Week 7 Accessibility in online education

Introduction

Figure 1 Accessibility is a progressive journey.

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A cartoon of a woman on a laptop. There are two speech bubbles: one reads ‘I didn’t mean to discriminate…’ and the other reads ‘What adaptations should I make?’ Text underneath the photo reads ‘Accessibility is a progressive journey’. The word ‘progressive’ is written in red.

Figure 1 Accessibility is a progressive journey.

It is important to ensure that digital materials are suitable for as wide a range of learners as possible, whether these are materials created by educators or resources found online for reuse. Accessibility, usability, inclusion and universal design are all commonly used terms for ensuring that learning materials can be used by a wide range of potential learners, including those with disabilities who may be using assistive technology.

For the purposes of this week’s materials, ‘accessibility’ is used as a shorthand. Note that this is not necessarily advocating a one-size-fits-all approach to learning: it may be appropriate to provide alternative materials or activities for some situations, as long as the overall learning objectives are met for all learners. However, effort and understanding applied to this area can save a greater amount of effort and difficulties later and make the learning experience better for everyone.

Digitised content can be presented in many ways, giving learners options about how they receive that content. Computers can provide users with a variety of interfaces through which to achieve the same tasks. Online learning does not have the barriers created by time or travel requirements to attend in-person teaching. These elements of flexibility are often missing from the physical environment and the interactions and resources used in other modes of teaching. However, this flexibility is not a given fact. It only occurs when teaching, resources and platforms have been designed with accessibility in mind.

There are many online resources that can help you to understand the experiences of disabled people and how they are supported through accessibility features. One example is from the World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility Initiative (W3C WAI), who develop guidelines that are widely regarded as the international standard for web accessibility. They have a number of short videos [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] that show how different accessibility features assist people who are using online resources. Although these are not specific to online learning, they help to bring to life the ways in which the right choices can remove significant barriers to learning.

To understand some key themes in accessibility, the week begins by introducing assistive technology and its impact on the way learners interact with learning materials. This is followed by recommendations and guidelines about making digital content and learning materials more accessible. Some guidance on alternative formats is also provided.

Practitioner reflections

The week begins with a short video from Sarah. In it, she shares her experiences of considering accessibility, focusing on ways of working with PowerPoint for an inclusive learning experience. In it, she refers to ‘alt-text’ – short written descriptions of images. As you watch the video, or read the transcript, consider how you could support the accessibility of the content you produce in your role.

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Transcript

How did you begin to address accessibility?

SARAH:

Considering alternative formats. In developing formats for my teaching and those of my team, I consider two factors – firstly, exploring the full range of the tools that I already use; secondly, reflecting on how I can make my teaching inclusive for a range of participants.

One of the tools that I considered was PowerPoint – often used in my organisation, but not normally to its full potential. There are several points that can enable different formats for different students. Firstly, increasing the inclusivity of people who struggled with reading or have sight problems. This can be met by using the alt text, which is really useful. It can read text and descriptions of diagrams, and it can also be used by students who prefer to listen on the go because it can be easily transferable to mobile devices.

The second element of format is the font and the background. And with PowerPoint, it’s easily manipulated by both learner and the teacher, which is important when you’re considering a whole range of students. Links to other resources can be embedded into the PowerPoint, also links to more accessible versions of a particular page, so to make pages simpler and less busy. So, on the one hand, you might want a really stimulating page for your students, but also one that can be read more easily before the session starts. And then animations and visual images can help learners who prefer a different style of learning, because a picture sometimes can save a thousand words.

Finally, it’s a good place to start with PowerPoint, but there are other formats. But this one I particularly like because you can use it for preparation teaching, you can use it for both face-to-face teaching, as well as synchronous online teaching or blended learning. It can be manipulated, but you can use the same content for each of those delivery methods. So, I think that also engages those students who are inhibited by where they live and how they can get to their classroom.

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