How to make your ecourse accessible

The practice of making things accessible is all around us.  Think about it: the buildings that you have walked into today … how wide were the doors? Were there handicap spaces? What was the contrast of their sign like?  How was their information displayed?

Businesses constantly have to keep in mind how to keep their information, advertisements, and more accessible to the public.  In the same way, you have to make sure that your course is accessible.  Here are the top two things to consider when making your course accessible.

Contrast

When you work on your course, keep in mind your color scheme.  If your primary color scheme is black and red and you decide to do black text on a red background, then the color choice is going to strain students’ eyes, it can give some headaches, and it is also distracting.  The primary goal is to share your information with others.  This can’t be done with a color scheme that makes it difficult to read or makes it difficult to see buttons. 

The safest color combination is always going to be black and white, however that too can wear on the eyes.  This is where it is important to do your color wheel research: contrasting colors work well together in art, but this doesn’t mean that they are going to work well as a background and text. 

I highly suggest researching what the best reading contrast is and work from there. For instance, you will want to avoid placing dark blue text on black backgrounds.

Once you are sure that your color scheme isn’t going to distract, and also pays attention to the needs of those that are color blind, then you’re ready to go.  

Clarity

This applies to everything in your course from sales pages to handouts.  Clarity requires you to pay attention to wording, crowded handouts, clear language, and easy-to-see graphics and/or pictures.  Other than the color scheme, this is the other most important element of accessibility. 

• Clarity can be added to your course by doing the following:
  • Make sure your handouts have enough whitespace to allow students to process information.
  • Include tutorial videos that walk students through the sign-up process.
  • Include tutorial videos that walk through the website for students.
  • Keep course menus simple.
  • Date materials for students if you aren’t making evergreen content.
  • Record videos with good quality mics and cameras.
  • Post PowerPoints so that students can review the information.
  • Make sure all resources are available in multiple formats.
  • If possible, provide transcripts or closed captioning.

Any course, and even the website hosting your course, have to be accessible.  If you make your course as accessible as possible, then you can reach more and more people.  When you take into consideration color and clarity when making a course accessible, then you are going to have a product that is ready for the masses. 

Do your research, find what works best for your brand, and hop to it!

Implementation: Try an accessibility tactic in your course.  Tell us how it went!