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Sandra Watts: So submitting materials to the EL Civics Exchange. What I have here is a PowerPoint that kind of takes us through the basics. And then I'll actually click on to the actual Exchange page later, Karen, so you can see that, too.

And also, besides the basics of submitting after this, kind of take it through my thought process. Because I know I've talked to other Civics people, other people who do Civics curriculum as I do. And apprehension is a part of it. It's like my materials out there for the state? I don't know. So I'll take you through that, too, because I went through that.

Karen Lang: Well, am I still the only attendee?

Sandra Watts: Yeah, you're it. So you got your own private session.

Margaret Teske: Oh, I'm here. I'm here.

Sandra Watts: Oh, well, Margaret. Yeah, but you know me and you know the Exchange.

Karen Lang: [chuckles] Right.

Sandra Watts: Anyway, as for me, so I am the EL Civics curriculum writer for Santa Ana College School of Continuing Education. I also work at Long Beach School for Adults, where I'm the evening lead for the evening ESL program, and I also teach there. And there is my email, which you will see repeated later. And I'll put it in the chat as well, so feel free to contact me any time. I never have a problem with that.

[side conversation]

All right. So I thought I'd start with the basics. What the heck is the EL Civics Exchange? So the Exchange was created by classes in OTAN to enable sharing of materials among institutions. There are so many COAAPs There's a lot of work that goes into this curriculum and making sure that our students learn these skills. And we're all doing it separately. And it's like why reinvent the wheel, isn't having more brains better?

So they created this central area where we can all put materials, get those materials, use them, adapt them, obviously with attribution. Because we do want to credit the people who made them. And we'll talk about that a little bit later. So this was the idea. So the materials are divided into the seven content areas just like the COAAPs

So there's consumer economics, community resources, health, employment, government and law, transition, and workforce training. So those are the areas that you'll see on the site. And like I said, we'll be looking at the site later.

So if you want to use the materials that are already there, you go to the. Exchange you'll find the seven areas. Anything that says active materials, you just click on that to see what's available or what specific COAAP. Because they all have names, like, all right, now, I'm working on 13.6 and 47 point something. You'll see all the numbered COAAPs, and you can download and use.

Again, attribution. Licensing is built into-- licensing and attribution is built into the materials. And in fact, it's one of the requirements to submit your own materials. So, which is great. They're making sure that credit is given. So. So here's the kind of submitting material process, if you want to submit.

On the instructional home page on the site, just below the welcome, there's basically a blue bar that says, "Begin the submission process." You will need to create an account if you don't have one. But it's very easy. And you will see very detailed information and instructions, which, I love because I work off of information.

So giving me detailed instructions on exactly what I need to do and have is a wonderful thing. And if anybody has questions or you want me to slow down, let me know. Because I know I tend to be a fast talker if I'm not teaching. If I'm not teaching ESL, I should say.

Karen Lang: I have a question.

Sandra Watts: Go for it.

Karen Lang: I assume that someone-- it has to be vetted.

Sandra Watts: Your materials will be vetted.

Karen Lang: So if I send something, and-- I see we have Margaret. So like CASAS is going to check and see if you're divulging too little or too much or--

Sandra Watts: Yes, and that's on one of my slides coming up as far as what the two places check for both CASAS and OTAN. Yeah, they will both vet the materials.

Margaret Teske: But there is a rubric that you can follow under the Resources area.

Sandra Watts: Yes, very detailed rubric, and there's a link to it right in the site, which is great.

Karen Lang: You mean a rubric telling this would not be acceptable, don't put this?

Margaret Teske: This is what we're looking for with materials, yeah.

Sandra Watts: Yeah, the positive side. [laughs] They give you the positive side. OK, so you create the account, and then look up your information. So these are the steps. And again, read that rubric. Read the information and instructions first. There are links for the requirements. There's an example.

And what Margaret just mentioned, there's a rubric stating exactly what they're looking for. And it's very detailed, which is nice. But don't let the details scare you either. Because when we write materials for CASAS COAAPs we're following the CASAS rubric.

Karen Lang: OK.

Sandra Watts: Prepare your materials, obviously. Look at that CASAS rubric and remember the leveling because there are five different levels-- beginning low, beginning high, intermediate low, intermediate high, and advance. So if you're submitting student materials, obviously, they need to be leveled for that level of ESL.

Accessibility is key. It's federal law. Anything going up online has to be accessible. More on that later. And on the presentation that follows this, for that, I believe Margaret to co-host for us. And then licensing. Licensing is a requirement, but pretty easy to do with Creative Commons.

Again, if you want information on that, I have resources later in the slideshow. And CASAS and OTAN have lots of resources on this. So that's basically it. You get your account. You prep your materials, and submit.

