If you’re an educator, you're probably familiar with the concept of accessibility, which often manifests in the classroom in the form of accommodations requests to meet specific students' needs. If you're an online educator, you've hopefully heard about web accessibility, which requires adhering to specific guidelines when designing and providing materials via the web, reducing the need for student accommodations by anticipating and removing potential barriers to learning.
Hopefully, your institution is taking steps to ensure your online courses meet web accessibility requirements. (Sidebar: If no one at your institution is talking about accessibility, connect with your administrators ASAP!) Navigating the mountain of available resources on accessibility can feel like a daunting task. And, as an instructor, it might feel like accessibility is out of your control or not in your purview. However, you can influence the accessibility of your course materials and you must consider accessibility in every phase of your course, from design to teaching and assessment. Keep the following principles in mind, and you’ll be on your way to creating more inclusive courses for online learners.
Break it down. Thoughtfully organize your materials so that students can navigate the content with ease and focus on the most important topics. Eliminate extraneous information, break long documents and videos into logical sections, and use consistent formats and naming conventions for course content.
Give them time. Make sure that students have plenty of notice for major assignments, avoid unnecessary gating or locking of materials, and set reasonable time limits on exams and quizzes. Accommodations and extensions can always be provided for students who need them, but considering student circumstances in advance can save you (and your students) time and pain later on.
Keep it simple. The written language used in your online course should reflect spoken English, not complex, academic English. Using accessible language will benefit not only students who may have learning disabilities, but also nonnative English speakers. If students have to struggle to simply understand instructions, their learning and performance may suffer.
Show and tell. Provide alternatives to visual-only and audio-only content. Hyperlinked text should be descriptive instead of vague. Visual content such as images, charts, and tables require text descriptions (alt text); videos require captions and transcripts. When narrating videos, describe your actions and the on-screen content instead of pointing with your cursor or using vague, directional terms such as “on the left” or “over here.”
When in doubt, try it out! Most learning management systems and word processing programs provide built-in accessibility checkers. These checkers may flag accessibility concerns and provide possible solutions. Online tools can also help you identify accessibility issues such as color contrast ratios.
Next Steps
To better understand the intersection of online education and web accessibility, see the EDUCAUSE Review article, ADA Compliance for Online Course Design. To deepen your understanding of web accessibility requirements, check out the introductory resources provided by W3C (The World Wide Web Consortium) and WebAIM. While there are countless resources on accessibility across the web, these organizations are considered to be the highest authorities. Keep their guidelines in mind as you start to generate content for your online course.
For actionable strategies and resources for making your course materials more accessible, see our companion Envision article, Ten Ways to Open the Gate to Accessibility.