In this article, we look at how to design accessible courses for higher education students.

Easy-to-read font

Sans serif is the ideal font style to use to design accessible courses for higher education students. This is because unlike fonts such as Times New Roman and Palatino, Sans Serif does not have additional strokes attached to the letters. Sans Serif font style includes Arial and Helvetica. Once you have decided upon the font style, ensure consistency of use throughout the course.  This is because by minimizing font variation, or any other type of variation, you can ensure greater focus on the content.

Color contrast for text 

Another factor to consider is text design. For better usability and accessibility, use a dark colored font on a light background. Also known as high contrast, the ideal text design method is to use black font on a white background. However, you can use any other color – the only thing to keep in mind is to avoid the use of extremely bright background colors such as yellow and red. Other combinations to avoid are red and green, and yellow and blue. This is because students with color blindness would not be able to differentiate the text from the background.

Also Read: 5 Reasons Why Enterprises Need to be WCAG Compliant

Keep text formatting simple

The next option to examine in designing accessible courses for higher education students is text formatting. The thumb rule is to follow the ‘less is more’ approach. Avoid unnecessary use of bold and italics. Also, only underline content that is to be hyperlinked. As with text design and font, variations will discourage students with disabilities to engage with the content. Besides, it will take away attention from the course. While formatting, ensure consistency on all pages of the course content. So, if you have placed images on the right side on one page, they should be similarly placed on all other pages. The same also holds true for page navigation, placement of buttons etc. Also, in case you have pop-up windows, buttons for call to action should be clear, especially the ‘X’ sign for closing the window.

Avoid animated graphics

Graphics are a powerful means to illustrate and exemplify online course content. To make accessible courses for higher education students, avoid animated and blinking images or graphics that put strain on the eye. The images should be relevant to the content and easily visible in high resolution. The next step in designing inclusive content is to add an alt tag or text to describe the images or graphics.

Add audio/video files

As with images and graphics, add clear audio and video content for students with reading and hearing disabilities. Ensure that the audio content is clear and has no background noise. Also include transcriptions of the audio and video lectures which students can access with assistive technologies. Use a format, for example, the MP3 (audio) or MP4 (video) file format, which is accessible on a universal audio or video player.   

Searchable text

All the text within a course should be searchable, allowing students to search for content within a document. Then again, tables and exhibits should have identifying labels, headers and summaries.

Keyboard navigation

It is important to keep in mind that not all students are comfortable with the touchscreen or a grip mouse. While designing accessible courses for higher education students, make sure that the course content can be accessed by keyboard alone or otherwise employ all accessible practices.