Accessibility

Why is accessibility so important?

It is essential that we provide an environment where all students have the best chance to succeed with their learning.  This requires that every student, regardless of circumstance, is provided appropriate access to course material and tools.  In the video below, you will hear from students who have experienced frustration with online learning being inaccessible.

Caring about meeting the needs of our students is reason enough to focus on accessibility, but some other reasons include:

Accessibility issues can impact a large number of people.  According to the 2017 Canadian Survey on Disability about 6.2 million, or 22% of Canadians aged 15 and older, had one or more disabilities.

Accessibility is the law.  Not only is making things accessible the right thing for us to do, we are required to be accessible by law.  In Ontario, we are required to meet the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) standards.

What is essential for one person is normally beneficial for all.  Some of the features you can add to your course site and other learning resources to make them more accessible will likely benefit all of your students.  For example, consider captions for your online videos.  For a student who cannot hear, this is essential for their learning, but many other students might find it helpful to see how some of these complex words are spelled, or simply may prefer reading a transcript when reviewing the content. There is also evidence that captioned videos help international students for whom English is an additional language master the language and achieve learning outcomes.

Universal Design for Learning:

Accessible design is often considered one component of the overarching process of Universal Design for Learning.  While they can be similar, Universal Design for Learning can be considered a more holistic approach to course design, as it also includes the various situations (environments, conditions, and circumstances) your learners may face.  Consider the speed of a student’s internet access.  If you use online videos in your course, but do not offer a range of quality options (something YouTube does for you) or alternative formats to access this content, students with lower internet speed may face challenges accessing the content and struggle in the course.

Universal Design considers accessibility from the beginning of the course design process, rather than trying to go back later and retrofit or change things later when there is a request for an accommodation.

Getting started:

While there is much to consider in designing accessible courses, the Ten tips for creating accessible content list provides a good introduction to some key ideas to consider.  It describes some of the most common accessibility issues our students might face.  The document also includes a simplified checklist for checking if your course site has dealt with some of these common issues properly.