Recent legislation requires that all digital content must meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1AA (WCAG 2.1AA). This ruling ensures that all learners, regardless of status of disability, will have equitable access to course learning materials. This page makes general recommendations for ensuring that your course is accessible.
Table of Contents
- Proactively Ensure File Accessibility
- Check your Course Accessibility Score
- Ensure Clear & Consistent Structure
- Ensure that Links are Clear and Descriptive
- Captions & Transcripts
- Audio Descriptions
- Visuals (Images, Graphs, & Tables)
- Alternative Text for Images in Test Questions
- PDFs
- Additional Resources
Proactively Ensure File Accessibility
The best way to ensure your course is accessible is to be proactive. Check file accessibility as you develop or curate learning materials. You can do this by using Accessibility checkers built into programs such as Microsoft Office. Consider making it a habit to keep these checkers on as you work.
- Run the Microsoft’s Accessibility Checker while you’re working within Microsoft Office Products.
- Run Adobe Acrobat’s PDF Checker to check your PDF documents.
- Review our Guide to Accessible Documents
Check your Course Accessibility Score
Make yourself aware of the type of accessibility issues your course faces by checking your Ally Course Accessibility Report.
- Run the Ally Accessibility Report to get a baseline of your current accessibility score and issues.
Ensure Clear & Consistent Structure
- Ensure that navigation and structure is consistent throughout your learning modules.
- Make sure content and folders are clearly labeled with the purpose of the content.
- Instead of “Lesson Slides” use “Slides for Photosynthesis Lesson.”
- Instead of “Quiz” say “Chapter One Quiz”
- Compare the folder structure between different units and think of ways to keep them consistent.
Ensure that Links are Clear and Descriptive
- Avoid non-descriptive links such as “Click here”, “More Info”, or “Details…”
- Avoid posting URLS as links such as http://mywebsiteorblog.fakesite/1231435346/34623435/.
- These are really difficult for assistive technology to interpret.
- Instead, use descriptive links such as “Article: Title of Article.”
Captions & Transcripts
- Ensure your live webinar tools support captions. Zoom and Teams are capable of this.
- Ensure all pre-recorded material includes captions and transcripts. UAMS’ Kaltura video service provides editable captions and transcripts.
Audio Descriptions
If you are showing animations, ensure that it includes an audio description that describes that process.
- Instead of just showing an animation in a video, include narration that describes what is happening.
Visuals (Images, Graphs, & Tables)
- Ensure that all images include alternative text. The ally report can you help you identify images without alt-text.
- Ensure graphs and charts within documents include captions and alternative text.
- Ensure that tables do not have merged cells unless necessary.
- Do not use tables to organize your pages.
- Ensure tables have a header row or column.
- Avoid pictures of tables or text.
Alternative Text for Images in Test Questions
When using images in test questions, providing accurate and meaningful alternative text (alt text) is essential for accessibility. Alt text should describe the image’s key elements without revealing the correct answer or leading students toward a specific response.
Best Practices:
- Be descriptive but neutral – Describe what’s visible without interpreting the image.
- Avoid giving away the answer – Don’t use language that hints at the correct choice.
- Ensure clarity – Keep descriptions concise but informative.
Examples:
Not great: “X-ray showing a fractured bone.” (Gives away the answer!)
Better: “X-ray of a lower limb with labeled structures.” (Provides context without revealing the answer.)
Not great: “Diagram illustrating the stages of mitosis, highlighting metaphase.”
Better: “Labeled diagram of the stages of cell division.”
Not great: “CT scan showing subdural hematoma.” (Gives away the answer!)
Better: “CT scan of a human brain with multiple labeled regions.” (Keeps it neutral and accessible.)
PDFs
- It’s easier to fix PDF accessibility in their original source format, such as Microsoft Word. Simply run the Accessibility Checker in Word.
- Consider uploading Word Documents over PDFs. They are easier to go back and fix.
- Avoid uploading scanned documents or handwritten notes. Find alternatives when possible.
- These often do not include screen readable text.
- As a last case scenario, use OCR tools to make the text screen readable, however, these become difficult to tag and fix.
- Save Word Documents as PDFs, do not Print as PDF.
Additional Resources
General
- Explore Access’ Online Learning Toolkit
- Blackboard Accessibility Reports
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1