Accessibility & Universal Design

Eastern University aims toward universal design and access for all students, faculty, and staff.  In this page, you will find training and resources for faculty that seek to ensure every student has the same opportunity to succeed.

Captioning

Kaltura

For videos in your Brightspace course, having accurate and accessible captions is crucial for students.  Our video software, Kaltura, automatically creates captions for any videos you record and upload to My Media in Brightspace.  While those captions are accurate for the most part, there will always be words it misses, and you can review and edit these captions as you need to make them 100% accurate.

To edit captions for a video in Kaltura, click on the My Media tab on the Brightspace homepage and find the video you want to review.  When you click on the video, scroll down until you see a drop down menu labeled Actions on the right side of the screen.  Click on it, select Caption & Enrich, then click the pencil icon to edit the caption file.

​Once you've reviewed your captions and made any changes, remember to click the Save button in the top right corner of the screen.  If you are making lots of changes, it's best to save often during the process, not just when you're finished.

PowerPoint and Google Slides

Eastern alumna Megan Garrity (2012) produced this fabulous video that showcases how to include live captions in your lectures using PowerPoint and Google Slides. Please consider using one of these tool for on-ground classes when you are lecturing with a mask on, as it can help students follow the information when volume may be a challenge. This is also a great resource for live Zoom sessions.

​While this option shouldn’t replace any specific student accommodations that are in place with relay captioning or CART, it provides an option for universal design that will meet student learning needs.

Accessibility in Microsoft Office

Students and faculty are able to access Office 365 using their Eastern University accounts. This includes free Microsoft Translator. In addition, faculty has access to a consultant from Microsoft Office for training on their various products (Word, PowerPoint, etc.). 

Learn more about using Microsoft Translation, Accessibility Check, Alternative Text, and other important available tools to enhance student accessibility here.

Granting Special Access on a Quiz

Some students have accommodations that allow them to have more time to take quizzes.  Watch the video below to learn how to set up a quiz to give those students special access.

For more information about disability services:

Contact the Cushing Center for Counseling and Academic Support.