3 Ways to Meet Modern Online Course Accessibility Needs

One of the driving factors of online course success in today’s learning programs is accessibility. Course accessibility is essential in providing readily available and consistent content to a wide audience of learners. In order to provide accessible content, your LMS must offer the flexibility and variety needed to incorporate tools that can support multiple methods of learning and delivery, allowing you to ensure a smooth and engaging experience for all of your learners.

Making Your Content More Accessible

In order to provide accessible course content, there are a number of details you should consider when building your learning programs. Ask yourself these questions:

• Are the components within your course accessible to learners with visual, physical, speech, cognitive, auditory, and neurological impairments?
• Is my course descriptive, easy to navigate, and intuitive in design?
• Put yourself in the learners’ shoes: can you follow the course instructions while seeing things from their perspective (literally)?

With many organizations more heavily incorporating remote learning into their training programs, these questions might need to be reevaluated. Below are three ways to ensure your content is consistently accessible for your learners.

1) Provide Multiple Forms of Content

It’s no secret that the needs of learners have evolved dramatically in recent years, presenting a demand for increasingly interactive experiences that can offer visual, audio, or gamified functionality. However, what works best for one learner might not be the best option for another, especially when learning in remote environments. It’s important to evaluate accessibility with a fresh perspective. Understand that the needs of learners vary, and having content readily available in multiple formats—not just what you expect will be most engaging for learners—is crucial in ensuring a fair and comprehensive learning experience for everyone.

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2) Evaluate All Aspects of Design Elements

While it can be fun to optimize and beautify your course with funky colors, fonts, or functionality, course accessibility should be your top priority when building out the look and design of your course. Consider font size, colors used on the webpage or behind text, and whether your course contains potentially distracting or even unrecognizable content to some learners. Design your course so that it is accessible using a keyboard or incorporate responsive design for those using tablets or phones. Furthermore, avoid complex interactions—interacting with learning animation such as drag-and-drop interactions aren’t always feasible for learners with disabilities.

3) Ensure Interoperability with Accessible Tools

Interoperability is extremely important for accessibility, particularly when supporting learners with disabilities. Your LMS must be compatible with assistive technology, such as screen readers or physical hardware devices that help learners interact with the content. To ensure seamless integrations, consider an open-source product like Moodle™ or one of the Open LMS solutions available. Consider these important factors to build courses with accessibility in mind. In order to provide an equally engaging and impactful learning experience to all constituents, it is important that all your learners feel comfortable and supported when interacting with your course content.