Got a Minute? Creating Inclusive Digital Course Content for ALL Students

You can easily improve the accessibility of your digital course content for students, including those with a disability.  By building a more inclusive learning environment you are enhancing the usability, accessibility, and quality of the learning experience for all students.  Here are some low-effort adjustments you can make to begin creating more accessible content today:

  • Use a font size of at least 12pt. (Need we say more?) 
  • Ensure sufficient contrast between text and background for individuals with vision disabilities.  Paciello Group Contrast Analyzer is a great tool for this. 
  • Add rich descriptions to images and graphs to improve comprehension and engage learners with different learning modes.
  • Ensure all tables have column headings. This is especially important for assistive technology to provide context in a logical structure. If headers don’t make sense for the content, use a non-table framework. 
  • Create unambiguous names for all links that describe their destination, function, or purpose.   
  • Avoid scanned PDFs. They create lots of challenges for all students to read and study effectively. 
  • Tag all PDFs.  This is essential for assistive technology  and improves navigation for all. 
  • Well-structured documents help students organize and process texts; especially long and dense ones.  Use logically structured headings to make navigating documents easier for all.
  • Use only built-in PowerPoint slide templates to ensure slide design, colors, contrast, and fonts are accessible for all audiences. 
  • Leverage Ally for Blackboard to help make your content more accessible.

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Interested in learning more?  Check out the TLC to find more articles, upcoming workshops, and teaching tips.  Or make an appointment for a 1:1 consultation!