Designing Accessible Courses

An accessible course presents as few obstacles as possible to the diversity of students. There are many design elements you can build into your course to support students with disabilities, while at the same time improving the course experience for all students. By designing with accessibility in mind, you’ll anticipate the needs of a variety of students and will be less likely to have to make changes to course formatting once the course begins. The greater the accessibility, the more likely more students will have equitable opportunities for learning and growing.

The following tips will help you get started in making your course accessible, more inclusive, and in compliance with the AODA. Scroll through the interactive booklet below to review each tip.

As you may recall from section one — AODA and the Learning Environment — as educators we are required to provide educational training resources and materials in an accessible format. This is a key component in accessible course design. Move ahead to the next section to learn how to create and use accessible materials within your course.

Adapted From

Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT). (n.d). 10 Tips for Creating Accessible Course Content. Iowa State University. Retrieved from https://www.celt.iastate.edu/instructional-strategies/preparing-to-teach/accessible-course-design/10-tips-for-creating-accessible-course-content/

Centre for Academic Excellence. (n.d). Design, Develop and Deliver: A Guide for Effective Online Teaching. Niagara College. Retrieved from https://www.niagaracollege.ca/cae/eddev/teaching-resources/online-teaching/develop/diverse-learners/

Darla Benton Kearney (2022) Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) Retrieved from https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/universaldesign/chapter/6-2-udl-for-aoda/

Poorvu Centre for Teaching and Learning. (n.d). Accessible Teaching. Retrieved from https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/strategic-resources-digital-publications/accessible-teaching