Portions of this post were originally co-written by Joanna Lake as part of an EDCI 565 project
Before you even start thinking about what type of content you want to be creating in your online orientation program, it’s important to ensure you have a basic understanding of digital accessibility. While most orientation professionals are familiar with accessibility best practices for in-person events (using microphones, ensuring the font size on presentations is large enough for the room, confirming that venues are wheelchair accessible, etc.), many of us are less familiar with digital accessibility. We rarely see how others interact with digital content, so it can be difficult to know what barriers people may encounter simply through observation.
Creating an educational experience online that is accessible to all starts with understanding digital accessibility, recognizing the barriers to content that some students may face, and implementing techniques and strategies to reduce those barriers for all.
This post will introduce you to the concept of digital accessibility, and outline a few basic principles to always keep in mind. In part 2, we will discuss specific techniques and requirements to ensure different types of content are accessible.
What is digital accessibility?
For our purposes, digital accessibility means that all learners have the same opportunities to access digital resources, interact with digital materials, engage in digital activities, and create digital content, regardless of disability. Although digital accessibility is an essential requirement for those with disabilities, providing accessible digital content benefits all learners.
Digital accessibility ensures that all resources and materials shared digitally are easily accessible for all. It means that everyone can perceive, understand, navigate, interact with and contribute to digital resources and spaces. Digital resources and materials may include documents, presentations, PDFs, videos, podcasts, websites, online images, social media materials, interactive activities, and more.
While you may hear many people talk about web accessibility, I’ve chosen the term digital accessibility here to include both web accessibility, and the accessibility of content accessed using a digital device that does not require the internet, such as documents, presentations and PDFs.
The POUR principles
In order to understand how to create accessible content, it can be helpful to understand the basic principle of accessibility. The four main guiding principles of accessibility tell us that content should be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust (POUR).
Perceivable
All digital content needs to be perceivable by everyone. People accessing your content needs to be able to input the information into their brain so that they can process it. While that sounds simple, it’s important to remember that what is perceivable by one person may not be perceivable to someone else. Text, images, visual cues, and colour may not be perceivable by someone with no vision, limited vision, or colour-blindness. Audio, such as podcasts, video, and voice messages, may not be perceivable by folks who are deaf or hard of hearing. Often, content must be transformed from one form to another in order to be perceivable by everyone (i.e. creating a text transcript of a podcast, or adding captions to a video).
Operable
Everyone needs to be able to operate and navigate through your content (whether it be a website, video, etc.). While most digital content is built to be operated with a standard keyboard and mouse, that’s not how everyone accesses digital content. A computer mouse is often not helpful to someone with a visual impairment (you need to be able to see to know where to click), or to someone with insufficient fine motor control. It’s important that all content can be accessed using a keyboard and other assistive technology, that the structure of the content is created using semantic markup, and that users have control over their experience (i.e. have an unlimited time to complete tasks, where possible; be able to play, rewind, or fast-forward video content, etc.).
Understandable
If people can’t understand the language used in your content, or can’t understand how to navigate and interact with your content, then it’s not going to be very accessible. When creating digital content, especially content that is going to be viewed by a wide audience, it’s best to use simple and concise language. Navigation should be created in a way that is simple, intuitive, and consistent throughout. Instructions should be provided when applicable and interactive elements should be clearly labelled.
Robust
In today’s world, people access digital content using a wide variety of operating systems, browsers, and devices. Content that is built to be robust will work no matter which technologies people choose to use.
Outside platforms
If you are working with any outside platforms, content creation software, etc., it’s important to review the accessibility of those pieces prior before getting to work. Before purchasing any product, be sure to ask questions about the accessibility features of the product, and think twice if they aren’t able to clearly and easily answer your questions.
Resources
If you’re looking for more resources on creating accessible digital content, these websites and courses are a great place to start.
- World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (website): The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) develops standards and support materials to help you understand and implement accessibility. The site provides an introduction to accessibility and basic accessibility principles, and provides personal stories from persons with disabilities.
- Web content accessibility guidelines (website): The web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) outline a shared standard for web accessibility and explain how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities. The guidelines present both the principles of accessibility and techniques for accomplishing accessibility.
- Understanding the four principles of accessibility (website): This resource by WebAIM provides an introduction to the four principles of web accessibility: perceivable, operable, understandable and robust (POUR). Understanding these principles before diving into techniques can help an educator see the bigger picture.
- An Introduction to Accessibility and Inclusive Design (online course): This free, self-paced online course introduces some of the fundamental principles of accessibility, the major types of disabilities and assistive technologies, and the major principles that guide universal design and accessible content creation.
- Basics of Inclusive Design for Online Education (online course): This free, self-paced online course provides strategies to support educators in developing a course that is inclusive to students with a wide range of abilities, including students with disabilities.
Featured image by Radek Grzybowski on Unsplash