Authors: Nikki Williamson, Liezl Kruger, Lerienne Roux & Preshika Moodley
Accessible online education is essential for creating equal education experiences for all learners regardless of their physical, cognitive or situational disabilities. Well-designed, accessible digital education fosters an inclusive learning environment that allows learners to use assistive technologies and adaptive strategies to engage with the learning. An accessible digital course is equivalent to an access ramp into a building in the physical world, where the accessible course is needed by some but beneficial to all. Accessible digital courses not only support learners with disabilities but also enhance the learning experience for everyone with user-friendly designs and adaptable, diverse teaching methods and materials that cater to a wide range of individual needs.
Understanding Accessibility Standards
Compliance with legal and ethical accessibility guidelines is crucial for Institutions to ensure equal access to digital courses. With varied global legal and ethical guidelines, many institutions use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as a universal framework for ensuring web accessibility. The WCAG are international standards developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to make web content accessible to individuals with disabilities. Guidelines are structured around four core principles, making up the acronym “POUR”: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust. Together, we must do our part to ensure we meet these standards, as it will assist us in creating equitable educational opportunities for all learners.
Structure and Navigation of Digital Courses
When designing accessible digital courses, structure and navigation are critical in ensuring that all learners, including those with disabilities, can effectively engage with the content. A simple and intuitive navigation system with clear hierarchy and coded headings ensures easy navigation for all learners, including those using screen readers. Providing descriptive page titles and clear instructions aids comprehension and navigation, while large clickable areas assist learners with motor impairments.
Designing Accessible Course Content
It is important to consider including text and visuals when developing digital courses. Ensuring content and instructions are easily understandable using clear and simple language while avoiding jargon will assist learners with varying language proficiency or cognitive abilities. Ensure you select appropriate font sizes and maintain high contrast between text and background to enhance readability. This will assist learners with both visual impairments and cognitive variability.
Multimedia
Adding media to your course can bring a lot of value, enriching the learning experience for learners. However, it can also lead to significant frustration if the media isn’t accessible to everyone. Imagine a hearing-impaired student encountering a video with essential course material but no captions or a colourblind student struggling with a graphic that relies on colour distinctions they can’t see. Making all media accessible isn’t just about meeting specific needs; as the “curb cut effect” shows, it can improve readability and usability for everyone.
- Audio Content
Audio content should be as clear as possible. According to the Web Accessibility Initiative, this means high-quality recordings, limited background noise, and clear, understandable speech. Eliminating distracting sounds makes audio accessible for those with hearing challenges, helps listeners focus, and reduces anxiety and allowing users to adjust or mute background music enhances focus and comprehension, making the content more enjoyable.
- Video Content
Captions, transcripts, and audio descriptions are essential for making videos accessible. They’re especially helpful for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, visually impaired, or in noisy environments. For instance, a transcript—a downloadable PDF of the video’s dialogue and descriptions—can provide an alternative way to access the content. Video captions display text along with the audio, including relevant sounds and descriptions. This is different from subtitles, which usually translate the dialogue only.
It’s also essential to use an accessible media player that supports keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, and settings for high contrast and text size. These features make it easier for all users to interact with video content. Control over playback, including options to adjust or mute background music, is another must-have. For example, auto-play or looping videos can distract some learners. Hence, providing options to pause or stop videos gives learners more control and can make learning more comfortable.
- Graphic Content
Images, graphics, and diagrams can greatly enhance understanding, so they need to be accessible too. Text alternatives (alt text) allow screen readers to describe images, providing essential context. Alt text should be brief but informative; decorative images don’t need alt text, which can clutter the screen reader’s output. If an image includes text, include that text in the description as well. A separate, more detailed description in a downloadable PDF for complex images, like diagrams, can make the content clearer.
Implementing Accessible Learning Activities
Implementing accessible learning activities in digital courses is essential for accommodating diverse learners, as we want to ensure that all our learners can engage meaningfully with the content. Implementing CAST’s Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles in course design will significantly assist learners by promoting an inclusive and flexible learning environment by providing multiple means of representation, expression, and engagement. Including this flexibility in your courses will not only help learners with disabilities but will benefit all learners by offering choices that can enhance their motivation and engagement in the learning process.
It is essential to ensure that all interactive components within your course, such as quizzes, discussion forums, and multimedia elements, are accessible to all learners. For example, ensure these interactive elements are keyboard-navigable for learners relying solely on keyboard navigation.
Utilising Technology to Enhance Accessibility
Utilising technology to enhance accessibility involves the integration of assistive technologies and adaptive strategies. Please view the interactive carousel to learn more about assistive technologies and adaptive strategies. These tools and strategies empower individuals with disabilities to meet their unique requirements allowing them to engage fully in educational environments.
A practical example of the benefits of accessible design could include text-to-speech software. The digital device reads the content on the screen aloud to the user who is blind or to the person driving who is not legally allowed to read on their phone. Accessible design benefits all learners. For more information on assistive technologies, watch the following video, which provides a short overview of Assistive Technologies.
Many tools are available to assist designers and developers of digital content in creating more accessible content. These tools include easy-to-use and intuitive Artificial Intelligence (AI) advancements that can analyse and suggest alternatives within minutes or even seconds. An example of this is video transcript creation. New features of most video editing and hosting tools include generating automated transcripts of the spoken text. While this generated text may still contain minor errors, it progresses rapidly to be more accurate, regardless of spoken language. It is good practice to check these transcripts for correctness before making them available.
Another very useful AI advancement is alternative (or ALT) text generators. These online tools can suggest concise and accurate alternative text that screen readers can read for people who cannot see the images used in the online content.
