8. Accessibility & Usability

Uncertain how to make your course more accessible? In search of better tools for accomplishing this?

This page provides guidance, templates, and tutorials that will ease your efforts here.

Understanding Accessibility

Building Accessible Content

This workshop walks participants through the process of building accessible content.

Accessibility Checklist

This checklist outlines accessibility expectations and serves as a useful self-assessment tool.

Universal Design Checklist

This checklist helps users assess the degree to which their courses are UD inclusive.

Making Text Accessible

Ally: Accessibility in Text

In this workshop, Peter Schilke introduces Ally and demonstrates how it enables greater text accessibility.

Making Videos Accessible

Captioning Videos and Creating Transcripts

In this workshop, Peter Schilke illustrates how to caption videos and create transcripts in order to improve accessibility.

Making Images Accessible

Alt Text for Complex Images

Peter Schilke explores the use of alt text with complex images in this workshop.

Additional Resources on Digital Access in Education

Intro: An Introduction to Digital Accessibility

Topic 1: Digital Accessibility: Three Points About the Law

Meet Catherine Lhamon, the Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, as she introduces key topics in the area of digital accessibility in education.

Learn about two Federal civil rights laws relevant to digital accessibility in the educational context: Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Topic 2: How Some People with Disabilities Use Technology

Topic 3: Recommended Practices & Tips for Digital Accessibility

Meet some students and parents with disabilities and learn how they interact with and use technology.

Learn some helpful tips to providing quality online experiences to everyone.

Topic 4: Vendors and Partnerships

Topic 5: Creating an Organizational Culture that Embraces Accessibility

Explore ideas for partnering with institutions and working with vendors to meet your digital accessibility goals.

Explore thoughtful approaches to partner with key stakeholders and mission-critical individuals within your organization to create a seamless, supportive culture around digital accessibility.

Topic 6: The Importance of Manual Testing for Digital Accessibility

Topic 7: Keyboard Access and Visual Focus Indicators

Learn why manual testing is important and how to incorporate reliable testing protocols into your workflow.

Explore fundamental concepts of testing for keyboard access and visual focus indicators, barriers typically missed by automated checkers.

Topic 8: Testing When the Screen is Magnified

Topic 9: Logical Reading Order

Dive deeper into manual testing, and see what can happen to navigation and content when web pages are enlarged by people with low vision.

Check out what can go wrong when web pages don’t follow a logical reading order for people who rely on keyboard navigation and screen readers.

Topic 10: Alternative Text

Topic 11: Fillable Forms

Learn about alternative text and why it is important for people who cannot see photographs and graphic images.

Forms can be a useful way of collecting information from your users. Do you know how to make sure everyone can use them?

Topic 12: Buttons & Form Controls

Topic 13: Use of Color Alone to Convey Information

Learn about form fields and buttons used on web pages, and how to test them for specific accessibility concerns.

What to think about when using color to convey information.

Topic 14: Color Contrast

Topic 15: Links

How to check for sufficient color contrast, and why it’s important.

All about links: how they are used in navigation, labelling concerns, and distinguishing them from surrounding text.

Topic 16: Tables

Topic 17: Heading Structure

Do you need to use a data table on your web page? If so, learn how to appropriately format table content to ensure everyone can understand your data.

Learn how to use heading structure on a web page so everyone can navigate your content with ease.

Topic 18: Video Captioning

Topic 19: Reporting & Responding to Digital Barriers for People with Disabilities

What counts as “success” when captioning your videos – and how to avoid epic (and embarrassing) gaffes.

A discussion of best practices for how schools can be aware of potential barriers and respond to such concerns, and tips for people with disabilities who experience barriers.

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