTube. YouTube will sync the transcript to the audio for you.

  • YouTube auto-captions aren’t sufficient enough to make a video accessible. The legal standard for non-live video captioning shown in public is 100% accuracy. YouTube is not always accurate and doesn’t include punctuation and other sound meaning. This can make it difficult or impossible to understand by words alone.

  • Audio Descriptions are technically required by law, but will be handled on a case by case basis.