So here's basics on the content. CASAS will be checking for content when they vet your materials. So follow those rubrics for the task and the level. For student packets, make sure there are instructions for the students, either that or the actual lessons are obvious what the students are going to do. But I've always included directions on each page of my materials.

And here is the rubric. It's called the ELC Exchange Instructional Materials Rubric. The link is right in the Submit Materials page. So literally, all you do is click the link. It'll download that rubric for you. And then you just follow the submission guidelines. They specifically state which document types they can take and the limit on size of the file.

I didn't have any problem doing mine, and my student packets can be 15, 20, 23 pages long. So I did not have any problem with it. All right. Any questions so far, Karen, before I go?

Karen Lang: Well, it just occurred to me that if I want to prepare something for my class, whether or not I want to submit it, that there's a rubric available that's telling me how to fit it into the rubric. That whether--

Sandra Watts: Yeah.

Karen Lang: --submit it or not, if we're working on stuff, we could use this site to make sure we're following the protocol.

Sandra Watts: Yeah, because it'll talk about accessibility guidelines, content guidelines, yeah. And one of the things I've always liked about CASAS rubrics for COAAPs is they're very detailed, but they don't block you in so much that you can't have little freedom.

When they give examples, I love examples, because I love having something to draw off of and get my brain started. But it'll say such as. So even for charts, it'll say such as name, location, et cetera. So it gives you that jumping off point, but you can also have the students look for other things when they're scanning for information and learning that skill, so.

Speaker 4: Sandra, I have a question here from your live audience. "I would like to know if when you submit these packets or instructional materials, does it go through a process through CASAS, or does it just immediately appear in the bank, at the Exchange?"

Sandra Watts: No, it has to be vetted by both CASAS for content and OTAN for accessibility.

Speaker 4: OK, perfect. That's what--

Sandra Watts: And they keep you notified of the process. So once my materials have been vetted for content, I got an email from CASAS, saying, OK, you're fine. We're passing it on to OTAN. And then, after OTAN checked it, then I got an email from OTAN, saying you've been vetted and then they appear. So there is a process.

Speaker 4: They do it for you ultimately and--

Sandra Watts: Yes, mm-hmm.

Speaker 4: Thank you.

Sandra Watts: Yep.

Margaret Teske: And if you need assistance , we're happy to help. Sorry, go ahead.

Karen Lang: When you say they do it for you, meaning if you're missing something, they'll add it?

Margaret Teske: No. [laughs]

Karen Lang: [chuckles]

Sandra Watts: No, they will-- and again, I have I have an example on the slide coming up. But they will actually send you an email saying you need to do revisions with a link to, again, that rubric. And then there's a place where the reviewers notes.

So I assume, now that SPEAKER 5 and Margaret are both here, that they will actually put specific notes in here. Here's where you need to adjust your content or this is not accessible. Hi, Portia.

Speaker 5: Good morning. Just popped in for a little bit, Sandy.

Sandra Watts: Hey.

Speaker 5: Yeah, that's right. You're correct.

Sandra Watts: OK. Yeah, I actually sent an email to OTAN the other day, saying, hey, what if something needs to be adjusted because I got lucky, and my stuff went through without any revisions. So I got very lucky. But I'm like, what if somebody needs revisions? You don't just reject it, right? She's like, no, no, no. You'll get a thing saying, here's the revisions. Here's the notes. Just revise it and resubmit it.

Speaker 5: Yeah we very much want materials, so we're going to help you.

Sandra Watts: Exactly, exactly. Yeah. So those are the content basics. That's what CASAS will be vetting. Accessibility basics. Now I'm pretty good at accessibility, but I don't pretend to be the know-all expert of it. And again, there's a workshop right after this one on accessibility and making your documents accessible, which I will be at believe me. [chuckles]

So accessibility is the law. So these are just some of the basics. All your graphics need to have Alt text. Tables, be careful with tables. You have to have header rows. Blank cells are no good, because a screen reader, some screen readers cannot read blank cells. So I've gone away from tables a lot. I do use them for vocabulary, because I don't have any blank cells.

So headings, headings, headings. Oh, so helpful. [ INAUDIBLE ] Color contrast, this is something you want to watch yourself. Because there are color contrast checkers, but they're not 100%. So just make sure you don't have text that's so light or so similar to the background that it's not going to pass that color.

Both Words and Adobe do have accessibility checkers, which I use constantly. And I use both. When I do a Word document, first, I check that for accessibility. Then when I turn it into a PDF, then I do an accessibility check on that also. Because sometimes, some things for some reason I have certain graphics.

In fact, I was just updating my online communication, and I have this one graphic that for some reason, the Alt text will not carry over into the PDF, so I have to re-Alt text it every time. It's very strange, and it's just one picture. Everything else comes across. So those checkers are really, really nice.

Karen Lang: Excuse me, what is Alt text?

