Finding accessible assignment items for your students

• Most answer types for publisher items provided in the Item Library are screen reader and keyboard accessible, with the exception of some chemical drawing, graphing, and engineering-specific answer types. For a list of accessible answer types, including vector drawing, see the next section about searching for accessible items in the Item Library.
• Certain elements in some items may be inaccessible to some students. If you or your students notice that accessibility could be improved on an assignment item that should support accessibility, please report the issue using the Contact the Publisher feature.

To find accessible publisher items in the Item Library, use the Answer Type filter to select an accessible answer type. When you switch to a different chapter or section resource, the answer types available to you can also change. All accessible answer types are listed below.

Show me the Answer Type filter with example answer types

Accessible answer types: General

• Essay/Writing
• Labeling*
• Matching / Vocab*
• Multiple Choice/Select
• Ranking*
• Simple Text
• Sorting*

* Students who use their keyboard to enter responses for these “drag and drop” answer types may find that the effort for this interaction can compromise the learning experience.

Accessible answer types: Math, chemistry, or physics

• Chemical Formula
• Numeric / Symbolic
• Vector

For detailed instructions about filtering for items in the Item Library, see Search the Item Library.

Below are some tips for checking that your Mastering assignments are accessible.

• Accessibility tips & tricks in Mastering

• Contact your school’s Accessibility Office or Disability Services, if available. This department may have services that can help support you as well as to provide individual support for students.
• Accessible images: For students with vision impairment, check whether images have appropriate alt text descriptions. (Alt text image descriptions can be read aloud by screen readers.) To see if such descriptions appear, hover over images in Mastering on your computer.
• Accessible video content: For students with vision or hearing impairment, check whether any video content includes captions, a transcript, or audio description.
• Adjust Mastering assignment scores and settings by student. To better accommodate some students, you can adjust scores and settings for an assignment by student. For example, you may want to exempt one or more students from an assignment, extend an assignment due date, reset an assignment, or other.

• Accessibility when editing or creating items: If you use the Simple Editor to edit publisher items or to create your own items, all Simple Editor answer types can be used to create accessible content. Follow best practices for making your content accessible. The WebAIM.org site provides information about writing alt text for images, making audio or video accessible, checking color contrast ratio, and more

General accessibility:

• Mastering interface: Works with all common screen magnifiers and is contrast optimized for vision-impaired access to most features
• Navigation: Enhanced visual focus for active elements
• Student course home: Meets Pearson Accessibility Guidelines
• Answer responses: Feedback such as Correct and Try Again can be read by a screen reader.
• Conversion plans for Flash content that's not screen-reader accessible: Choose “Flash/Shockwave Announcement” in the Learn More area on the Course Home to view conversion plans for currently inaccessible Flash/Shockwave-based animations.

Accessible in Mastering courses:

• eText: When available for your course, the Pearson eText is screen reader and keyboard accessible. Some content may not yet be accessible.
• Dynamic Study Modules: When available for your course, the content in Dynamic Study Modules is usually accessible. Alt text image descriptions are provided.