Overview
As we all navigate the busy start of the term, you will have noticed that accessibility has been showing up in more and more conversations lately, from the new Title II updates to broader discussions on how we can best support our students’ diverse needs. For many of us these conversations land in the middle of busy teaching schedules and real constraints on time.
We know that (digital) accessibility can sometimes feel like a heavy word. For many instructors, it can feel technical, time-consuming, or disconnected from the realities of teaching. We want to be clear upfront: this work is rarely clean or simple, and it almost always involves tradeoffs. What’s reasonable will look different across courses, and those judgments ultimately rest with you.
To help make sense of it all, we’ve brought together Title II–related guidance and resources on our Accessibility in Teaching & Learning Resource Hub. Because that’s a lot to take in, this newsletter is meant to slow things down and focus on one thing at a time. We’ll try to share ideas drawn from ongoing conversations with instructors across campus; things that have helped in some situations, not prescriptions for every course. Our hope is that you’ll find something here that fits your context.
To kick things off, let’s talk about the most common file type in academia: The PDF.
What is a PDF, anyway?
The Portable Document Format was created by Adobe in the early 1990s with one goal: to ensure a document looked exactly the same on every computer so it could be printed perfectly.
While a PDF is great for a printer, it can be frustrating for a student trying to read a PDF syllabus on a smartphone (where the text doesn’t reflow) or a student using a screen reader or text-to-speech tools (which might see the page as one big blank image, if the PDF is a scanned document.)
Tips for better PDFs
- Ask: “Do I need a PDF?”: In some cases, the easiest way to improve access is to use a format other than a PDF. For instructor-authored materials (like a syllabus or assignment prompt), consider pasting the text directly into a bCourses Page or keeping it as a Google/Word Doc. While you still need to use good structure (like headings), these formats are much easier to make accessible and automatically adjust to fit mobile screens. For readings like journal articles the best alternative to uploading a PDF is linking to an accessible version through the library, when one is available.
- Find the source when you have one: If you do need a PDF and have access to the original file (for example the Word/Google Doc or PPT), starting there usually produces a more accessible result. Using built-in headings, slide titles, and logical reading order in the source file carries over when the PDF is exported correctly. We recognize that many materials are inherited, shared, or externally produced, so this approach applies only when you have control over the original file.
Caution: When exporting, always use File → Save As or Export to PDF. Never use “Print to PDF”, as it strips out all the helpful structure.
- Remediate your scanned PDF: Many instructors have told us their biggest concern is this: I don’t have access to the source file; the only version I have is a scanned PDF from a hard-copy book. Scanned documents need Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to be readable. This is just a fancy way of saying "the computer recognizes the text." SensusAccess is a Berkeley supported tool that can convert image-based files into readable texts or even audios. OCR won’t solve every accessibility issue, but it can meaningfully improve access when full remediation isn’t realistic. If you use Ally (the accessibility tool built into bCourses), you may notice that the accessibility score might not turn 100% even after you “fix” your PDFs. Some identified issues by Ally may require more time or specialized methods to fix. (Our “Remediate inaccessible PDFs” outlines some strategies for these situations.) Rather than focusing on perfecting a single file or reaching a specific score, it’s most helpful to use Ally as a way to identify issues and prioritize which issues you can reasonably address now and move more of your course materials into the green, and which ones to plan for over time.
A quick note: Some PDFs, particularly those that include equations, charts, or handwritten content, require more specialized approaches to meet accessibility standards. Our resource on "STEM considerations for math in PDFs" outlines some strategies, including specifics for LaTex.
Final Thoughts
If there’s one takeaway from this issue, it’s that accessibility work doesn’t need to happen all at once. You might think of this work a bit like Marie Kondo–ing your course materials: not throwing everything out or starting over, but deciding what’s worth tidying now, what can wait, and what’s already serving students well.