Sandra Watts: Alternative text. Whenever you have a picture, you have to attach text to it, so that a person who is visually impaired, their screen reader will read it. So if you have a picture of let's say the logo for Disneyland, although that's a no-no because that's copyright. But a picture, somebody who can see, will just say, oh, that's the logo for Disneyland. It says Disneyland and has Mickey Mouse.

But a person who's visually impaired, unless there's text attached to it, their screen reader will not be-- it'll just say image of, and then nothing. So what you do is you attach text to it that says logo of Disneyland, saying Disneyland and a picture of Mickey Mouse or whatever it is. So then the screen reader will read that.

Now if you have graphics that are just for decoration to make it look pretty, you can actually mark that also. You just say decorative image, and the screen reader will ignore it. We're good?

Speaker 4: I have a question about, you said that the screen reader won't read a decorative image?

Sandra Watts: As far as I know.

Speaker 4: OK, so is that a key code word so that it won't scan it and read it for the person?

Sandra Watts: Margaret might be a better one to answer this. She knows more than I do.

Margaret Teske: Anthony does, too. No, it skips it. It skips it.

Speaker 6: Yeah, actually, typically when you come to the Alt text feature, it gives you the option to mark the graphics. So check a box as a decorative image. And then what the screen reader will do, is because there's no Alt text, it will just tell the person that the graphic is just decorative text. You can just basically skip over it.

But it does indicate that it's decorative. So not that it's-- because if you don't put any Alt text and don't check the box, then there's nothing there. And so then the person won't know.

Speaker 4: That there's decorative text.

Speaker 6: Well, they won't know that there's actually a graphic there.

Speaker 4: OK.

Sandra Watts: So it just states that there's a decorative image there and that's it.

Speaker 6: Exactly.

Sandra Watts: OK, good to know. Hey, I learned something new in my own workshop. I always like that. OK. So licensing. This is part of the requirement. OTAN and CASAS requires that you have Creative Commons license on your material. This is to protect everybody basically.

Again, there's a link here in the presentation to Creative Commons. They make it pretty easy just to pick a license. This is actually a screenshot from what's at the bottom of my materials. And I just have links here. This links to my admin page at my school.

I figured that was fair because they're the ones paying me to write the curriculum. And then the Creative Commons license. I also took the image of what kind of Creative Commons license I have, and this is also linked to the license.

So again, this is a requirement. And again, I've got a resource slide on here that I'll show you what to look at for these kind of things. And I believe Penny Pearson is doing some-- I don't know, this weekend, right? She's the one who walked me through my first licensing, so.

Speaker 6: She had a session yesterday, Sandy.

Sandra Watts: Yeah, yesterday. I know, I wanted to make it, but I was working. [chuckles]

Speaker 6: Yeah. OTAN and CASAS for that matter, but we can help you, walk you through the licensing piece of it to make sure you understand. I mean, one thing that's important about this particular license-- because there are many licenses that are out there, right? So but we chose this one in particular for a few things.

One is that according to this license, so basically what it says is that all of these EL Civics materials can't be used for commercial purposes. So you can't go out on the street and sell EL Civics materials or teachers pay teachers or anything like that. So everything is non-commercial between agencies or from agency to agency.

And then another important feature of this license is that this license basically allows the next agency to adapt your original Civics materials in the way that they see fit. How are they going to-- they might want to tweak it a bit for their agency. For sure, for example, like, they'll want to change the name. so instead of Mount SAC it's for Mount Diablo.

And sometimes, as we all develop these materials, Civics materials, sometimes, they tend to be sort of localized right to our San Diego area or the LA area or the San Francisco area or wherever. So there may be some of those geographic references that we would want to change for our location in the state.

But this license will let you do that. So it's not like you just take the materials, and you have to use them as is. You can adapt them for however you see fit for your local area, references to local businesses, or organizations, or whatever. And maybe you don't want to use everything that's set up in a packet. Maybe you just want to use like pieces of it, or modules of it, or something like that.

So that's what this license allows you to do, is you can adapt it as you see fit. The one other thing about this license, though, is that you do have to give credit to the original agency. So in my work at Mount Diablo, but I'm using these Mount SAC materials. That I want to put somewhere that on the Mount Diablo materials, that these materials originally came from Mount SAC So we're giving credit to the creator of the original materials.

So all of that is sort of baked into that license there, and that's why between CASAS and OTAN, when we have those discussions, we wanted to make sure that we provided a license that gave everybody these sort of freedoms to do with the materials as they see fit. But within certain limitations. So don't sell them or use them for commercial purposes or anything like that.

Sandra Watts: Exactly.

Speaker 6: Yeah, it's a nice sort of compact graphic, a nice compact license that kind of packs a lot of punch. So that's what we're aiming for here.

