Digital Accessibility: 10 Essential Skills

"Accessibility: It's about people" - World Wide Web Consortium on addressing the needs of diverse abilities.

Digital accessibility in higher education ensures all learners, regardless of disability, temporary barrier, health condition, or other needs, can access and fully engage with your content. Beyond accommodating disclosed issues through Student Disability Services, digital accessibility is a proactive, ethical commitment to equity and excellence at UIW.

Practical strategies that shape your everyday behaviors are key to success. This article equips content creators with ten essential skills to begin meeting digital accessibility standards, foster an inclusive learning environment, and increase Ally scores in Canvas.

Skill 1: Select Compliant Assets & Content

Responsibly selecting tech products and content is equally as important as ensuring your own content meets compliance standards.

Be aware content creators overlook digital accessibility, commonly excluding the use of headings, alt text, captions, and more.
Scrutinize both free materials and purchased products, even those from reputable companies.
Contact the author to request they fix their media before using it in your course or select alternative materials.
Confirm webpages you link to are accessible with ANDI, a browser extension, or a variety of accessibility evaluation tools.

Examples for Selecting Accessible Content

✔ Rather than select a YouTube anatomy video without captions, locate an anatomy video with captions and watch to confirm accuracy.

✔ Rather than use pdf ebooks that score low when uploaded in Canvas, search for alternative educational content that scores higher.

Skill 2: Monitor Your Own Compliance

Many products come with features that check the accessibility of your content while you create it.

Office applications have the Microsoft Accessibility Checker and a robust collection of M365 accessibility resources.
Save time with accessible MS Office templates or make your own.
Ensure documents are accessible within the editing program before saving to PDF.
The Rich Content Editor (RCE) accessibility checker gives you feedback anywhere you type in Canvas.
Work toward a 100% report score in Ally when creating your Canvas courses.
Recognize accessibility checkers are not perfect, don't rely on the feedback alone.

Examples for Monitoring Your Own Content

✔ Even if Word Accessibility Checker indicates no issues with your document, you include alt text, headings, and format for readability.

✔ When content in your Canvas course shows a red or orange indicator, you investigate the issue and correct it.

✔ Although Ally does not check for transcripts or captions, you ensure all videos in your Canvas courses have transcript and caption accessibility features.

Word, Canvas RCE, & Ally Accessibility Checkers

Skill 3: Write Clearly & Concisely

Digital accessibility begins with simplifying the communication of complex ideas to improve comprehension.

Explain in shorter sentences and paragraphs.
Write instructions that reflect expected workflow.
Use bullets or numbered lists when appropriate.

Examples for Accessible Writing

Writing Before Accessibility Considerations Writing After Editing for Accessibility In accordance with the latest research findings and after thorough analysis of the data collected over the past semester, it has been determined that there is a significant correlation between the amount of time spent on studying and the improvement in students' academic performance. Recent research shows a significant correlation between study time and improved academic performance. Due to the fact that the patient is experiencing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which is commonly referred to by its abbreviation COPD, and has a history of smoking for a duration of over twenty years, it is highly recommended that they cease smoking immediately to improve their respiratory function and overall health status. The patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and a 20-year smoking history should stop smoking immediately to improve respiratory function and overall health. To successfully complete this project, you need to follow several important steps. First, you should conduct thorough research on the topic to gather all necessary information. Next, create an outline to organize your findings and plan the structure of your project. Once the outline is ready, start drafting the content, ensuring that each section is clear and concise. After completing the draft, review and revise your work to improve clarity and coherence. Then, proofread the entire document to correct any grammatical errors and ensure that it meets all the requirements. Last, save the document with your last name and course section in the file name to submit in Canvas.

To complete this project:

Conduct thorough research on the topic to gather all necessary information.
Create an outline to organize your findings and plan the structure of your project.
Save the document with your last name and course section in the file name.
Draft the content, ensuring that each section is clear and concise.
Review and revise your work to improve clarity and coherence.
Proofread the entire document to correct any grammatical errors and ensure it meets the requirements.
Submit in Canvas.

Skill 4: Choose High Color Contrast

Create better visibility, as low vision, color blindness, and lighting challenges can impact a person's ability to see your information.

Check the contrast ratio of your colors is high enough to meet contrast minimum standards.
Craft an accessible color palette at the start of your project, before creating documents, images, or slide decks.
Avoid color issues, including combining red with green and yellow with blue, pastel shades on light backgrounds, and text on textures.
Know the monitor, projector, room lights, and sunlight all impact visibility.

