Bentley Orientation & Student Onboarding Accessibility Guide
Introduction:
Orientation and Student Onboarding works to create a foundation of success, so that new students can connect and thrive at Bentley. Our office supports undergraduate onboarding, orientation, and transition programs to make the new student experience accessible, engaging, and meaningful. Guided by our Core Values and Social Justice Action Plan, we are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming experience through social, educational, and cultural programs Additionally, we believe families and supporters are partners in the success of their students, and we work collaboratively to welcome all to our community.
Bentley University and Orientation & Student Onboarding is committed to providing an accessible, equitable, and inclusive learning environment. As part of this mission, we strive to make events accessible to all participants. If you have specific accessibility needs, please contact our team at Bentley University to discuss appropriate accommodations.
Please note, this guide has been adapted from the Bentley Community Learning Conference Accessibility Guidance created by the Office of Diversity & Inclusion and Disability Services for Orientation & Student Onboarding.
Goals of Orientation Program:
Community- Welcome new falcons to the University setting by providing intentional opportunities for interaction with the community.
Values- Provide new students with a shared understanding of institutional values and responsibilities.
Academics- Introduce students to the academic community and resources.
Engagement- Engage students in social, educational, and cultural programs which enhance their wellbeing and experience.
Traditions - Introduce new students to Bentley University traditions and an understanding of their place in the Bentley story and its continuing history.
Our accessibility guidelines can be used for the following:
o Orientation Sessions
o Falcon Live Chats
o Orientation Leader Training Sessions
Physical Accessibility
Captioning and Speaking
• Each presenter should be using live captions as a part of their presentation. This will help deaf or hard of hearing understand the full material presented. Microsoft Power Point has added new, live captioning as a part of the program. Information about how to use live captions can be found here
• If using videos as part of the presentation, please be sure to turn on closed captioning. Additionally, if the video has a transcript available, please have the document available for anyone who might request a copy.
• When speaking, presenters should speak at a reasonable pace and avoid rushing. Additionally, care should be taken to avoid covering the mouth with hands or a microphone, limit excessive background noise and avoid chewing gum or other food when speaking.
Fonts, Videos, and Images
• When creating your PowerPoint, please be sure to use a sans serif font. Bentley’s brand includes the Helvetica Neue LT STD font family as our sans-serif option. You can request the font files from Marketing and Communications by filling out this form. All fonts should be larger than 12- point in power points.
• When playing a video, if text appears on the screen that is not said aloud by the speaker, please pause the video briefly and read the text from the screen. This will ensure blind and low- vision individuals do not miss valuable information in the videos.
• If using images as part of your presentation, please include Alt Text describing the image included. These Alt Text descriptions should give an individual a sense of what is in the picture.
• If the image is complicated and includes statistical information, please be sure to review the information given in the image as a part of the presentation.
• Images and text used should show high contrast for color accessibility. To assist with this, please use the Web Aim color checker to see if the color combination passes the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) AA Standards for text and images. This will assist individuals experiencing colorblindness.
• When creating word documents for handouts, headers should be used to assist screen readers through documents. A comprehensive guide for accessible word documents can be found here
Sensory Accessibility
• When creating Power Points, care should be taken to avoid constantly running GIFs. If using a GIF, allow it to run for a few times to allow individuals to take in the information. If the GIF will be on screen for a long time, please pause it after a few loops. Information about how to utilize and pause GIFs can be found here Videos and GIFs used should avoid flashing lights in PowerPoints.
• To assist with sensory needs, presenters should avoid switching back and forth between PowerPoints and internet tabs as much as possible. Embedding videos into PowerPoint can help in preventing unnecessary switches. Here is a webpage showing how to embed videos directly into PowerPoint.
Learning Accessibility
• To make information as accessible as possible, line spacing should be set to 1.5 or 2. Additionally, information sent out afterwards should be sent as word documents when possible. Please refer to this webpage when creating any handouts or materials for the presentation.
• To help participants, set clear guidelines at the start of the presentation about when questions will be taken. This will allow the presentation to move smoothly while also encouraging everyone to participate.
• Additionally, when asking questions or utilizing polls through Zoom, please allow adequate processing and responding time to ensure everyone can participate.
Assistance Requests
If you need assistance in implementing these guidelines, please contact ga_orientation@bentley.edu.
