Alternate Format

Some students are approved to receive course and/or exam material in an alternate format (AF) to support their access and perception of content. This accommodation ensures that all students can engage equitably with instructional material. Examples of alternate formats include:

  • E-Text (digital text)
  • Large Print
  • Audio
  • Coloured Paper
  • Braille

As outlined in the Canada Copyright Act, these formats can be created legally for the sole use of individuals who require them for accessibility.

Course Materials

In most cases the student submits their AF request to our office and we are able to provide converted course materials to the student without your assistance. In order to minimize our need to ask you for assistance, keep in mind the following tips:

  • List course materials with the UofA Bookstore in a timely manner. Conversion can take time, so the sooner a student knows which materials to request, the faster we are able to provide them access to those materials.
  • Identify course materials on a course website or online syllabus so that students are able to evaluate the accessibility of those materials. 
  • Ensure that any readings uploaded to eClass are text-accessible (can you click into the document to highlight & copy text?) to increase the accuracy of any conversion.
  • Use fonts considered more accessible: Arial, Calibri, Helvetica, Tahoma, Verdana, the UofA preferred Roboto, and even Comic Sans, all of which are “sans serif”. 
  • Provide text-accessible PDFs of PowerPoint presentations. 
  • Enable captioning for any material presented via video.

Have your course materials arrive at the bookstore three weeks in advance of the start of classes. This allows our office sufficient time to obtain the materials and begin the process of adapting them before classes begin. It ensures your student has course material to work with from the start of term. Understandably, you will not know you have a student who requires alternate format much before the term begins, so by regularly ordering in advance, your material will always be more accessible. When providing readings or handouts in class or online, offering a text-accessible electronic version (PDF, DOCX, RTF, TXT) provides students with a format that can be read using adaptive technology software and/or be more readily adapted into the required format.

Exams

To allow time for conversion, exams requiring alternate format should be submitted (in a text-accessible format) a minimum of three working days before the exam date. Occasionally, exam questions may be unsuitable for conversion to alternate format (for example, a complex image or chart). In this case, a member of the Alternate Format Team will contact you to discuss the possibility of an adapted question that will test the same content/concept in a more accessible format.