Thinking about your course design and teaching style can help meet the needs of people with different backgrounds, abilities and learning styles.  Accessible education is not just about disabilities.  A proactive, inclusive approach can remove barriers before they can affect anyone.

Consider the following ways to increase accessibility in your online course: 

  • Add close captioning for videos, including recorded lectures.
  • Include transcripts for videos – this would probably apply more to videos used for instruction.
  • Make sure your PDFs and Word documents are accessible (e.g., use headings/tags to ensure readers can identify reading order).
  • Make Powerpoint slides accessible by using accessible fonts, headings and including alternative text for images.
  • Use Microsoft's Accessibility Checker to assess the accessibility of your Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and OneNote files.
For more information or to get help, contact YukonU's Accessibility Services at the Learning Assistance Centre. 

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

Universal design principles, developed for product design, were introduced to educational design to ensure accessibility for persons with disability.  They have since evolved to encompass a wider diversity of learners.  

Incorporating UDL's three core principles in your learning design will benefit all learners: 

  1. multiple means of representation: give learners ways of acquiring information and knowledge 
  2. multiple means of action and expression: provide learners alternatives for demonstrating what they know 
  3. multiple means of engagement: offer learners ways to participate that interest them, offer appropriate challenges and increase motivation. 

For more information on UDL see the UDL Guidelines on the CAST website.  

References


Last modified: Tuesday, June 15, 2021, 2:51 PM