In Ontario, accessibility is the law. You have probably heard of the AODA —which stands for Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act—before, which protects the rights of people with disabilities by ensuring that they have equitable access in every area of society.
In an online course, learners with disabilities may not be able to access content the same ways as other learners. Your course design should be geared towards presenting information in a way that all learners can digest and understand, including:
Make sure your font is large enough to be read comfortably
Use alt-text or image descriptions to describe infographics
Choose videos that have Closed Captions available
If you like, you can watch this short, optional video about web accessibility.
Accessibility doesn’t need to be complicated. Making simple design choices are steps in the right direction. To learn about the expectations that you will follow when designing your course, please download and review “Accessibility Tips for Your Digital Content” [PDF] now.
Accessibility is for everyone! Even learners who do not have any disabilities benefit when they are given content that is more accessible. For example, closed captions on videos benefit learners with hearing loss or cognitive impairments, but they also benefit learners who are in noisy locations, or learners who are studying in a location like the library, where they cannot play audio.
You look at your course materials and you realize that one of your videos is not accessible. In the video, visuals and explanatory text appear on the screen while music plays. There are no closed captions available. As a reference point, here is an example of the type of video, which you can review if you would like to understand why this video may not be accessible for some learners:
Accessibility is a big topic, and this short discussion is just a basic introduction. If you would like to expand your familiarity with accessibility and how to practice it in your teaching, please consider reaching out to Innovative Learning for training on topics like creating accessible digital documents and using educational technology in accessible ways.