Alternate Format
What is Alternate Format?
Alternate Format is the process of making information available in an accessible format for individuals with visual and other print-related disabilities. The most common formats we convert material into is PDF, Word, and .Kesi (Kurzweil). This service is available through the Disability Resource Center (DRC) at no cost to students at UIC.
Important Information About Alternate Format Services:
- An alternate format request form must be submitted every semester
- Turn-around time for this service can be up to 15 business days from the date the form is received by the alternate format team, depending on the nature of the request, but most requests can be fulfilled within 5 business days
- The alternate format team will verify the accessibility of the course readings with instructors
- If you do not see course readings uploaded you expect, email accesstext@uic.edu immediately
- Requested course materials due prior to DRC receipt of request form will be converted only if the student requests past material be converted for the purpose of cumulative midterms/finals
If you have any questions or comments about alternate format procedures, you can contact the alternate format team via email at accesstext@uic.edu
Request Alternate Format
Steps to Get Course Readings in an Alternate Format:
- Schedule a meeting with a DRC Disability Specialist to determine whether alternate format is an appropriate accommodation for your documented disability and which format best fits your needs. Check out our Registration Page for more information.
- Submit the Alternate Format Request Form
- Create a Box account or a Kurzweil 3000 account (the registration link for Kurzweil will be provided by your disability services specialist or the alternate format team)
- Textbooks will be uploaded to your specified account as they become available
- Courses with PDF readings will be verified by the alternate format team for accessibility with the instructors. Depending on the requested format, the PDF readings will be converted and uploaded for students onto Kurzweil or Box by Friday evening before the week the reading are required by the course.
- Example: Week 4 readings will be uploaded by Friday of week
Please Note:
If you do not see requested course readings on Kurzweil or Box by the time you need it, contact the alternate format team immediately via email at accesstext@uic.edu.
If you need assistance with any of these steps you can contact the alternate format team via email accesstext@uic.edu
Alternate Format FAQs
What is my first step if I need Alternate Format Services at UIC?
Schedule a meeting with a DRC Disability Specialist to determine whether alternate format is an appropriate accommodation for your documented disability and which format best fits your needs. Check out our Registration Page for more information.
Request Alternate Format Every Semester
- Complete the Alternate Format Request Form. Submitting the form will start the process to convert course material into an alternate format.
- If you require textbooks in an alternate format, gather the book title and ISBN for each textbook and include this information in your request. If you don’t know this information, you can look it up on the UIC Bookstore website.
- If you indicate on the request form that you need assigned course readings converted, we will reach out to your instructors to verify their accessibility and convert them as needed.
**Please note that it may take up to 15 business days to convert course materials and keep in mind that it is never too early before the semester begins to put in a request!
If you need assistance with this step, contact our alternate format team at accesstext@uic.edu
If you are a Kurzweil user:
Alternate format process for Kurzweil Users
- Submit request for alternate format in Kurzweil
- Create a Kurzweil 3000 account
- You’ll find converted course readings on Kurzweil in your “private” folder organized by semester, course, and week (depending on the course structure) as they become available
If you are not a Kurzweil user, make sure that your Box account is set up.
Alternate format process for Box Users
All students have access to a free Box account through UIC.
- Create your Box account
- The alternate format team will create and give you access to a Box folder titled “***Student’s Name Alternate Format”
- Within this folder you’ll find course folders that contain textbooks and/or weekly folders (depending on the course structure) as they become available
Where Do I Find Converted Course Readings?
What to Expect:
The alternate format team will acquire your requested textbooks via publishers or accessible libraries and upload them onto Kurzweil or Box within the course folder or sub course folder as they become available.
What to Expect:
- The alternate format team will verify the compatibility of the course readings with your instructor and if necessary, convert PDF readings to make them compatible with the student’s assistive technology
- If the alternate format team determines that the PDF course readings provided by the instructor are already compatible with the student’s assistive technology, then the alternate format team will not convert or upload these readings
- When your course readings become available on Kurzweil or Box, you’ll find them within the desired course folder within a subfolder titled by week
- PDF readings converted will be uploaded to Kurzweil or Box by Friday evening before the week the reading is needed. Example: Week 4 readings will be uploaded by Friday of week 3
What to Expect:
If the format of your course readings fall outside textbook and PDF readings (such as webpages or education apps), the alternate format team will reach out to you to discuss resources to access these readings in an alternate format.
Blackboard Resources
What is Blackboard Ally and How Do I Use It?
A built in feature on Blackboard called Blackboard Ally offers alternate formats features for course materials. It is available to all students and is a resource for course materials uploaded as digitally created or readable PDFs (PDFs that you can drag your curser along individual lines of text).
- Documents with Blackboard Ally available with have a bold capitalized A and a down arrow to the right of the document title.
- Select the A down arrow icon and select the format you’d like the document converted to (we recommend immersive reader text-to-speech)
- The converted document will open and select the play button in the bottom center of the browser
Supported download formats:
- OCR’d PDF: allows users to make a scanned PDF into a searchable text, enabling users to highlight, add notes, and search the document
- Tagged PDF: allows users to download a PDF that has increased accessibility for screen reader users
- HTML
- ePub
- Electronic Braille
- Audio: allows users to listen to course material in MP3
- Beeline Reader: allows users to adjust color gradient of text to reduce eye strain
- Immersive Reader (requires internet): allows users to set font size/spacing/contrast and converts text to speech with integrated highlighting function and other customized reading settings. (Does not currently support images/tables)
- Text-to-Speech
Supported Browsers
Ally is supported on the same browser as the Learning Management System (LMS) it is accessed from.
- Google Chrome™
- Mozilla Firefox®
- Microsoft Edge®
- Internet Explorer®
- Safari®
Alternate Formats Overview for Blackboard Ally
Blackboard Ally's Built-In Text-to-Speech Format, Immersive Reader
Youtube tutorial demonstrating how to find and access immersive reader (text-to-speech) on Blackboard which allows students to enable text-to-speech on documents uploaded to Blackboard.