Faculty Resources: Online Course Design

Optical Character Recognition (OCR):

• Definition:  Conversion of images of text (such as a scanned document) into machine-readable text (such as a Word, Excel or text file)
• Why it's important:
  • Screen readers used by blind and visually impaired students can't read the text in image files. 
    • Apps & programs that have OCR capabilities can convert the text in image files to be readable by these screen readers.  
  • OCR tools can convert scanned documents into edit-able formats (such as a Word document).
• How to do it:  Use programs that have OCR capability to present any scanned documents you post online.  Examples:
  • Adobe Acrobat DC (contact IT for access)
  • Microsoft OneNote (available through your college Microsoft 365 account)

For questions about maximizing the accessibility of your courses, contact:

Online courses: 

• Laura Lane-Worley
  • Email: llaneworley@lee.edu
  • Phone: 281-425-6265

Face-to-Face courses:

• K-Leigh Villanueva
  • Email: kvillanueva@lee.edu
  • Phone: 832-556-4069