Sandra Watts: Yeah, and the particular materials that I put on the Exchange actually have notes on there because I adapted a couple of things from my other job. And so I actually put that right on the page, adapted with permission from da da da. OK. So anyway, so yeah. So you just attribute somebody else, adapted from.

And then like Anthony said, you can tweak it anyway, which is great. Because some of the COAAPs have a resource guide. And I actually use real places in the community that the students could go to if they need help with certain things. And so obviously, that would be a page that you'd want to change and make it specific to your community.

So that being able to adapt materials is a huge, huge. I mean, I dap stuff. I update stuff almost every year, depending on what's needed. Like, I'm going in and adapting online communication right now because I have a couple of COVID-specific issues in that.

And since we've lost that since we're not doing table six feet apart in restaurants anymore, obviously, I'm going to be adapting that. So even your own stuff, you adapt from your ear, so. So that's the basic on Creative Commons. It's pretty easy to do.

So after you submit, so here's, Karen, what you and I were talking about. So CASAS will review your material for content and levels. And again, they have that rubric that you can look at. And Margaret also uploaded it in the chat, if you'd like it right now. Then it goes to OTAN for accessibility.

If your materials need changes, then you'll actually get a message from either CASAS or OTAN, saying, your materials need revisions. Here are the notes that the reviewer puts on what revisions you need, and then you just make those edits or changes and then you resubmit it. So they will get you through every step of the process.

Speaker 4: We have another participant.

Speaker 7: I'm sorry.

Speaker 6: No worries. [ INAUDIBLE ]

Sandra Watts: You'll have to shoot me an email, so I can get you the PowerPoint.

Speaker 6: OK.

Sandra Watts: Yeah, so this is what happens after you submit.

Speaker 4: The recordings and everything will be online, right? The recordings and the links that are shared?

Speaker 6: We'll work on making those available.

Speaker 4: OK [ INAUDIBLE ]

Sandra Watts: Yeah, I actually have this on a-- actually uploaded this to Google as well. So this is also a Google slide, so I can give anybody who needs the link. I've already checked that. OK, so here's there's the me part, the what I went through part.

Because I was very apprehensive about putting my materials on a statewide site, where everybody would see them and judge them. So this was part of my process. Is my stuff good enough? What if it's really not very good? Will I be judged if they find errors or accessibility problems? What will CASAS and OTAN think? I mean, these are the experts, and I'm just a little curriculum writer.

So and then are there requirements too much? Is this going to be way too much, and I'll freak out. So this is what I went through, and this is what I'm trying to get out. This is one of the important messages that I'm trying to get out there to other Civics writers, is here's what I discovered. CASAS and OTAN are absolutely thrilled to have submitted materials. They will help you with whatever you need.

If you have questions, ask. They're going to help. They want this Exchange to really be full and robust and something we can all share. And us sharing and adapting and brainstorming, things just get better. All this stuff just gets better with more brains and more materials and more stuff out there and more resources.

Depending on the institution. I don't know if you have a specific curriculum writer or if teachers are doing some of their own curriculum, but we're limited on time. I mean, I'm a curriculum writer, but I'm part time. So and to get good materials, it takes some work and some hours, especially now that a lot of us-- I write materials for in-person and hybrid and remote online and Zoom classes.

So everything has to be accessible. I have to have assessments that work for in-person classes, assessments that work for remote assessments, where they're done face-to-face, online. So all of that takes a lot of time. So I think the more that we can share materials, of course, most of us, like Anthony said, are going to do some adaptations.

But to have the basic materials there, where the bulk of that work is done, and that you only have to adapt rather than write completely from scratch, is just a huge help. And frankly like I said, getting ideas from people who look at things differently. I love brainstorming with other teachers.

In fact, we used to have communities of practice at my school where I would go in and take the lessons I was working on and pass them out to the teachers who were teaching those levels and get feedback. And it was extremely helpful, getting feedback from other people. Other people looking at my materials and saying, hey, have you thought about this, or what about this? Love it. Absolutely love it.

Karen Lang: I like the idea of that a lot of people are looking at stuff and that there it's an Exchange, because I'm teaching online. I use online materials that show up with mistakes in them, that should be highly vetted. And I'm like, I'm using something called Edmentum. But it's got mistakes.

That it's used in the GED program. And I'm like, who's catching these mistakes? And so in a presentation yesterday, a website was recommended, and the example from the website had a mistake in the grammar. That I was like, is anyone going to talk about what's right in front of us on the screen? And nobody did.

Sandra Watts: Wow.

Karen Lang: The idea that someone's looking, and if I did something that's questionable, somebody say, what did you mean here?

Sandra Watts: Yeah, no, and it's a great idea. In fact, my materials, I think it was a couple of months after I submitted them, and Margaret had gotten a question from an instructor in their school, saying, first of all, I love your materials. But what about this on page 13 or something?

