Digital accessibility means designing and sharing course materials so that all students—including those with disabilities—can access, understand, and engage with them. The goal is for every student to be “able to obtain the information as fully, equally, and independently as a person without a disability.”
Faculty play a key role in ensuring accessibility when creating or selecting digital instructional materials—such as websites, Blackboard pages, videos, slides, and documents. Building accessibility into your workflow from the start helps all students, not just those with disabilities. It can also improve organization, engagement, and overall learning clarity.
Documents - When creating Word docs or Google Docs, use the program’s built in formatting tools, non-decorative fonts, descriptive hyperlinks, and image descriptions (Alt Text). Run the Check Accessibility Tool to help identify potential barriers.
Presentations - When creating PowerPoints or Google Slides, use pre-designed slides and large-point fonts, along with features used in documents. For videos, provide captions and transcripts. Make content available to students ahead of time.
Web Media - When linking to external web content (articles, videos, websites), evaluate whether that content is accessible. For required course materials created by a publisher, discuss accessibility measures with a representative.
Creating accessible materials involves both everyday design practices and ongoing processes that keep accessibility at the center of your work. The following strategies outline key actions faculty can take to ensure course materials are usable and inclusive for all students.
Text Appearance
Use standard, non-decorative fonts such as Times New Roman, Calibri, Arial, or Helvetica, at a minimum of 12-point size. For layout and spacing, use built-in document tools (tab stops, indents, and page breaks) rather than inserting extra spaces or line breaks. Learn more about Accessible Fonts and Typography.
Color and Contrast
Because people perceive color differently, ensure high contrast between text and background. Avoid using color alone to convey meaning (e.g., “All red items are required”). Learn more about Use of Color. Learn more about Learn more about Contrast (Minimum).
Headings and Structure
Use your word processor’s built-in heading and paragraph styles to organize content. These create an outline that screen readers can navigate and make documents easier for everyone to read—avoid manually bolding or enlarging text to create headings. Learn more about Headings and Labels.
Web Links
Use descriptive hyperlink text (e.g., “Visit the Library Research Guide”) rather than full URLs or generic phrases like “Click here.” Learn more about Link Purpose (In Context).
Images and Graphics
Add Alt Text that describes the content and purpose of any image, chart, or table so that users who cannot see the image can still understand it.
Captions and Transcripts
Provide accurate captions for all videos, including relevant sounds (music, effects, speaker changes), and include a text transcript that captures both spoken words and important visual information. Learn more about Captions.
Accessibility is an ongoing practice rather than a one-time fix. Integrating these strategies into your regular course preparation ensures that all students can fully participate in learning from day one.
Blackboard Ultra Training
https://www.codlearningtech.org/training/
Blackboard Ultra is a more modern, accessible, and mobile-friendly Learning Management System. Learning Technologies facilitates on-demand training, workshops, labs, and 5-week courses in support of course design, course conversion, and more. Check out the training schedule for upcoming opportunities.
Virtual Instructional Designer Appointments
Need a little extra help with your courses or specific questions about moving to Ultra? We’ve got Instructional Designers for that! We now have a request form that allows you to book a 30 minute virtual session (via Teams) with one of Instructional Designers. Before booking a 30-minute virtual appointment with an instructional designer, we strongly encourage you to complete Blackboard Ultra training (available in both live and self-paced formats). These sessions will give you the foundation you need so our meeting time can focus on your specific questions and course needs.
Find out how to make sure that everyone can read, work with, and enjoy the documents, presentations, emails, and spreadsheets you and your team create and share.
WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool) Browser Extensions
https://wave.webaim.org/extension/
The WAVE Chrome, Firefox, and Edge extensions allows you to evaluate web content for accessibility issues directly within your browser. Because the extension runs entirely within your web browser, no information is sent to the WAVE server. This ensures 100% private and secure accessibility reporting. The extension can check intranet, password-protected, dynamically generated, or sensitive web pages. Also, because the WAVE extension evaluates the rendered version of your page, locally displayed styles and dynamically-generated content from scripts or AJAX can be evaluated.
Introduction to Web Accessibility - W3C
https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/accessibility-intro/
When websites and web tools are properly designed and coded, people with disabilities can use them. However, currently many sites and tools are developed with accessibility barriers that make them difficult or impossible for some people to use. Making the web accessible benefits individuals, businesses, and society. International web standards define what is needed for accessibility.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1
https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 covers a wide range of recommendations for making web content more accessible. Following these guidelines will make content more accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities, including accommodations for blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity, and combinations of these, and some accommodation for learning disabilities and cognitive limitations; but will not address every user need for people with these disabilities. These guidelines address accessibility of web content on any kind of device (including desktops, laptops, kiosks, and mobile devices). Following these guidelines will also often make web content more usable to users in general.
Digital Accessibility for the Modern Workplace - LinkedIn Learning
The move towards a more digital workplace affects everyone, from newly remote employees to frontline workers. With technology being such a critical part of how we do our jobs, having accessible solutions is essential to providing an inclusive workplace. In this course, join Hector Minto, an accessibility evangelist at Microsoft, as he shares how to use accessibility solutions across your tools and processes. Hector covers the importance of accessibility, as well as how modern trends have brought accessibility to the forefront. He also shares technology solutions for each type of disability and provides best practices for developing more inclusive experiences in your meetings, emails, presentations, and social media posts. After taking this course, you’ll have the tools you need to start creating a work environment that is inclusive.
This guide is adapted from the document Digital Accessibility for Faculty by the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Oakland University and has been made available under a CC BY-NC license.