Accessibility, Simplified

What do we mean by "accessible?"

There are two overarching ways we talk about student access in terms of online instructional design: one, can students get to our instructional materials, and two, can they use them? When we refer to "accessible technology" or "accessible design," though, we need to be more specific. We mean, "Can all users, including users with disabilities, use our instructional materials in a way that is of most benefit to them?"

One huge benefit to building accessible content in our current remote environment is that accessible content is also more compatible with mobile devices.

The Checklist

• Make sure the course syllabus is screen-reader accessible.
• Review your week 1 materials, and make sure they are accessible to users with disabilities.
  • Use the Ally (dial indicators) to help you see what might need work.
• Review your week 1 materials, and make sure they are usable on mobile devices.

Video overview

Guidelines for accessible content

These guidelines are universal, meaning that you can use them anywhere you create material: Canvas, any Microsoft Office product, email messages, Google Drive, web pages, and so on. 

Text formatting. Use built-in formatting tools and observe a couple of basic guidelines. You can find more detail in the Text Formatting page of the Accessibility Crash Course. This page observes text formatting guidelines. See if you can spot them.

• Paragraph styles (headings) to help students navigate content 
• Bulleted lists
• Descriptive hyperlinks
• Color contrast

Captioning videos. Providing captions benefits all students, not just Deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Students learning English, and students studying technical topics, all benefit from captions.

• Do you need to caption? Probably. Check out the Captioning FAQs on the ID website.
• Does it have to be agonizing? Of course not. Here are your captioning options.

Images: screen readers can't interpret an image for a blind user, so you have to provide a description of the image called an alt-text. It's also useful if the image is having trouble loading or if the image breaks. 

• Images that display pertinent information must have alt-text. Here's how to do this in various programs:
  • In Canvas
  • In Microsoft Word for PC Links to an external site. / in Word for Mac Links to an external site.
  • In Google Drive products Links to an external site.
• Images that visually enhance a text but don't contain information that isn't given elsewhere should be marked as decorative.

Clarity and consistency: of course you want your students to be able to understand what you want from them, right? Unfortunately, the nature of online-based learning puts up an extra barrier to many students. Being clear and providing structure is something we always strive for as instructors, but they have specific applications in text-based materials.

• Be explicit: tell students exactly what you want them to do. What do you want them to give you? Tell them this over and over and over...and over. Give instructions every time. This relieves all students of the stress of having to remember what you want from them.
• Simplify your language: define jargon, idioms, and acronyms. Avoid terms with multiple meanings.
• Keep it simple and clean: big blocks of text are hard for folks who have trouble reading. Minimize visual distractions like images or lots of brightly-colored text.

Tools to make accessibility easier

You don't have to do it alone! Most programs have accessibility checkers, including Canvas. We have access to two: Ally and the Rich Content Editor accessibility check.

• Using Ally in your Canvas Course. This is for Files you've added to your course, and will also note images in Pages. 
• Using the Canvas Rich Content Editor Accessibility Check Links to an external site.. This is for Pages, Assignments, Quiz text, and any other place you manually add text to Canvas. 

You can always email ID at id@highline.edu, make a Bookings appointment, Links to an external site. or email Access Services at access@highline.edu for more information.