10 Spotlight on Accessibility
Think about your learners and their intersecting dimensions of diversity. Now think about who may be unintentionally left out? Consider those learners who exist “at the edges” and who “can’t use your design”. When there is a mismatch between how our content is designed and how a user accesses or uses the content, the content becomes inaccessible.
What do we mean by “accessible content”?
When we are discussing “accessibility,” we are talking specifically about the experience of people with disabilities.
- Put simply, accessible content means anyone with a disability can:
- Get/see/hear/etc. the information provided
- Easily navigate to different parts of the content and interact with the content
- Understand the key information provided
- Access it on various devices and use it with assistive technologies such as screen reader or text-to-speech software across time (i.e., with updated software or future devices)
- Learn more about the Accessibility Principles by Web Accessibility Initiatives.
Using personas
Designers use personas to represent the different types of people who might access a website or product. We will use personas to help you keep in mind the types of students and their various abilities while you’re developing content. These personas will also help to introduce different types of hardware and software that students typically use.
Randomly choose one of the following learners and read through their persona. Think about some of the content you are planning to adapt/create for your course and consider whether it would be accessible for this learner.
Muhammad
Muhammad is 17 years old. He is a future heavy-duty mechanic with a learning disability that was diagnosed in Grade 8. Muhammad absorbs information best by hearing it and enjoys making and fixing stuff with his hands. He’s in his first semester of college, taking trades courses and loving it. Muhammad can’t wait to complete the foundation courses and move into his first apprenticeship placement. He lives at home with his family; they all share one computer.
Ability: Difficulty absorbing a lot of information when reading
Aptitude: Basic technology user
Attitude: Prefers to do things himself, but can get easily frustrated or impatient, especially with technology
Assistive technology: MP3 player
Format preference: MP3 so he can listen on the go
Listen to an MP3 recording of a synthetic voice.
Jacob
Jacob is a fourth-year business administration student who is blind and a bit of a geek. Jacob is 28 years old and can’t wait to get his last few classes out of the way so he can start his career. He shares an apartment with his girlfriend.
Ability: Blind since birth
Aptitude: Skilled technology user
Attitude: Digital native, early adopter, persists until he gets it
Assistive technologies:
- Screen reader (JAWS on his laptop, VoiceOver on his iPhone)
- Victor Reader Stream
- Audio recorder (to take notes)
- Refreshable Braille display
Format preference: Electronic text, which he can easily use in JAWS and with VoiceOver; detests PDFs
Watch a student using JAWS
Listen to a computer-science student’s screen reader.
Divya
Divya is retraining to be a personal coach after she experienced vision loss and was unable to continue working as a bus driver. She is 48 years old and taking many of her classes online. She lives with her husband.
Ability: Gradual loss of vision; can easily read using a magnifier, but her eyes fatigue quickly
Aptitude: Intermediate technology user
Attitude: Has a routine and likes to stick to it
Assistive technologies:
- ZoomText
- TextAloud text to speech software
Format preference: PDF or electronic text that she can enlarge on her computer or listen to using TextAloud
Watch a student using ZoomText
Tia
Tia is a college student taking university transfer courses who prefers using print books. An accident left Tia with several physical disabilities. She is 18 years old and lives with her family.
Ability: Has brain damage, paralysis, and motor issues
Aptitude: Basic computer user, intermediate iPad user
Attitude: Generally dependent on family, so enjoys reading and studying independently
Assistive technologies:
- iPad
- Motorized wheelchair
Format preference: eBook formats, such as PDF, that can be easily loaded onto her iPad
Ah Lam
Ah Lam is a chemistry major with ADHD, a learning disability that makes it difficult for her to concentrate. She is 20 years old and hopes to become a pharmacist. Ah Lam lives in a dorm on campus with two other female students.
Ability: ADHD, has difficulty concentrating
Aptitude: Intermediate computer user
Attitude: Struggles at times, but is very appreciative of how much learning software helps her
Assistive technology: Kurzweil learning software (on laptop)
Format preference: Reading and listening at the same time
Watch as student using Kurzweil on a computer
Steven
Steven is an English major who is deaf. He is 23 years old and likes the flexibility of taking online classes. He lives by himself.
Ability: Native language is ASL; can speak and read lips
Aptitude: Intermediate technology user
Attitude: Can get annoyed about accessibility, such as lack of captions
Assistive technologies:
- CART (communication access real-time translation) for lectures
- Captions
- Video chat
Format preference: No preference in regards to textbook formats; but, videos without captions are meaningless
Watch a video demonstration of CARTvideo demonstration of CART
Content in the Personas section is adapted from Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition by BCcampus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
What is accessible for one might not be accessible for another
There is no way to make a single type of content perfectly accessible for everyone. Knowing that, consider how you can present the same information in different ways. This choice benefits all learners.
