Accessibility Tips - Assignments

Annotations and Feedback

The [LINK: Annotations] tool can be used to add comments and feedback on documents submitted to an Assignment folder. Feedback left using Annotations can be difficult to view for many students, including those who:

• Screen readers, which "read" out loud what appears on a screen, cannot read many kinds of annotations (e.g., notes, shapes, text boxes, markings, etc.) left on the document. 
• It’s difficult to identify the connection between notes and a highlighted line of text. For example, when a student clicks on a highlighted section that has an accompanying note, the note does not open automatically. Notes left separately can be placed anywhere on the document. This lack of connection between the text and the note makes it difficult for students to identify the sections that notes are referring to.

Accessible Strategies

• Type comments into the Overall Feedback field while grading an Assignment submission (available when you evaluate submissions.
• Download the submission, open it in Word, and use Word’s built-in commenting (opens in new tab) and track change (opens in new tab) features to mark the document. Then upload it to the submission in Brightspace using Add a File (available when you evaluate submissions.