KMR Profile picture
Nov 21, 2019 7 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Next up at #MSUa11y: "PDF Accessibility Panel" hosted by Grace Morris, Madeleine Ferguson, & Grey Pierce.

I'm particularly hype for this bc of my work at @WCMSU: text documents are kinda our thing. Engagement for this session is supposed to be pretty high; I'll tweet when I can!
@WCMSU We're supposed to be asking questions.

1Q: What PDF conversion tools would panelists recommend?

A: Apparently, saving a .doc as a PDF isn't great if the .doc itself wasn't made accessibly -- using headers, etc. So that's why PDFs sometimes don't work well w/ screen readers.
@WCMSU Q1, A2: Scanned images aren't accessible, FYI. The reading device can only make sense of what it already sees on the page. So... it ain't accessible. Can't read formatting, etc.
@WCMSU Q2: Panelists just did something awesome: collectively, they didn't know the answer to a question & so they said:

"Let's do some research. Give us your contact info, & we will get this information to you."

Transparency! Vulnerability! #MSUa11y!
@WCMSU Panelists recommend using pre-made slides that have title features built in. They're already accessibly formatted, usually, and when you convert them to PDFs they're easier for screen readers.

HOWEVER: Adobe's conversion tool MISIDENTIFIES stuff sometimes, so do your own audit!
@WCMSU If converting a ppt to pdf usually results in a doc audit where Acrobat says things are fine/accessible but are not...

Consider how layers, elements, etc. interplay.
Consider how images, diagrams, etc. are being read.

Don't assume the checker-tool will be right.
@WCMSU Q3: Adobe Acrobat Pro, etc: How is it prohibitive? What are other options.

A: PDFS ARE TERRIBLE, say panelists! Adobe is best we have, but.. still no bueno. Avoid PDFs!

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More from @birdundrstander

Jan 15, 2021
If you require your students to share formal uni paperwork to receive disability accommodations in your class, lemme just tell you this right now: that is a ridiculous, ableist, unfair stance and I am writing a short thread here to tell you why. (1/7)
Accommodations almost always require a formal diagnosis. Barriers to GETTING a formal diagnosis are enormous, expensive, & VERY slow.

It took me 7 MONTHS from beginning the process to getting a copy of paperwork. And that's without trying to give that paperwork to anyone. (2/7)
It takes weeks to get a referral to schedule testing (if your insurance even covers it).

It takes months (usually) for the testing to finally happen.

It takes another FULL MONTH to wait for follow-up & diagnosis.

Then, the shuffle with insurance & meds begins. Awful. (3/7)
Read 9 tweets
Sep 9, 2020
Still feel like the phrase "love is love" (intended to validate queer couples) erases all the differences & miracles & places of wonderment that make queer love so different from not-queer love. OFC I love my wife, but our relationship dynamic isn't the same as a cis-het couple.
I KNOW we grocery shop, bicker, and snore in our sleep like cis-het couples do. But I am nonbinary; our dynamics, cultural information, Burkean rhetorics, & ways of engagement are different than cis-het couples because we live in/are of a very different world than those couples.
My family has and deserves value, as all families do. I'm not saying love ISN'T love, in that way. I'm saying that in erasing the ways queered companionship, queered commitment, and queered sense of love and belonging, you are limiting what the world can know of a love like mine.
Read 4 tweets
Aug 31, 2020
A little parable on self-care that has some twists and turns (thread).

I used to run. Like, a lot. Like, two dozen health marathons in two years. And then, hard things happened in my life & I stopped. Started feeling really anxious any time I even thought of running. (1/10)
For several years, I would attempt comebacks. It never really stuck. It was hard to make a routine when I was battling my mental health. I also didn’t want to invest in the process (new shoes etc) because I knew I was unreliable about follow-through. (2/10)
Then, this winter, I really started hitting my stride again. I was running regularly, but I was also getting some serious hip and back pain. First, I assumed it was my body tryna get back in shape. I pushed on, not wanting to lose my gains. (3/10)
Read 11 tweets
Aug 26, 2020
Today's Pedagogy Tip:

Get your ego out of your classroom! Take your job seriously, but don't be self-important. Remember that this semester is just a moment in time, that your students are in precarity & are also Real People, & that they have needs & self-care boundaries too.
To clarify: When students are absent, seem tired / disengaged, or can't get it all together to meet your arbitrary (& they are, let's be real, arbitrary and randomly curated or selected based on imagined timeframes) deadlines, it is VERY LIKLEY NOT *clap* ABOUT *clap* YOU! *clap*
I'll go one step further. IDK about you, but, I'm pretty smart and have a lot to share with my students (or, I'd like to think so). And I STILL don't think ANYTHING I will share in a 1-hour class is worth my students compromising their mental/emotional/physical health to hear.
Read 5 tweets
Aug 24, 2020
Pedagogy Tip of the Day:

Always analyze which of your classroom practices are ableist, or only serve students who fit your prefab ideation of who a "student" might be.

Examples to follow in a short thread.

Read, RT, pass it on, etc.
1. Do you only present your classes/lectures orally?
If so, students with hearing disabilities as well as students with certain mental/invisible disabilities will struggle to fully access course information. Consider providing written notes, captioned audio, or multimodal format.
2. Do you have a strict attendance policy?
If so, students w/ chronic health issues, including mental health issues, will be penalized through ableism. Reconsider what it is you're grading when you grade attendance. Is it course content mastery? If not, why're you grading it?
Read 9 tweets
Aug 19, 2020
Today at a pedagogy development meeting I got to trot out my favorite teaching position:

Stop having attendance policies.

(Short thread.)
Attendance Policies serve NO purpose aside from making sure folks are okay/safe/not falling away.

You're there to grade learning/mastery.

If a student can ace assignments without attending lectures, why shouldn't they ace the course?
When students miss class, it is not about YOU or about their CLASSROOM or their CLASSROOM COMMUNITY. They aren't out here tryna hurt your feelings.

It is about their choices, needs, priorities, and lives. Especially in a pandemic.

Why not find other ways to track engagement?
Read 8 tweets

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