Ten questions to check whether your course content is accessible
After our recent blog postings "The ten technical principles of building effective courseware" and "The ten principles of effective courseware design", we thought we would continue in a similar vein with a posting on accessibility.
From the very start, we at Epigeum have taken accessibility seriously. We are keenly aware that university customers often have legal obligations under acts such as the DDA in the UK and Section 508 and make all reasonable efforts to ensure our courses comply with this legislation. However, most of all, we want all users to be able to benefit from our courses.
In writing this post we have tried to distil all our accessibility procedures into the ten key questions that we ask ourselves before releasing a course. Note that these principles aim to improve accessibility for all users and not just those protected under the various acts of legislation.
Wilma Alexander from the University of Edinburgh regularly advises us on accessibility issues and we are grateful, once again, to Wilma for helping us compile this list. So, here we go...
Q1.Does the content on a screen follow a logical order?
The purpose for this is to ensure the content makes sense when read by screen reader software. Our courses are built in HTML and one of the simple ways we check the content order is to remove the CSS so the screen can be seen without any design elements applied. Once the CSS is removed, do the remaining items of content read one after the other and appear in a logical order?
Related to ordering is the need to have a navigation menu clearly visible and available to be used. An up-to-date site map is also recommended.
Q2.Is the content navigable using only keyboard controls?
To ensure your content can be accessed by as many users as possible, users should be able to control the content using just a keyboard, meaning if the mouse was taken away, the user would still have full control.
Q3.Is there sufficient contrast between the text on a screen and the background behind it?
To help text be legible to as many users as possible, the W3C recommends a contrast ratio of at least 7:1 between any text and the background behind the text. There are a number of tools available to test contrast. We use the Colour Contrast Analyser for Mac OSX developed by Cedric Trevisan.
Q4.Do users have sufficient control over the content?
Interactive objects and video, as well as on screen text, should be under user control, so that the user can change the size and colour contrast by applying their own preferences or using control keys. Some of your users will expect to be able to zoom into any area of the screen and increase the size of text to increase readability.
Q5.Are transcripts or captions available for all audio and video elements?
All video and audio content should include a text alternative, including captions for on-screen events. Let the nature of the content determine whether to provide subtitles, transcripts or summary text. This is another way to provide alternative content for users who are unable to hear videos or audio files. Note that you should pay particularly close attention to the provision of captions if your institution strictly applies Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act.
Q6.Are all interactive items on a screen preceded by clear instructions?
Your pages should be written so that instructional text precedes any interactive objects so that users know how to use them. Also remember to include information to describe what settings and media players are needed to view your content.
Q7.Is help available on the screen?
Provide access to a help page at all times, so that users can get information on technical issues they may face when trying to use your site.
Q8.Are there any unnecessary links on the screen?
Using our courses as an example, they will never link to content on another page, the advantage of this being that when users are presented with a topic, it will be fully explained on the page they are currently on. Websites often use links to jump around to different pages, but try to get your information across in small chunks if possible, and avoid sending users around a site for the sake of having links. If a link will take a user to another site, or open a new browser window, warn them of this.
Q9.Could any interactions on the screen be changed so that they are more intuitive?
As well as providing instructional text to explain how to use interactive objects, you can also design them in such a way that they are easy to use and intuitive. The advantage of this is that users are not presented with something confusing, or which requires explanation.
Q10.Has alternative content been provided for all images, videos and interactive objects?
A text description given for all images, videos and interactive objects will go a long way to making your site accessible. This final point is especially important as, however hard you try, it is sometimes impossible to ensure that all items of multimedia or iterative content is equally accessible to all users. Unfortunately, although the answers to questions 1-9 above may identify that there is more that you can do, providing alternative content may be the only solution. At Epigeum we now provide printable, text-based pages for all screens on our courses.
Those are our ten questions. We'd be interested to know how this compares with your own efforts so please post a comment below and let us know.
Final note
We also find the following resources useful:
TechDis
http://www.techdis.ac.uk
From the UK and one of the definitive sources of information for accessible educational content.
The W3C WCAG Guidelines
http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php
Accessibility guidelines from the W3C.
PAS 78
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/uploaded_files/pas78_word.doc
A guide to creating websites compliant with the UK DDA published by the British Standards Institution in collaboration with the Disability Rights Commission.
WebbIE
http://www.webbie.org.uk/
A free browser for people with little or no sight. Useful to check how accessible your content is.
W3C validator
http://validator.w3.org/
A free valid HTML checker to highlight problem areas.
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