And I was freaking out, because I was like, oh my God. I made a mistake, and I turned them into the Exchange. And then I looked at it, and I wrote Margaret back. And I said, no, actually that was on purpose. Because the student who was supposed to answer know it's not correct.

[laughter]

But it scared the heck out of me. You know how it is? You put something up, like I put stuff on our employee internet, and then you find one typo. Right? But yeah, I totally agree with you on the whole grammar thing. I'm a grammar nerd. So when I see those grammar mistakes on authentic materials, it's like, you know if you teach online, like, I love the idea of using YouTube videos.

Like and this or for that different kind of thing. But you got to vet that whole video to the end, word by word. Because I've gone through videos where the last 20 seconds, there's this huge mistake. I'm like, OK, well, I can't use that.

Speaker 5: Hey, Sandy?

Sandra Watts: Hey.

Speaker 5: One little comment. Sometimes, when you have a document that's not accessible and you work on it to make it accessible, you don't catch every formatting change. So like I'll have looked at the document five times, I go back, and then there's not a space between words and certain places because the formatting changed. So and the good thing about the materials is they're all editable. So when you find those things, if you're using them, you got a great gift. It's not too hard to just go out, go in and make those little corrections.

Sandra Watts: Yeah, and Rita [ INAUDIBLE ] who you probably over at SEC, our sister school, she proofreads for me. And I mean, she is one of the best proofreader I have ever seen in my life. She's like, there's a comma missing on page 13 between word seven and word eight.

I mean, that's how precise she is, but even she misses stuff sometimes. We are humans. There's going to be that occasional typo. But yeah, I don't think anybody's going to be up in arms over that.

Margaret Teske: Karen, it's good to know that you can submit in Word, PowerPoint, or PDF. Whatever is easiest for you.

Karen Lang: OK.

Sandra Watts: Yeah, I've always done-- I don't know, did I submit in Word or PDF? Probably Word so people could edit, but--

Margaret Teske: Yeah, that's the easiest, yeah.

Sandra Watts: Yeah.

Margaret Teske: Well, SPEAKER 5 will tell us next session.

Sandra Watts: Exactly. Well, and we're having that Accessibility Checker that it might not be perfect, but it's pretty good.

Margaret Teske: Yeah.

Sandra Watts: It's pretty good. It catches a lot. So yeah.

Speaker 5: Well, and I'm like you, Sandy. I'm not an expert in this, but I can get documents to pass accessibility. There may be better ways of doing things. And I am going to learn them. But for now, I can get them to pass the accessibility check.

Margaret Teske: Sandra, you might show her under the Review button on tab, where Accessibility Checker is, like in PowerPoint right here.

Speaker 4: I think you were reading my mind, Margaret. That was my next question. [chuckles]

Margaret Teske: You know how to do that under review?

Sandra Watts: Hold on. I usually go--

Margaret Teske: Oh, you go a different way.

Sandra Watts: Yeah.

Margaret Teske: Oh, it's very easy you go to the Review tab.

Sandra Watts: OK.

Margaret Teske: And check accessibility over on the left.

Sandra Watts: OK. Are you watching this, Karen? Can you see it OK? [ INAUDIBLE ]

Margaret Teske: Same thing in Word. You go to Review, and--

Sandra Watts: And then see where it says Check Accessibility.

Speaker 4: That's awesome. Wow, it's built-in now.

Sandra Watts: Oh, I'm missing Alt text on one.

Speaker 6: Yeah. [chuckles]

Margaret Teske: See?

Sandra Watts: Oh, good Lord. OK, well, that's just because I didn't put a subtitle there. Hello? OK.

Speaker 4: Part of the--

Sandra Watts: Oh, I forgot my Alt text on my picture? Really?

Margaret Teske: So show her how to do that. That's really easy. Just show her how to do that. Super easy.

Sandra Watts: All right, so I right clicked on my picture. And here it says, Edit Alt text.

Speaker 4: Oh.

Sandra Watts: And then here we go.

Speaker 4: I had no idea [ INAUDIBLE ]

Sandra Watts: Sandra Watts head and shoulders.

Speaker 4: Settings, but now, it's part of the text bar.

Speaker 6: Yeah, it's all right there.

Sandra Watts: So now, when a screen reader gets to this, you don't have to say picture of. The screen reader automatically does that. So it'll say image of Sandra Watts head and shoulders.

Margaret Teske: Smiling.

Sandra Watts: OK.

Karen Lang: Does it show for--

Speaker 5: With sunglasses on her head.

Sandra Watts: OK.

Karen Lang: Does it show for everyone or only for the person--

Sandra Watts: It just comes out with the screen readers. Yeah.

Karen Lang: Because I have seen things where it says picture of dog, and you're thinking, I knew that was a picture of a dog.

