Mini-Course: Accessibility 101
Introduction
In a world rapidly becoming virtual, accessibility in digital environments is crucial for developers, designers, and educators. While most people agree on the ethical importance of accessibility, learning the skill of making documents, multimedia, eLearning, websites, designs, and other digital assets accessible can be a daunting task. My goal is to get you started by offering relevant information, providing tools to help you learn and check for accessibility, and giving examples of accessible assets. In this course, we will explore the following questions:​
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How do I create accessible digital assets?
What is Accessibility?
Wikipedia defines accessibility as “the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities.”
Screen readers are one of many examples of technologies that people with visual impairments use to help them navigate the digital world.
Why is Accessibility important?
According to the World Health Organization, over 1 billion people suffer from some kind of disability.
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Behind every statistic is a human being. When it's difficult to imagine the sheer volume of people with some kind of disability, it's helpful to think of someone you know. My aunt has MS, my coworker is hard of hearing, or my friend has ADHD.
Nobody should be excluded from participating in the world because of a disability. Equal access for disabled persons is a human right.
Four Kinds of Impairment
This video discusses the four main categories of impairments/disabilities that affect a persons' ability to use technology for learning. These include: Visual, Auditory, Mobility, and Cognitive. It will go over different types of assistive technologies used by users with disabilities, and offer some key takeaways for learning designers.
Accessibility Tip #1 - Video
In the video example above about the four kinds of impairments, the primary element that makes it accessible is the addition of captions. Audio descriptions and video transcripts (linked above) are other accessibility features that can be added when relevant.
Captions
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Adding captions to a video not only allows people with hearing impairment to enjoy the content but users who may not be able to listen with audio due to their environment. Here are some guidelines for captioning:
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Leave enough room so you don't cover faces
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Use one or two lines for text
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Caption the exact words of speakers, including slang
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Synchronize captions with audio content
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Use uppercase and lowercase letters
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There are plenty of tools that can help you caption videos. Here is a good website to get you started:
Captioning Video for Free. You can also use the auto-captioning feature if you're uploading a video to Youtube.
Audio Descriptions
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The University of Washington (UW) describes audio descriptions as "a separate narrative audio track that describes important visual content, making it accessible to people who cannot see the video. Individuals who are blind can understand much of a video’s content by listening to its audio."
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If you're doing audio descriptions yourself, you can use the same tools from Captioning Video for Free to add audio descriptions with a timed text file.
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Playing videos with audio descriptions requires a video player that can support this feature. AblePlayer is an open-source media player that was developed by UW.
History of Accessibility Civil Rights and Law
1917-1920’s
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1917 - The American Red Cross opened its first institution dedicated to training amputees, “The Institute for Crippled and Disabled Men”.
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1918 - Smith-Sears Vocational Rehabilitation Act was put into law.
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1920 - The Disabled Veterans of the World War was established, which eventually became the Disabled American Veterans (DAV).
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1921 - The next year the United States Veterans Bureau was established.
1960’s & 1970’s
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1960s - Disability advocates joined the Civil Rights Movement and the Women’s Rights Movement.
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1973 - The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was put into law. Section 504 outlined equal opportunity for employment, prohibited discrimination on the basis of physical or mental disability, and established the Architectural and Transportational Barriers Compliance Board, which mandated equal access to public services.
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1975 - The Education for All Handicapped Children Act was put into law.
1980’s & 1990’s
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1980s - Continual lobbying to change the Civil Rights Act to include persons with disabilities took place.
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1990 - The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was put into law.
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1990 - “Education for All Handicapped Children” was renamed to the “Individuals with Disabilities Education Act” (IDEA).
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1998 - Section 508 of the Amended Rehabilitations Act of 1974 was amended to include all digital media.
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1999 - W3C released Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0.
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2000’s
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2000 - The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (ATAG) was released. Finally in
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2008 - WCAG 2.0 was released. This refocused accessibility web guidelines from compliance to principles. The four guiding principles, known as POUR, are Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust.”
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2010 - The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) was passed.
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2015 - ATAG 2.0 was released
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2018 - WCAG 2.1 was released which included guidelines for cognitive disabilities, low vision, and users with disabilities on mobile devices.
To dive in deeper to the history, ethics, and laws, check out this accessible google document, "Accessibility in a Nutshell."
Accessibility Tip #2 - Documents
There are a number of universal principles that apply to any digital word-processing document, such as Microsoft Word, Pages, Google Docs, or Adobe PDF. Apply the following guidelines if you want to ensure accessibility in your document:
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Use headings
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Use lists
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Use meaningful hyperlinks
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Add alternate text to images
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Identify document language
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Use tables wisely
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Understand how to export from one format to another
For more detailed information on these guidelines, visit UW’s “Creating Accessible Documents” page.
If you want to make a Google Doc accessible, the Grackle Docs Extension can be used to check accessibility and tag tables properly. (Google Docs currently has no way of doing this without an extension.) View the document "Accessibility in a Nutshell" link above for an example of an accessible google document.
Accessibility Tip # 3 - Infographics & PDF's
As you may have noticed in the above infographic, the design tools we use to make infographics and other graphics have a long way to go in accessibility, both in using the tool and exporting accessible assets. The easiest way to make an infographic accessible is to provide an alternative text option, like the one above, that outlines the content of the infographic in true text.
PDFs
When exporting an infographic to a PDF, it may need a lot of “doctoring” in Adobe Acrobat Pro to make it accessible. Running the accessibility checker will help get you started, but there are two things you must do manually: checking contrast and defining the reading order.
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To check the color contrast, you can use the external WebAim Contrast Checker tool. This tool includes an eyedropper that will let you sample a color from anywhere on your screen.
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The reading order panel will allow you to select the order screen readers will read a document, as well as assign proper headings to text.
Additionally, two other considerations will add accessibility to your PDFs. First, add alt-text to images. Any elements (shapes, images, etc.) that are decorative can be marked as such and will not come up on screen readers. Second, any links included in your source document may need to be identified and linked again.
Universal Design for Learning
Universal Design (UD) is the “design and composition of an environment so that it can be accessed, understood and used to the greatest extent possible by all people regardless of their age, size, ability or disability”. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) builds on UD principles to “improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn”.
UDL Principles
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The WHY: Provide multiple means of engagement
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The WHAT: Provide multiple means of representation
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The HOW: Provide multiple means of action and expression
To dive deeper into the principles of Universal Design, Universal Design for Learning, and Universal Design for Instruction, view the accessible presentation.
Accessibility Tip #4 - Presentations
Creating accessible presentations in Microsoft Powerpoint can be accomplished when you follow these guidelines:
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Check accessibility while you work
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Create accessible slides
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Avoid using tables
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Add alt-text to visuals
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Create accessible hyperlink text and add ScreenTips
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Use accessible font format and color
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Use captions, subtitles, and alternative audio tracks in videos
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Save your presentation in a different format
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Test accessibility with a screen reader
Microsoft has more detailed support for diving into accessibility in Powerpoint. Read more about it: Best practices for making PowerPoint presentations accessible. View the above presentation for an example of an accessible Powerpoint Presentation.
Checking Accessibility
Because accessibility features can't always been seen, it's important to utilize built-in and external accessibility checkers to thoroughly check for errors. Keep in mind that accessibility checkers will not find all problems, and at times identify errors incorrectly. This is why it's important to be familiar with the principles of accessibility from the start.
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Siteimprove Website Accessibility Checker
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Grackle Docs Accessibility Checker (Google Workspace)
The following Learner Experience Rubric is a resource designed to help you assess your learning experiences through the lens of Universal Design for Learning and Accessibility.