Training and Resources for Instructors
As educators are the major creators of digital content for their learners, it makes sense for them to continuously reflect on the accessibility of content they provide to learners. While ensuring accessibility in your created content seems like a daunting task, we want to assure you that understanding accessibility principles is an exciting and transformative experience. While you can check for accessibility and make changes to existing content, it is recommended that you think about these principles while designing the content.
A strategy that may be useful is to create different types of learner “personas” that you develop for – this helps to keep your design and development human-centred and not only look at it from a technical perspective. These personas may include real people or personas that you created.
Try this example: In the Generative AI tool of your choice (ChatGPT or Perplexity.ai, for example), type the following prompt:
I am an educator who needs to develop digitally accessible content for a blind learner. Please create a relatable learner persona and suggest important considerations when designing and developing the learning content.
You might be pleasantly surprised by how useful the initial feedback is. You can fine-tune the prompt by asking follow-up questions to suit your context.
Sofia
Sofia is a 21-year-old university student who has been blind since birth. She is pursuing a degree in Psychology and is highly motivated to succeed in her studies. Sofia uses a screen reader and is proficient in Braille, which she prefers for taking notes and reading texts. She is tech-savvy and actively engages with digital tools that enhance her learning experience.Accessibility considerations:
- Ensure that all digital content are compatible with screen readers and other assistive technologies
- Provide audio descriptions for any visual content, including graphs, charts, or images used in presentations or learning materials
- Offer lecture notes in accessible formats (e.g., PDF, Word) that can be easily read on various devices
- Ensure course materials are coded with heading structure
- Do not use colour alone to convey messages or highlight important key concepts
- Use descriptive alt text for images, ensuring it conveys the context and relevance of visuals
- Allow alternative methods for submitting assignments
- Ensure feedback can be accessed by screen readers, such as voice comments or written feedback in accessible formats.
Jordan
Jordan is a 20-year-old university student studying Environmental Science. He has ADHD and experiences challenges with focus, organisation, and time management. Despite these challenges, Jordan is passionate about sustainability and excels in hands-on projects and creative problem-solving. He often employs unique strategies to engage with his coursework and has developed a strong interest in visual arts, which he integrates into his studies.Accessibility considerations:
- Ensure that all digital content is compatible with organisational tools and apps that assist with time management, such as calendar apps or task management software.
- Organise materials with clear headings structure and bullet points to facilitate easy navigation and comprehension.
- Use checklists and step-by-step guides for assignments to help Jordan break tasks into manageable parts.
- Incorporate diagrams, charts, and other visual aids to complement text-based information.
- Use colour-coding to highlight key concepts or sections within the course materials to enhance clarity.
- Offer course materials in multiple formats.
- Design interactive components (quizzes, group projects) that encourage collaboration and allow for creative expression.
- Include clear instructions for all interactive elements, using visuals where possible to reinforce understanding.
- Allow alternative methods for submitting assignments.
Kagiso
Kagiso is a 22-year-old university student majoring in Computer Science. He is deaf and uses American Sign Language (ASL) as his primary mode of communication. Kagiso is highly engaged in his studies and actively participates in class discussions, often using video conferencing tools for group projects and presentations. He values clear communication and inclusive teaching practices.Accessibility considerations:
- Ensure all video content includes accurate, synchronised captions with the audio.
- Provide sign language interpretation for lectures and key presentations, either live or through recorded videos.
- Offer transcripts for all audio content, including discussions and announcements, to ensure Kagiso has access to all information shared in class.
- Design interactive components, such as discussion boards and coding exercises, to be visually engaging and easy to navigate.
- Ensure interactive components support visual communication methods, like ASL video submissions.
- Allow alternative methods for submitting assignments.
While the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)’s Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) provides fantastic resources and standards, we found that following a structured learning experience to understand accessibility principles is a more engaging and enjoyable experience.
There are many options to choose from:
- W3Cx: Introduction to Web Accessibility (hosted on EdX)
- Coursera offers many courses in web accessibility
Gathering Feedback and Continuous Improvement
There are many ways in which to collect feedback from learners on the accessibility of your learning content. These include adding direct feedback sections from within the course or at the end of the course and include:
- Surveys and questionnaires using the built-in functionalities of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) (for example, polls, quizzes and surveys), or external tools like Google Forms
- Online discussion forums where learners can discuss their experiences of user accessibility using guiding prompts, for example: what went well and what can be improved?
- Accessibility audits, which can take the form of a peer review activity or self-completing checklists
- Collaborating with accessibility support centres, requesting iterative review and design for your online course material
- Built-in technology in the form of VLE analytic tools
As with any other iterative course design and development, it is important to consider the gathered feedback and make improvements for the next iteration of the course. In some cases, immediate changes would be required if the content is inaccessible to users.
Conclusion
In designing accessible online courses, you will create equitable learning environments that cater to the diverse needs of all learners. By prioritising accessibility, educators comply with legal and ethical standards and enhance the overall learning experience, fostering engagement and success for learners with varying abilities and situations. We encourage all educators to take actionable steps to ensure their courses are inclusive and welcoming to every learner. Our experience has taught us that designing accessible courses benefits not only learners with disabilities but all learners.
References
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LinkedIn Advice. (nd). How do you collect and use feedback from learners and stakeholders on digital learning accessibility? [ONLINE] Available from: https://www.linkedin.com/advice/1/how-do-you-collect-use-feedback-from-learners.
MySTOA. (2018). Assistive Technologies. YouTube. [ONLINE] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omjVM1lwkII
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