How do I create an accessible document, webpage, or course?
It may be easier than you think! Refer to OSCQR standards and the Accessibility Compliance Checklist for Distance Education Courses (found below) when you are developing or improving your course. While you may not reach 100% compliance your first time through, you want to strive to make your course as accessible as possible for all students. Remember, the Instructional Design team and the ATC are here to help!
As you review the checklist you'll probably notice that you're already familiar with several of the concepts. Many others will be very easy to implement as you create or refine your documents and webpages in your course. This is your baseline for creating accessible documents, webpages, and courses.
Related tutorials and resources: Accessibility Checklist Cheat Sheet (abbreviated for printing)
Accessibility Checklist for Distance Education Courses
Creating Content
When creating content, there are a few basic steps that should be followed in order to assure your content is accessible. The core steps needed for accessibility are the same regardless of whether your document is a Moodle page, Word or Google document, or even a webpage.
- Use heading styles. Nest headings <h1> <h2> <h3>, not <h1> <3>
- Images should have alternative text (alt text)
- Tables must be tagged, merged cells and empty cells are not recommended
- Use real list styles
- Avoid lengthy paragraphs
- Link names should be informative
- Font size should be easy to read with enough color contrast between foreground and background
- Videos should be closed caption
- For audio-only, transcripts should be provided
- Links are self-describing and meaningful. Avoids using “click here” or “more info” for the links.
Example: Instead of "more info" use "more about global warming". - Keep the link text at a reasonable length. Do not link entire sentences or paragraphs.
- Ensure links can be visually differentiated from other page content. Moodle has preset colors for links. Other documents allow you to make choices on font and link presentation.
- Use sans-serif fonts and a large enough font size (12pts for content) for easy readability.
Moodle paragraphs are preset to the appropriate font size. - Use dark font colors on light backgrounds (Use black or gray text on a white background).
Try the Web Aim contrast checker. - Avoid extremely bright colors as background colors.
- Use one to two fonts throughout the site or document.
- Avoid overuse of all CAPS, bold or italics. Some screenreaders read CAPS as acronyms.
- Avoid underlining words, as the user can mistake them for a navigation link.
- Instructions are clear and do not rely on visual location, shapes, color, or auditory clues. Users may not be able to distinguish between colors or see shapes.
Example: Click on the "blue box" (color/shape dependant) or " the navigation is in the right column" (it may move depending on the device).
- Nest headings by their rank (or level). The most important heading has the rank 1 (<h1>), the least important heading rank 6 (<h6>). In Moodle, use the ranking Heading (large), (medium), (small).
- Create a hierarchical structure with headings, lists, groupings, and images.
- Use white space to help with readability.
- Make sure the reading order and navigation order is logical and intuitive.
- Use bulleted or numbered list styles to denote list structure.
- Numbered lists are for sequential items, such as steps in a recipe. Bulleted lists are for unordered items, such as a list of supplies.
- Images are clear and appropriate for the learning material.
- Image files are optimized for efficient loading. Large files will take longer to load.
- The use of animated images is limited to only those that contribute to the learning experience – supporting the course content.
- Avoid animated or blinking images, text, or cursors. These can cause seizures for some people.
- All images have alternative text (Alt text) that is meaningful.
Example: Instead of "lake" use "Lake Superior, the largest of the great lakes, is located in the United States". - Words like "picture of," "image of," or "link to" are redundant. Screen readers already identify images and links by default.
- Ensure alternative text is as succinct as necessary.
- Complex images, such as graphs or diagrams, will need content to explain the meaning of the image.
See the Images toolbox section for more information on how to implement the above guidelines.
- Use tables for tabular data. Avoid using tables for visual (layout) purposes.
- Use table captions and table headers to increase screen reader usability.
- Merging table cells is not recommended.
- Empty table cells are not recommended.
- The audio quality is clear.
- The audio file size is adequate to meet the goals of the activity without being too large to restrict users’ ability to download the file on computers with lower bandwidths.
- A written transcript is provided with all audio files.
- The audio file length is adequate to meet the goals of the activity without adding unnecessary information.
- The audio player required is compatible with multiple operating systems and requires only a standard, free plug-in.
See the Audio/Video toolbox section for more information on how to implement the above guidelines.
- The video quality is clear.
- The Video file size is adequate to meet the goals of the activity without being too large to restrict users’ ability to download the file on computers with lower bandwidths.
- Closed-captioning is available or the video has accompanying text-based scripts.
- The video file lengths are adequate to meet the goals of the activity without adding unnecessary information.
- The video player being provided is compatible with multiple operating systems and requires only a standard, free plug-in.
See the Audio/Video toolbox section for more information on how to implement the above guidelines.