Accessibility issues aren’t always obvious
Just because something appears to be accessible, doesn’t always mean that it is! Watch this 3-minute video that explains the importance of using accessible headings.
Why Use Accessible Headings on YouTube
Digital content and media accessibility: Best practices for beginners
Describe your visuals
WHAT: If there are photographs, diagrams, pictures, charts, graphs, maps, or other graphics that are conveying non-text information to students, a descriptive alternative text, also called “alt text”, should be created for each image that can work as a replacement.
WHY: Consider what a course page or resource would look like if the images didn’t load. Alt text will be available to sighted students when images are missing, and screen readers will read them to students with visual impairments. Alt text can help instructors make sure that the image communicates its intended purpose.
HOW: Alternative text is rarely a literal description of the image. Rather than providing what the image looks like, alternative text should convey the content and the purpose of the image.
Thinking about some of the earlier questions around diversity guides us to choose images and graphics more intentionality. You will be thinking about what it is that you would like to convey in each of the image (e.g., diversity) which will help you to write meaningful description or alt text.
Watch this five minute video to understand more about alternative text.
Transcribe your media
WHAT: Transcripts are text versions of the spoken word presented within multimedia resources. Text captions are synchronized with the audio in a video presentation and are important when people need to see what’s happening in the video and get the audio information in text at the same time.
WHY: A transcript provides students with equivalent information to the audio and video content, which will help them learn if they were not able to hear the audio, see the video portion, or if they have difficulty hearing, seeing or understanding the spoken word, dialect, or language.
HOW: Transcripts provide all speakers’ names, all speech content, and descriptions of relevant non-speech audio. Text captions can easily be added in YouTube or revised from the platform’s auto-captioning system. Transcripts can be used by all students for additional study and review.
Describe your hyperlinks
WHAT: Links should be embedded in meaningful text. Ensure that linked text describes a topic or purpose.
WHY: If links are embedded in clear, concise, and meaningful text, both students who use screen readers and those who don’t can quickly scan pages to find the links they are looking for. If links are broken, students can easily search and find them.
HOW: Instead of linking generic text such as “click here” or “go to”, use text where the purpose of the link can be determined. For example, “Click here for more information” has a less clear link than “Information about Open Education at UBC is available online.”
Make your text readable
WHAT: Font size is the size of text visible on the screen, and colour contrast refers to the brightness of a colour against the darkness of the colour it appears on top of (e.g., text against the background of a page or document).
WHY: When documents or web pages have text that is too small or colours that do not provide enough contrast between foreground and background elements, students will have difficulty reading the content. Students who are colour blind might miss important information if it is given through colour alone (e.g., correct answers are in green).
HOW: For most documents, text should be around 12 points and be able to be zoomed to 200%. Never use colour alone to provide important information (or show emphasis), and ensure high colour contrast. For example, if you have white text on a light-coloured background, the contrast is probably insufficient for many students.
Structure your page
WHAT: Organized content allows students to clearly see how concepts are related. Headings help to identify the hierarchical structure of a document (e.g., sections, subsections).
WHY: Headings are one of the main ways that students using a screen reader navigate through a digital resource. Headings provide a visual cue that helps sighted readers quickly navigate through sections of a document. Similarly, headings create logical divisions in the content.
HOW: Use heading levels in sequential order to represent the structure of a page rather than making the text appear like a heading by applying visual elements such as bold text and a larger font size. Headings can be easily created in many word processing programs.
Hopefully you already had a chance to watch this video: Why Use Accessible Headings
If you would like to practice setting heading levels, try this activity!
- Heading Level Activity (Download the file to try it for yourself)
- Sample solution – Heading Level Activity
In addition to structuring your page, you should also pay close attention to the structure of your tables. Watch this video on the importance of using accessible tables.
H5P accessibility
If you are considering incorporating H5P activities within your content, check H5P’s documentation on Content Type Accessibility before using the content type.
The text in the first 5 parts of this accordion menu is from Digital Content and Media Accessibility by the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology at UBC is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. The videos, the activities and the H5P section have been added.
Checklist for OER accessibility
I know that earlier, we said that there is no definitive checklist for accessibility, and I believe that to be true. With that being said, I still believe that a checklist is a good place to start. Have a look at the following checklists to get a sense of some key elements that are used to determine the accessibility of content
- BCcampus Checklist for Accessibility
- Accessibility rubric – Google form
- Accessibility Rubric – Word download
Accessibility resources
How people with disabilities use the web
Creating Accessible Content and Communication
Image attributions
Starburst Image: Innovation at the Edges by community members of the Inclusive Design Research Centre at OCAD University is licensed under CC BY 3.0.
Checklist image by James Kerr from Pixabay.