[laughter]

Sandra Watts: I've noticed, sometimes, when you--

Speaker 4: I think you hover over the picture, right?

Sandra Watts: Just take that out.

Speaker 6: Actually, that's a title.

Speaker 4: OK.

Speaker 6: Yes, there are a couple of features, so when you-- yeah, if you bring your cursor over the graphic, if the person has added a title, which is separate from the Alt text, then that's sort of a shorthand title. Name a--

Margaret Teske: A caption?

Sandra Watts: A caption, yeah.

Speaker 6: It's not quite though, because a caption is actually what will show up either above or below the graphic.

Sandra Watts: Oh, that's right.

Speaker 6: But the title is when you scroll your mouse or scroll your cursor over it, and it lands over the graphic that you'll get a title. So I mean, you can do that. You don't have to do that. But sometimes, even those of us who don't have visual impairments, it's kind of nice to just see what's the name of this thing or whatever. So yeah.

Speaker 4: Yes.

Sandra Watts: And you can always check it. And here's when you have the Alt text open, you see this little box down here, where it says mark as decorative.

Speaker 6: Right.

Sandra Watts: And if you hover over it, it'll tell you about what is marked as decorative. So if I just mark this as decorative, then see the Alt text goes away, and the screen reader will just skip it.

Speaker 4: [ INAUDIBLE ] that's the check mark there.

Speaker 6: Yeah.

Speaker 4: OK.

Speaker 6: It [ INAUDIBLE ] a box of some sort.

Sandra Watts: Yeah, you just check the little mark as decorative.

Speaker 5: So that's the creator's decision as to whether or not that information is of importance or if it's just there to make the--

Sandra Watts: Yeah, like on my title pages for each task, I put a picture because it's pretty. But like when I do vocabulary, obviously, I want those images to be Alt texted, because that's the vocabulary, [chuckles] so.

Speaker 4: Good point.

Karen Lang: But you're saying that what you just put in is only viewable by the person who needs the help.

Sandra Watts: Yes, everybody else will just be looking at the picture. But if a visually impaired person has a screen reader on, it will describe the picture. It'll say the Alt text that I put. It'll say image of, and then read the Alt text.

Speaker 5: [ INAUDIBLE ] Is that picture in line with text?

Sandra Watts: Oh, probably not.

Speaker 4: I had a question about the screen reader, where it's [ INAUDIBLE ]

Sandra Watts: Well, screen readers are-- I don't have a screen reader personally.

Speaker 4: OK.

Sandra Watts: Yeah, people who have screen readers put them on the computer.

Speaker 4: It's like a software?

Speaker 6: Yeah, it's installed like an app. Yeah, and actually on the OTAN website, we do have a few recommendations for screen readers. There's a very popular one, NVDA. And actually, sometimes, we recommend for people just put it on your machine, put it on your device, and just practice with it. And so then you get the experience of what somebody who needs a screen reader, what they're relying on to work through your materials.

So not only the graphics, but also the text. And then it gets into reading order. So we basically all know how we read. We start at the top, left to right, top to bottom. So when you're designing your materials, that's also an important consideration as well. Because you don't want the person jumping all over the page. Like you want the person to be able to work through the material in the order that we typically work through the material. So yeah.

Sandra Watts: I've just discovered how the heck do I put this picture in line.

Speaker 5: I think you don't have to because your text is in that other section.

Sandra Watts: OK.

Speaker 5: It would have been a warning--

Sandra Watts: I'm just realizing that when I click on the picture in Word, it gives me the option of putting it in line or wherever. This is not.

Speaker 5: It would give you an error message. I just made the comment so you could comment on in line with that.

Sandra Watts: You did.

Speaker 5: Sorry about that.

Sandra Watts: Of course, you're just going to hassle me just a little better. [ INAUDIBLE ]

Speaker 5: Well, I hope you'll do the same for me.

Sandra Watts: There you go.

Karen Lang: OK, I actually-- well, I don't know. This is fascinating, and I got my own workshop.

Sandra Watts: Exactly.

Karen Lang: Which an interaction.

Sandra Watts: And you've got four experts sitting in the room.

Karen Lang: I did notice that.

Sandra Watts: I didn't count myself.

Speaker 5: Four blind leading the blind.

Karen Lang: Wait, so are we done in 10 minutes? My clock--

Sandra Watts: Oh, yeah. Let me get through this. OK, so this is, by the way, Karen, I did put this whole PowerPoint in the chat if you want to get it from there.

Margaret Teske: I took it.

Sandra Watts: Or I'll put my email back up again also so you can do that. But these are all links. This is to the EL Civics page. This is to OTAN. Here's Penny Pearson's OTAN page because she's got videos, trainings on accessibility and on licensing. Both. If you go to Creative Commons, there's a share your work page, which will take you through the licensing thing. You can get the little logos, which is the picture of a license, like this that I showed you.

