Accessibility Considerations for Students With Motor Disabilities

Online courses can offer numerous advantages to students. In order for all students to benefit from these advantages, it is essential to prioritize accessibility needs in all aspects of course design and delivery. This piece focuses on considerations and recommendations for enhancing the accessibility of online courses for students with motor impairments.

Motor impairments, also referred to as physical or motor disabilities, can “include weakness and limitations of muscular control (such as involuntary movements including tremors, lack of coordination, or paralysis), limitations of sensation, joint disorders (such as arthritis), pain that impedes movement, and missing limbs” (W3C Web Accessibility Initiative [WAI], 2024, para. 1). Motor impairment can be the result of a permanent condition, such as cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury (TBI), or the absence or loss of a limb. Temporary motor impairments or limitations can also occur as a result of injuries, medical procedures, or situational factors.

Motor impairments are common among adults in the United States. A 2018 report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for example, indicates that 13.7% of adults have a motor disability, with even higher rates observed when considering middle-aged and older adults specifically (Okoro et al., 2018).

All motor impairments and limitations, but especially those impacting upper extremities, can impact a user’s ability to navigate web-based content. Navigating web-based content requires precise fine motor movements in order to perform desired actions without accidentally triggering unwanted outcomes or additional actions. Users with motor impairments may have limited or no control over their hand movements, making mouse/trackpad and touch-based navigation difficult, if not impossible.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provide an essential foundation for developing online content that all users can engage with. These guidelines are organized around four core principles:

• Perceivable: This principle specifies that web content cannot be invisible to all of a user’s senses.
• Operable: This principle specifies that web content user interface features and navigational mechanisms must require actions that users can perform.
• Understandable: This principle specifies that web content—including both information and functionality— must be presented in a way that users can comprehend.
• Robust: This principle specifies that web content must be compatible with a wide range of current—and future—technologies.

When considering individuals with mobility limitations or impairments, the operable principle and the guidelines encompassed within it are particularly applicable. These guidelines include the following:

• Keyboard accessible: Users must be able to navigate through and interact with content using a keyboard interface.
• Enough time: Users must be given adequate time to engage with content and complete related tasks. 
• Seizures and physical reactions: Ideally, flashing content, which can trigger physical reactions such as seizures, should be avoided entirely. If flashing content must be used, it must include fewer than three flashes per second. It is also recommended that users be able to disable motions that are triggered by interaction (e.g., an image that appears and moves either vertically or horizontally over other page elements as a user scrolls). 
• Navigable: Page design should enable users to navigate and locate content with ease.
• Input modalities: Page design should allow content and functionality to be accessed through mouse-alternative assistive technology beyond keyboard interfaces, such as voice control or switches.

Many individuals with motor impairments depend on assistive technology. When using a screen reader or keyboard control, however, a user may not have the same level of control as a mouse user. For example, an individual using assistive technology to engage with a course webpage may not be able to skip over large blocks of content by scrolling; instead, they may need to move through each element to progress. The following design recommendations can not only improve online course experiences for individuals who access content through assistive technology but also provide benefits for the broader student population.

The heading structure of a webpage determines the order of elements that are selected through keyboard control. Accordingly, headings must be used intentionally and should not skip levels. For example, in the HTML structure for pages in the Canvas learning management system, page titles are set at the first heading level (h1). Accordingly, the headers added to a Canvas page should begin at the second heading level (h2). Additional page sections of equal weight or importance should also begin with an h2 heading, but any subsections should be set to h3. 

Page element descriptions enable users to choose how they engage with the content (e.g., determining if they want to view content now or return to it after viewing a different element) and support motor planning. For example, providing detailed text introductions for videos and corresponding materials can help students determine whether they want to download and review the materials before or after watching the videos. 

Ensuring adequate sizing and spacing for page elements gives users more control over screen interactions. Tightly clustering elements can make it difficult for switch users in particular to avoid unintentionally triggering adjacent elements as they navigate. For specific guidelines, review the following WCAG success criteria overviews:

• WCAG success criterion 2.5.5: Target Size (Enhanced)
• WCAG success criterion 2.5.8: Target Size (Minimum)

Interactive elements can increase engagement and improve the overall experience for students. However, elements that require users to perform multiple actions to access content can also be taxing, especially for users with motor impairments. When designing course content pages and assessments, consider options for reducing the number of actions needed to engage with the material successfully. For example, if a page presents an interactive list of procedural steps and accompanying examples, it may be preferable to have students navigate through the steps one by one. However, there may also be opportunities for consolidating some of the information provided (e.g., presenting each step and its accompanying example simultaneously rather than requiring separate actions to review each element).  

While GIFs can be useful for conveying visual information, it is essential that they can be paused or stopped. If such functionality is not available, static images, sets of images, or brief videos can be effective alternatives.

Okoro, C. A., Hollis, N. D., Cyrus, A. C., & Griffin-Blake, S. (2018). Prevalence of disabilities and health care access by disability status and type among adults — United States, 2016. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 67(32), 882–887.

W3C Web Accessibility Initiative. (n.d.) Diverse abilities and barriers: Physical.