The design of an accessible screencast was the most challenging project for me. It was my first experience creating a script for a screencast. The process was extremely intimidating, serving as a much needed reminder of the way a novice can feel when attempting to use a tool for the first time
Project Description
The Pajaro Valley Unified School District website, built in School
Loop, is difficult for users to navigate. One of my responsibilities as math coordinator is the development and maintenance of the pages. I find myself constantly retraining teachers how to find
the math pages and how to locate resources on the math department pages.
This screencast video is intended to give teachers a tour of the site, detailing
the materials and resources to guide their implementation of mathematics
instruction in their classrooms. I share this resource with teachers, administrators, and district staff to help them remember how to navigate the pages.
Tools
Screen Capture Software
Snagit
Closed Captioning Tool
Accessify
I attempted to use software I currently have on my Mac, Jing, to create the screencast. Jing exports files in .swf (Flash) format, forcing me to search for a tool that exports in a form that is uploadable to YouTube. I downloaded a free 30 day trial of Snagit, created by the same company as Jing. It is simple to use and I would buy it if I needed a more robust toll than Jing in the future.
I found a super handy tool on the Accessify site that made creating the closed captioned transcript a piece of cake. I highly recommend it to anyone who needs to caption a video. There are several other free tools on the site that I plan to try out.