[nabs-l] Accessibility of Blackboard?

[Arielle Silverman]

Professors like to post image files because they can just scan printed
documents and put the scanned images directly up on Blackboard. For
older documents, it's usually a lot easier to get a print copy than it
is to get an electronic copy that was generated directly in Adobe, and
mainstream scanners just take a picture of the print without
converting it to text. However, the suggestions I gave earlier for
converting these files with RoboBraille or an OCR package should work.
Arielle

On 12/2/12, Ashley Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Liliya,
> Oh are you at george mason? if so what is your major? When do you graduate?
> I recall when I went to gmu before I transferred that they were just
> starting to use blackboard.
>
> I wanted to know the current state of accessibility; do you get textbooks on
>
> time and in a usable format?
> Please write me off list and share your experiences if you are a current or
>
> recent student. Yep, I heard professors love to put up files. Thankfully
> last semester I attended they use blackboard minimally; mainly to post
> announcements and grades, not documents. The issues I ran into back then
> like 7 years ago was the  group chat feature and submission of assignments
> was not accessible; and when I went to marymount, it still was not
> accessible.
>
> I hate those inaccessible files.
> Ashley
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Liliya Asadullina
> Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2012 5:11 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Accessibility of Blackboard?
>
> Hey Everett,
> As Brandon says, blackboard is just okay.
> George mason University love to post their assignments on there all
> the time.  I have ran into the same issues with opening and
> downloading the PDF files.  My professors like to use image text files
> for PDF.  I'm not sure how to convert the imaged text documents into
> word without sighted assistance.   If I were you, I'd contact your CSU
> professors ahead of time and ask if any of the stuff that they are
> planning to post on blackboard are image jet peg PDF files.  Also, I
> found out that using the Jaws cursor on blackboard helps me navigate
> throughout my assignments more eficiently as well.
>
> Let me know if you need editional help and I'll see what I could find out.
> All the best,
> Lily
>
> On 12/2/12, Brandon Keith Biggs <brandonkeithbiggs at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hello,
>> Blackboard is OK, it takes a little poking around to find things, but
>> there
>>
>> is very little I have found that can't be found with persistence. I'm not
>> sure why they don't switch to Etudes, because Blackboard is extremely
>> limited, but that is another topic.
>> The only difficulty I've had is downloading all the PDFs my teacher
>> uploads
>>
>> there, it takes for ever and one or two are not accessible from the get
>> go,
>>
>> so I have to pull out all my technology.
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Brandon Keith Biggs
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Everett Gavel
>> Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2012 11:34 AM
>> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> Subject: [nabs-l] Accessibility of Blackboard?
>>
>> Hello Again, All,
>>
>> Can any of you tell me good or bad points on using
>> Blackboard? I remember that the 2010 (?) national
>> NFB convention had a presentation on the
>> accessibility of Blackboard. However, I've heard a
>> few times that the upgrade(s) since then are less
>> accessible, and that even that supposedly
>> accessible version wasn't totally accessible. Can
>> anyone clarify, or point me to some discussions or
>> articles explaining such details, please? I'm
>> thinking of switching from ashford to Colorado
>> State U Online, and right now Ashford U is very
>> accessible. But Ashford uses the Constellation
>> classroom system, and CSU uses Blackboard.
>>
>> Thanks for any help with this.
>>
>>
>> Strive On!
>> Everett
>> everett at everettgavel.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
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