Creating Accessible Materials Transform files into accessible formats using SensusAccess

SensusAccess can be an important tool to help increase the accessibility of your learning materials. Here’s how:

• Helps support diverse learning needs: You and your students can convert course materials into formats that accommodate various learning preferences.
• Enhances accessibility: Ensure students with disabilities can access your content in a format that suits them best.
• Saves time: Quickly and easily convert documents without needing specialized software.

• Accessibility conversions: Convert image and image-based PDF files to text-based documents (Word, HTML, text-based PDFs, etc.)
• Audio services: Files can be converted into plain MP3 files as well as DAISY (accessible audio) format.
• E-book services: Documents can be converted into EPUB, EPUB3, EPUB3 with media overlays, and MOBI (Amazon Kindle) e-book formats.
• Braille services: Documents can be converted to and from contracted and uncontracted braille.

SensusAccess is available to University of Kentucky faculty, staff, and students-- anyone with a uky.edu or g.uky.edu email address. There is no cost associated with use of this service. Users are free and encouraged to convert as many documents as necessary. SensusAccess is available via the request form for individual files, or through a self-service integration with Canvas.

Users can upload files to a web form for conversion. Submission of the file sends the document to SensusAccess for remediation. The converted file is then returned to the user via their uky.edu email address.

Guidance for best results

• Conversion results are best for documents that are primarily text and comply with accessibility standards (i.e. proper use of headers and formatting). However, good results are also possible in multilingual documents and those with complicated elements
• Documents less suited for conversion are those with non-textual content (i.e. scanned images of STEM content, complex mathematical equations, graphs). Support and instruction are available through the Resources section on the SensusAccess website.
• The quality of the converted file depends on the quality of the original document.  Scanned documents with smudges, tears in the paper, underlined or skewed text may result in a poor output file.
• Converted files should be reviewed for accuracy and additional clean-up may be needed.

Intended Use

• This service is provided for the purpose of making documents more accessible and usable for people with disabilities.  It is intended for personal, non-commercial instructional and educational use only.
• Users are solely responsible for complying with all applicable copyright, privacy/data security, and other laws and for any claims arising out of their use or misuse of the service.
• This service is not recommended for converting documents containing confidential/private or personally identifiable information.
• SensusAccess does not guarantee WCAG or PDF/UA compliant results. Most documents converted to tagged PDF will require further remediation to meet WCAG or PDF/UA compliance.