Getting Started with Panorama for Students in Brightspace

Panorama is a third-party accessibility tool that allows students to access learning materials in alternative file formats to meet their individual needs. Whether a visually impaired user requires text-to-speech narration for easier access to digital content, or if they prefer to read the document in a more convenient web format, Panorama’s alternative formats are a great resource available for course files directly within Brightspace.

Accessing Alternative Formats

Please note, should you need a remediated document for disability related reasons, please reach out to the Office of Student Accessibility Services (email: sasfrntd@usc.edu).

  1. Click on Content on the Navbar.
This image shows "Content" as the third option on the navbar.
  1. Click on the Alternative Formats icon next to a course file to display the list of available resources. Refer to the next section for a description of each alternative file format.
This image shows an accessibility icon located to the right of a file on the "Content" page.
Alternative Format Definitions

Below is the list of available Panorama Alternative Formats:

  • Source File: View the document in its original format, suitable for download viewing.
  • PDF: View the document in PDF format, suitable for both online and download viewing.
  • Text File: View the document in a pure text format without any formatting styles, suitable for both online and download viewing.
  • Immersive Reader: Allows for customizations to text preferences, grammar options, and reading preferences while following along with the audio playback.
  • Gradient Reader: Enhances visual word recognition when reading by providing a guiding color gradient.
  • EPUB: View the document in the ebook format, suitable for any ebook reader application.
  • Braille: View the document in the braille grade 2 format, suitable for download viewing (a braille reader is required).
  • Audio Podcast: Audio playback for documents, suitable for both online and download listening.
  • Enhanced HTML: HTML documents will be displayed in a dedicated tab to customize the document’s appearance using the Website Accessibility tool.
  • OCR: Convert images with text into machine-encoded text that can be searched and read by screen readers. Refer to the OCR section below for an overview of the available OCR formats.
  • Math Formats: Convert documents containing math equations into LaTeX, Math Text (i.e., numbers and symbols to words), or MP3 files. Refer to the Math Formats section below for an overview of the available Math formats.
  • Language Translation: Translate a document automatically to over 100 languages, which can be downloaded.
This image shows the "Alternative Formats" menu with each of the alternative formats listed above.
OCR Formats
  • OCR Overlaid Tagged PDF: Generate a tagged PDF that allows for selectable text overlaid on the original document.
  • OCR Reconstructed DOCX: Generate a new DOCX file from scanned documents or images.
  • OCR Reconstructed Tagged PDF: Generate a new tagged PDF from scanned documents or images.
  • OCR Reconstructed HTML: Generate a new HTML file from scanned documents or images.
  • OCR Text: Recommended for those who prefer plain text, the OCR tool extracts and displays text within images and GIFs as a TXT file.
  • OCR Immersive Reader: use the immersive reader for OCR content.
  • OCR Audio: Extract text within images and GIFs into an MP3 text-to-speech audio player.
This image shows the "Alternative Formats" menu with each of the OCR alternative formats listed above.
Math Formats
  • Latex: Convert documents into LaTeX document format.
  • Math Text: Convert documents into printed English, including numbers and symbols.
  • Math Audio: Convert documents to MP3.
  • MathML: Extract mathematical equations from documents and convert them into HTML files.
This image shows the "Alternative Formats" menu with each of the Math alternative formats listed above.

Additional Resources