Oops. Didn't mean to move that. So you can actually get those logos and link to it. And there's Get Savvy. They have a whole tutorial on license. And have you ever seen Open Attribution Builder?

Karen Lang: No.

Sandra Watts: OK, I actually have it open on my thing here because I use it a lot. Can you see this?

Speaker 4: I see your PowerPoint.

Sandra Watts: Oh, you still see my PowerPoint? [ INAUDIBLE ] little worried I didn't stop sharing.

Karen Lang: You know what I'm really interested in is how I can use the stuff. Because our stuff is so old.

Sandra Watts: Oh, OK. OK, well, let me get you over to the site then. So this is just an open-- this Open Attribution Builder is just really handy to make the attribution links for you. So like I said, there's a link to that in my PowerPoint. So if you've got the PowerPoint, you're good there.

Karen Lang: I get that part.

Sandra Watts: Let me go to the actual slide.

Karen Lang: I'm talking to you.

[laughs]

Sandra Watts: Let me go to the actual site. Now let me share. So here we are at the California EL Civics Exchange. There are links to this on both the OTAN site and the CASAS site. And also in my PowerPoint, I put a link in there. So this is the main, the home page for the Exchange.

So here are the materials that are already in the Exchange. So let's say you're looking for employment materials, right here. Can you see where it says three active materials?

Karen Lang: Mm-hmm.

Sandra Watts: If you click on that, it will tell you-- so for COAAP 32, nothing. For COAAP 33, there are two materials available. So you can click on that and see what's available. So there's something from Mount Diablo and something from El Monte-Rosemead.

Karen Lang: What is COAAP? What do those numbers mean? 33?

Sandra Watts: The numbers are which content area it is. So 33 is employment. 33.2 has specific tasks attached to it.

Karen Lang: Because I'm used to seeing the things that are like 4.2.1. That's what I'm used to. I've never seen one with--

Sandra Watts: Oh, those are the descriptors for the skills.

Speaker 6: The CASAS competencies.

Sandra Watts: The CASAS is competencies. These numbers are for the Civics lessons.

Karen Lang: So I'm a teacher. So by the time they reach me, maybe that's been removed?

Sandra Watts: That's up to your school. I mean, I've always used the COAAP numbers on my materials, so everybody knows exactly what we're doing. And to keep them straight because I write a lot our material.

Speaker 6: Karen, so is [ INAUDIBLE ] whose your [ INAUDIBLE ]

Karen Lang: It's Kristen.

Speaker 6: Who?

Karen Lang: Kristen Persley is our Civics person.

Speaker 6: Oh, OK. So Kristen is a good person. You know Kristen, may be the person who would kind of start here, and take a look at the materials, and then work with all of you back at West Contra Costa to-- how are you going to further develop these materials for your-- when you all do the Civic Objectives at your school.

Because, again, if you're going to borrow like from El Monte-Rosemead, which is down in Southern California, you may need to do some adjustment for the Bay Area or for West Contra Costa So when we were talking about earlier about adapting the materials, these are just here to sort of review, and you can download them, and then use them as you wish. But first, we need to get you to this place, where as Sandy is showing us, where you're able to actually access the materials.

Karen Lang: Right. Well, the one that we're struggling with right now is environment and disaster prep, which I don't see there.

Speaker 6: So that's probably a different--

Sandra Watts: Yeah, you'll have to look at the community resources, right?

Speaker 6: I think so, yeah. Number 11 or--

Sandra Watts: There's emergency services.

Speaker 4: 16 is Emergency Assistance.

Speaker 6: Yeah.

Sandra Watts: Emergency Assistance, yeah. There's different ones. I actually wrote materials on the disaster one, so.

Karen Lang: These are much more. They're not like by the bigger-- they're more detailed, it looks like. More broken down, I mean.

Sandra Watts: Under Community, there's a lot of things under Community Resources. A lot of different things, Family Resource, DMV Resources, Online Resources, Emergency Resources. Education is under here. Online communication, this is my materials right here.

Speaker 4: Submissions that could be there [ INAUDIBLE ]

Speaker 6: Yeah, right. So that's one of the things is that we're trying to encourage more agencies. Well, we kind of have two things. So one is that we do-- across the board, we want agencies to turn in their materials, right. But we also know that across the state, that many agencies tend to sort of gravitate to specific COAAPs, right, the employment ones, the education, the school ones, visiting the doctor, medical appointments, all that kind of stuff.

So we are also asking agencies that if you have the materials for the COAAPs apps that are used a lot, turn those ones in first. Because we know that a lot of folks, they would benefit a lot of agencies because everybody is sort of focusing on this COAAPs.

