Good course design that is accessible creates a learning environment that is usable in an equitable way for all students, including students with disabilities. Explore the following considerations and resources to learn more about setting-up your course to address different learning abilities and learning needs that your students may have. This can be overwhelming; start small, but start with the next thing you edit or create.
Training
- Standard Accessibility Training – Disability Access Center’s self-enroll Canvas course for anyone at Western
- SiteImprove Courses – WebTech’s free training on accessibility fundamentals
Key Considerations
- Present expectations and course materials on Canvas with the utmost clarity. (e.g., participation, technology, readings, assignments, activities, grades, etc.)
- Design digital content accessibly. (e.g., PowerPoint, Word Docs, PDFs)
- Links: Make sure link titles have meaningful names instead of “click here.”
- Lists: Use the formatting tool for bullets and numbering; do not manually enter symbols.
- Alt Text/Images: Provide short meaningful alt text or mark images as decorative (skipped by screen readers).
- Tables: Use row/column headers in tables that organize data; avoid empty, merged cells or for formatting a page.
- Color: Be sure to have high contrast between text and background colors; avoid using color to convey meaning.
- Headings: Use headings (H1, H2, etc.) to convey a mental map of your document, instead of font size and styles
- Use built-in accessibility checkers in Canvas.
- Canvas Accessibility Checker – standard accessibility checker by Instructure/Canvas
- Instructor Accessibility Guide for Canvas Intro – more sophisticated checker enabled in all Canvas pages
- Ensure PDFs are text-selectable and able to be read by a screen reader.
- Build accessible features into live and recorded video.
- Use Panopto to host videos since they are automatically captioned.
- Add audio descriptions to describe non-audio content in videos (available in Panopto).
- Enable live annotation and/or transcript during web conferencing meetings or classes (Zoom, Teams).
- Use the WWU Resources below.
WWU Resources
- WWU Disability Access Center (DAC)
- Accessible Online Course Design – tips for developing an accessible and inclusive course
- DAC Faculty Info & Portal – information for faculty about disability accommodations in Western courses
- Read & Write App – free for students; reads text aloud, converts text to audio file, and more
- Sensus Access Form – converts documents from one file type to another (PDF to Word, etc.)
- WebTech – Accessibility Training and Resources
- Accessibility Training and Resources – guidelines and self-enroll learning including: Standard Accessibility Training
- SiteImprove Training – Targeted learning, including: Accessibility for PowerPoint and Accessibility for Documents
- Accessibility Guide – searchable topics as they relate the WCAG and ARIA guidelines
- Creating Accessible Documents – check documents (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDF) for accessibility and learn how to fix them (see also Accessible Social Media)
- ATUS/OCE: Instr. Designers & Technologists
- TLC – related posts
Key Resources
- Accessible PDF Best Practices
- CAST UDL Guideliines
- Create inclusive content with the new Accessibility Assistant in Microsoft 365 – Microsoft blog, 3/8/23
- Web Accessibility Initiative (WC3): WCAG 2 Overview
- Web Accessibility Initiative (WC3): WAI-ARIA Overview
Originally contributed to the TLCo-op by Alina Holmes, Graduate Research Assistant of the Center for Instructional Innovation and Assessment, 2020.