Accessibility and Inclusion in Online Courses

Accessible course materials help all students learn and are required by the university. Making course materials accessible is usually not as complex as many think and often makes your learning artifacts look more professional.

Section 508 requires federal agencies to make their information and communications technology, online training, and websites accessible for all learners. To learn more about meeting the needs of students with disabilities, please refer to ODU's Educational Accessibility Faculty Handbook.

Beyond legal accessibility requirements, your online course should be welcoming for all learners. Incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies into your course preparation. Integrate diverse and inclusive content, facilitate inclusive collaboration, and continuously assess and adapt your approach to foster an inclusive learning environment.

• Refer to The UDL Guidelines to ensure your course is optimized for all learners.
• Use EDUCAUSE’s resources to put the principles of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion into practice.

These are a few important points to remember when developing your online course. For a more extensive overview, refer to the WCAG 2 Overview from the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative.

Headings

When designing instructional pages, use headings to designate the major topics and subtopics on a page and help to guide users through the content. 

In Canvas, the page title is always Heading 1. In the Rich Content Editor, you can select headings from Heading 2 to Heading 4. Use headings hierarchically: 

• Your first major topic should begin with Heading 2.
• Use Heading 3 to start a subtopic. To further divide a subtopic, use Heading 4.

Consider planning out a heading structure before composing a page to serve as an outline and to help keep your thoughts organized.

Images

All images need to contain an alternative description so that screen readers can effectively relay their content. In Canvas, select the image and choose "Image Options" to add a concise summary of the image in the "Alt Text" field.

Tables

Tables should primarily be used for data, not for formatting purposes. Do not insert a table as an image. In Canvas' Rich Content Editor, use the table feature to create an accessible table. Include a header row so that screen readers can explain the data in each column.

PDFs

PDF documents should contain text that is selectable and searchable. You can determine whether the text in a PDF is selectable by attempting to highlight words. If you can highlight individual words, the PDF contains selectable text and is accessible to screen readers. Similarly, if you can perform the word search by using the search option within Adobe Acrobat, the document is searchable.

Reading Order

Although the information on the screen may appear logical, the text and images need to be sequentially tagged for assistive technology to correctly deliver information in the intended order.

Verify the accuracy of the reading order using screen reader software. For external documents, use the accessibility checkers found within most software applications (i.e., Microsoft Accessibility Checker).

Hyperlinks and Underlined Text

Underlined text should be used for hyperlinks, not for emphasis. To emphasize text, use bold or italic styles and reserve underlines for navigation links. Hyperlinks should be labeled with easy-to-understand, self-describing, and meaningful names; do not use generic text like "Click Here" because it lacks context. 

Color

Adding color to a page is a great way to emphasize content, but it must be done correctly to ensure accessibility. Do not rely on color alone to emphasize something; someone who cannot see or interpret the color will miss the emphasis.

Additionally, make sure your colors have enough contrast to be easily readable. Generally, this means avoiding using bright, neon colors or any font color that is too light on a white screen. 

WCAG guidelines define a range of color contrast ratios that are accessible. Use the WebAIM Contrast Checker tool to test the contrast ratio of text and background colors on your page. You can also use the Accessibility Checker built into Canvas.

Closed Captions/Transcripts

Provide closed captions/transcripts for all the audio and video instructional materials used in the course. Machine-generated transcripts must be manually reviewed and edited to ensure accuracy.

External Technology

All content in your course must be accessible to all students. Sometimes you may want to incorporate additional external technologies or applications into your course. In these cases, you will need to ensure that the external technologies are accessible and provide vendor accessibility statements.