To provide as much flexibility as possible for instructors, Perusall allows instructors to upload content in a wide variety of formats. This article describes special considerations for ensuring that all types of content are accessible to students in Perusall.
HTML, MHTML, EPUB
When HTML, MHTML (web archive), or EPUB files are uploaded directly, all accessibility tagging in the file (e.g., headings, image "alt" tags, etc) is rendered and accessible to screen readers and other accessibility software.
Web content
Safari does not natively support saving MHTML (.mht) files, as it lacks built-in support for this format.
When you add a web page from a URL, Perusall takes a snapshot of the target web page so that future changes in (or availability of) the underlying web site don't affect your course, similar to what you would get by printing the page. If the target web page has accessibility tagging (e.g., headings, image "alt" tags, etc) that is critical to preserve, save the web page to MHTML ("web archive") first, and then upload the MHTML file.
In Chrome, navigate to File > Save As, and select Webpage, Single File as the format; Chrome will save a single MHTML file. In Perusall, navigate to Library > Add content > Web page > Upload HTML or MHTML from my device and then upload the MHTML file.
In Firefox, navigate to File > Save As, and select Web page, complete as the format; Firefox will save an HTML file and (if there are images on the page) a separate folder of associated images. In Perusall, navigate to Library > Add content > Web page > Upload HTML or MHTML from my device and then upload the HTML file and then the associated image folder.
PDFs, Microsoft Word
PDFs and Word documents can be "tagged" with accessibility information, including image "alt" tags, headings, and semantic information (e.g., ordered and unordered lists, tables, etc). When it is critical to preserve that tagging within Perusall, export the document to HTML first, and then upload the HTML file.
In Adobe Acrobat, navigate to File > Export > HTML Web Page and then save the content as a single web page. Acrobat will save an HTML file and a folder (with associated images) alongside the HTML file.
In Microsoft Word, navigate to File > Save As, and select Web Page, Filtered as the file format. Word will save an HTML file and a folder (with associated images) alongside the HTML file.
In Perusall, navigate to Library > Add content > Web page > Upload HTML or MHTML from my device and then upload the HTML file and then the associated image folder.
If you are starting from inaccessible content like a scanned article, consider using OCR to add machine-readable text.
Videos
For external video providers (YouTube and Vimeo), Perusall will automatically make captions available when supported by the external provider.
For direct video URLs (videos hosted on Dropbox, Google Drive, etc), you can upload captions files (in SRT or VTT format) directly.
Students using Chrome can also enable Live Captions in their browser to make video content accessible that otherwise does not have captioning.
Podcasts
Students using Chrome can enable Live Captions in their browser to make audio content accessible; the browser will listen to the audio as it plays and provide a visual representation of the audio content. Consider also providing an alternative format in your course library for.
Images
When uploading an image to the library, consider adding descriptive text to the assignment instructions and/or providing an alternative format in your course library.
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