Bauhaus-Universität Weimar Website Now More Accessible
On the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar website, a large number of videos and PDF files have now been made available in a way that makes them accessible to all.
Some 20 hours of video material have been subtitled and more than 150 university communications (MdUs) from the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar have been converted into accessible document formats: That’s the impressive bottom line of the Work Group on Digital Accessibility six months into the implementation of the »Inklusive Hochschulen Thüringen« project.
Under the direction of Christiane Hempel of University Communications, three student assistants are currently busy making the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar website more accessible in accordance with the directive »on accessibility to websites and mobile applications of public bodies«.
This work is being done in addition to the »Accessibility Dashboard«, which has made it possible to adjust individual settings such as contrast or switching off of animations since last year. The website with information about the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar is now also available in plain language. The modified films are in some cases promotional films that are made available on the university’s website. General information about the university and its programs of study is now also available for prospective students and members of the university who are hearing-impaired. Such information also makes it easier for people to comprehend the content even if they are not conversant in the language of the video. German subtitles were also added to explanatory videos on the Moodle learning platform and the Big Blue Button conference tool. In future, the instructions for the digital tools will also be subtitled in English.
For the conversion of the PDF files, priority was given to the study and examination regulations – documents that students cannot avoid consulting in the course of their studies and that therefore need to be easy for everyone to understand. To make it easier for assistive technologies such as screen readers to read text files, the files were semantically structured, tables of contents were created in the form of language-based bookmarks, and titles and the language used were defined in the metadata. The next step is to train the responsible employees so that they can independently create accessible PDF documents.
The »Inklusive Hochschulen Thüringen« project, funded by the Higher Education Pact 2020 and coordinated by the Diversity Department, has now been extended until mid-2023. There will be enough time until then for the Digital Accessibility Working Group to subtitle many more videos, make documents more accessible, and thus make an important contribution to the accessibility of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar website.
How can we support you?
You have your own Vimeo channel and would like to make your videos available on the website in an accessible manner? Feel free to send us the videos for subtitling!
Would you like to make your videos and PDFs accessible yourself?
Visit the Digital Accessibility website of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. There you will find descriptions and tutorials on how to create accessible documents and videos, accessible social media channels and additional tips and suggestions on the topic: www.uni-weimar.de/digitale-barrierefreiheit
For questions relating to digital accessibility, please contact Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Christiane Hempel, Media Technology Assistant and Head of the Work Group on Digital Accessibility at University Communications, by calling +49 (0) 36 43 / 58 11 77 or by sending an e-mail to christiane.hempel[at]uni-weimar.de.