Sandra Watts: Yeah, our student needs assessment every year. There are specific areas, content areas, that get a lot of votes every single time.

Speaker 6: Yeah, right.

Sandra Watts: Just that's what the students want, so.

Speaker 6: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Karen Lang: So for example, the one on schools, but we have something that's on schools. And that was recently revamped by a person who's ESL adult teacher and a K12 teacher and his wife is a K12 teacher.

Sandra Watts: Oh, nice.

Karen Lang: And they were recently redone, so that would be a good one for me to suggest. Kristen, maybe we should submit that because it's new material.

Sandra Watts: Yeah, I mean, we really want to encourage people. And like I said, that's the reason a big part-- the reason part of my PowerPoint was the fact that I went through a lot of apprehension. It's like, am I going to be judged on the materials? And basically, the reaction I got was, thank you, and we appreciate it, do you have any questions, and we're here to help you. So that was very reassuring. [chuckles]

Speaker 4: Sandy, is it a mix of 231 and 243 COAAPs in there?

Sandra Watts: Yes, all the COAAPs are in there, so you would have to look up which one it is. And most agencies actually choose their COAAPs. So agencies looking for let's say 33. They would know that's underemployment, and they would look under employment and see if there's anything under 33. Yeah, so they know.

And those of us who work with Civics a lot, we have a lot of these numbers memorized. [chuckles] So yeah, we would definitely know where to look for. Oh, by the way, my in person participant, can I say hi, and can I get your name?

Speaker 4: Oh, Maria. Maria--

Sandra Watts: Hi, Maria. Nice to see you.

Speaker 4: I'm from the El Monte-Rosemead Adult School

Sandra Watts: Oh, OK. So you're a contributor.

Speaker 4: Well, not me personally, but I know who is.

Sandra Watts: Well, there you go. Encourage them to share more. Lori asked me every two or three months. Lori says, when you put more up on the Exchange? So.

Speaker 4: Yeah, we have some good stuff. We had a TOSA that's her job, is to create these materials, and she's done a fabulous job.

Sandra Watts: Yeah, that's me. I'm just an EL Civics curriculum writer for Santa Ana right now. So that's pretty much what I do all the time. And a lot of our stuff a few years ago was really like out of date. We didn't have that much. So I've really been trying to get more stuff.

Margaret Teske: So we need more from you guys.

Sandra Watts: Pardon?

Margaret Teske: We need more from you, Sandra.

Sandra Watts: I know. And I promise I will. The problem is with my schedule. I have to do this on my own time.

Margaret Teske: Right.

Sandra Watts: Because my boss is going to be like, you're doing stuff for CASAS and not us? So the summer--

Margaret Teske: It's for the state. It's for the state. It's not for--

Sandra Watts: Well, I know. Well, I know for the state. But still, they're paying me to do it for them, so.

Margaret Teske: From WIOA II dollars, which is--

Sandra Watts: So yeah. Yeah, so I keep telling them, hey, Santa Anna College gets kudos for this.

Margaret Teske: That's right.

Sandra Watts: But during the summer I have a much lighter schedule, so that's one of my plans is getting some of this stuff prepped starting in June, so.

Margaret Teske: Well, Karen, you're welcome to come to our presentation that follows this if you want to learn more.

Karen Lang: What's the presentation that follows this?

Margaret Teske: Making materials accessible.

Karen Lang: Oh, OK. Well, let me see what I have checked on my schedule. And I have to say that starting with engaging back and forth or by 8:40 in the morning on a Saturday was really good because my brain was just overloaded yesterday.

Margaret Teske: Yeah, it can be overwhelming, yeah.

Karen Lang: That's the only thing that when I came out at the end of the day yesterday, I remembered. Because I used to go in person, and we need little brain breaks or five-minute meditations before-- five-minute-- actually in the schedule, they need like 10 minutes of yoga together before the next event. Because I went to every single thing-- I mean, every single session yesterday. And then--

Sandra Watts: I would have loved to do that, but I was-- yeah, I was working--

Karen Lang: I had to recuperate afterwards.

Sandra Watts: Really.

Speaker 4: Thank you so much.

Sandra Watts: Just last thing. So here's my email again. If anybody wants it or wants to write. Shoot me an email any time. I mean, even if you're interested in brainstorming. OK? I'm always looking for that. And Margaret, Lori, I think Anthony, Neda, they all had my email. So you can always contact them, too, and say what was Sandy's email? [chuckles]

Karen Lang: And you're in Santa Ana?

Sandra Watts: I'm in Santa Ana and Long Beach. For Civics, I'm Santa Ana, yeah.

Speaker 6: All right.

Speaker 4: Thank you so much.

Margaret Teske: Thank you very much and very nice. Very good information.

Karen Lang: Yeah, it was great information. Thank you.