Help with assistive technologies

Blackboard Learn is developed against the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to ensure its compatibility with the latest versions of assistive technology including screen readers such as JAWS and VoiceOver. The following tools can also help with your studies.

Assistive tools

Text - Blackboard Ally

Blackboard has an extension called Ally that provides alternative formats for text based content.

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• Find out how to use Ally for your studies.

Video - Panopto

Panopto video is the default video provider used by the university. This Blackboard extension provides captions as standard. Toggle the CC icon at the bottom of the Panopto video player to turn captions on or off. Alternatively use the diagonal arrow to view the video in a browser to view the full transcription.

Microsoft 365

All students have access to Microsoft 365 with that comes access to a number of tools including ClipChamp which can be used to create and view videos. It also autogenerates transcripts and captions.

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See also

• MS accessibility tools for vision

• MS accessibility tools for hearing

• MS accessibility tools for neurodiversity

Browsers

• Chrome browser provides reading mode which allows you to adjust text size and background colour of your web page

• Microsoft Edge (and other MS products) provides immersive reader

• Customising Safari on the iPhone

PDFs

• Adobe Acrobat reader provides Accessibility setup assistant which allows you to change your settings to make PDF files more accessible

Accessibility at Ulster University

• You can get in touch with the AccessAbility Advisers within the Student Wellbeing team to get additional support and guidance

• Find out more about assistive technology at Ulster university

Useful Links

• Blackboard Accessibility features

• JAWS screen reader

• Voiceover for Mac