Examples for Accessible Color Choices

✔ Rather than two shades of blue with a 2:1 contrast ratio, use a dark blue font on a light grey background with a 5:1 contrast ratio.

✔ Skip placing text on a busy image background in favor of visuals designed that stand out.

Skill 5: Consistently Format & Use Headings

Consistency and hierarchical structure enhance readability of digital content, while style elements ensure the functionality of assistive technology.

To properly format documents and Canvas content:

Use sans-serif fonts like Aptos, Arial, Verdana, or Helvetica, which are easier to read on screens.
Use headings, subheadings, and enough white space to break up your content.
Use a minimum 12-point font for paragraph text, but 24-point or larger on slide decks.
Formatting guidelines also work when creating Outlook emails, PowerPoint slides, Excel spreadsheets, Canvas Pages, and any other web applications you decide to use.

Examples for Accessible Formatting

✔ A document is set with Heading 1 for the title.

✔ Line spacing is adjusted so the content is easier to read online.

✔ Headings and subheadings create hierarchy to make it easier to listen with a screen reader.

Document formatted with the title as H1, two H2 sections, and one paragraph with a H3 heading. Comparing Text Before and After Formatting for Accessibility

Skill 6: Convey Meaning Beyond Using Color

While color is used to grab attention and highlight importance, reconsider the use of color to convey meaning.

Use a colorblind filter to verify web content is visible.
Select color pairs safe for colorblindness.
Use text labeling as a secondary method.
Know that not all screen readers announce bold, underline, or italics.

Examples for Accessibly Conveying Meaning

✔ You instruct students to meet at a location with a parking map; Instead of saying park in the blue lot, you also provide a lot number.

The colors in this map blend together for all four types of colorblindness.

✔ When writing identification test questions, ensure color selections correspond with labeled answer choices.

Colored capsules are numbered as a secondary label.

Skill 7: Use Keywords & Underline Hyperlinks

Like the links in this guide, provide context for the topic or purpose behind visiting the web address you want to share.

Add your link to a few descriptive words rather than click here, read more, or an entire sentence.
Use a high contrast color and underline links if the program you're using doesn't do this by default - many do.
Don't paste the entire web address as screen readers convey this information one letter/number at a time, making them difficult to decipher.
Know people can right-click your link to get the full web address if they need it.

Examples for Accessible Links

Link Formatting Issues Links After Revisions For more information on accessible hyperlinks, click here. Watch how to make accessible hyperlinks. Learn more about making meaningful links by visiting this website https://www.wcag.com/blog/writing-meaningful-link-text/ Read more about writing meaningful link text.

Skill 8: Include Alt Text for Images or Mark Decorative

Alternative (alt) text is a written description when images communicate important information or represent a function, otherwise images are marked decorative.

Alt text conveys useful details only.
Avoid redundant explanations. If the page text explains, alt text does not need to repeat it.
alt="" is the html code for decorative images if your program does not have a built-in feature.
Know alt text is read out loud for anyone using a screen reader, but it is also visible to anyone if their computer is unable to display the image.

Examples for Accessible Images

✔ An hourglass icon used with "Required Assignment" as a text heading is marked decorative.

✔ Alt text for an image of red blood cells used in a lesson on hematology: Red blood cells get their color from hemoglobin.

✔ Alt text for images used to create linked buttons states the destination such as Week 1 Module, Week 2 Module, or Week 3 Module.

Skill 9: Use Simple Tables for Data

Reserve the use of tables for data only, rather than for arranging your content layout.

Keep your table simple and deliver information pertaining to one topic.
Include a table caption and format a header row.
Separate each piece of data into its own cell.
Do not merge cells.

Examples for Accessible Tables

Inaccessible Tables Accessible Tables

A table used to display videos is difficult to navigate.

Skill 10: Media Descriptions, Transcripts, & Captions

When making audio and video, ensure visuals are audible and sounds are visible.

For all audio and video, provide a written transcript and synced captions - remember, what is heard can be read.
For video recordings with visual elements not explained within the dialogue, provide audio descriptions - remember, what is seen can be heard.
Know that transcript generation takes time, the process is not instantaneous, and delays can occur.

Examples for Accessible Audio and Video

✔ Use any recording product but save your media file to OneDrive to create a transcript and captions with Stream/Clipchamp.

✔ Create audio and video with transcripts and captions in Canvas Studio.

✔ Create or find video with audio descriptions.

Digital Accessibility Resources

While the skills in this article make a substantial difference, we encourage all content creators to learn more about digital accessibility: