Accessibility has been on our minds a lot lately and much of the focus has been on making our course materials more accessible. A forgotten but important area of accessibility is in public-facing work created by students. We often overlook the fact that the work we ask our students to produce and share out on the web also needs to meet accessibility standards. Communicating the importance of digital accessibility to students and incorporating bite-sized lessons on creating accessible materials is crucial to ensuring students learn this transferable skill that will be necessary and beneficial in their future careers.
Types of Student Projects that Need Accessibility Considerations
There are many types of student projects that need digital accessibility considerations. Below are a variety of project types that may be public-facing:
- websites and blogs
- videos and audio-visual essays
- podcasts
- posters, flyers, brochures
Students and faculty only need to focus on accessibility for public-facing projects. If assignments and projects are only being submitted to the instructor and will not be available for public consumption they do not need to meet accessibility standards, unless the student or instructor has a specific accessibility accommodation. However, it is of value to talk about the importance of having accessibility in mind when creating any type of work, for example, work that will be posted on Canvas for peers to view.
Core Accessibility Guidelines
Page Hierarchy
Page hierarchy uses headings and built-in styles to give your page structure. Use the headings available in the text formatting tools of your editing software (Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, Normal Text, etc.) to organize content on a page in an outline-like order. Make your page title a Heading 1 and identify your main topics with Heading 2, any sub-topics with Heading 3, and paragraphs with Normal Text, etc.
Resources for page hierarchy:
Color Contrast
Some users have difficulty perceiving text if there is too little contrast between foreground and background. It is required by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and a ratio of 3:1 for large text (at least 18pt or larger).
Resources for color contrast:
Descriptive Link Text
Links connect resources on the internet. Link text that doesn’t give the user any information about where the link goes, such as “click here” or “read more” is meaningless when read out of context. Write link text that describes the destination or purpose of the link.
Resources for descriptive link text:
Alternative (Alt) Text for Images
For people who may not be able to see or understand the image, alternative text (alt text) provides a meaningful description that can be read by assistive technology. All meaningful images must have alt text. Alt text should be succinct, just enough text to communicate the idea without burdening the user with unnecessary detail.
Resources for alt text:
- Alternative (Alt) text
- Introduction to Accessible Images
- Writing Effective Image Descriptions or "Alt Text"
Captions and Transcripts
Captions and transcripts are intended for people with auditory disabilities, but they are also helpful for non-native speakers, as a general aid to understanding, in noisy environments, and when there is a need to keep the volume low or off. Captions are a text equivalent of audio, synchronized and shown within the media player. Transcripts are documents that give the text equivalent of audio in a readable format, independent from the audio or media player.
Resources for captions and transcripts:
- Digital Accessibility Training - Multimedia (digital audio and video)
- Order Captions (Canvas, MiVideo)
- Captions & Transcripts (for video)
- Audio Description
- Adding captions in Adobe Premiere Pro
Planning for Accessibility
Planning for accessibility as part of a public-facing assignment is the best approach. Present accessibility as an integral, natural part of creating public-facing content. Students are equity-minded so they understand the importance of creating work that is accessible for everyone. Explaining to students that this is part of their work and its importance will go a long way.
Keep in mind that most projects will not require all of these guidelines. Students creating a podcast will need to think about including a transcript but don’t need to worry about alt text, color contrast or descriptive link text. Whereas a class focused on creating an image-heavy Wordpress site will need to focus on page structure, descriptive link text, and alt text for images. They won’t have to worry about captioning and creating transcripts.
Model these accessibility guidelines and provide examples for students. What does a transcript look like? What should the alt text be for a particular image? These are great conversations to have with students, and great ways to demonstrate these best practices.
Finally, think about how you’ll be assessing students’ use of accessibility elements. Are you grading on good faith–that they made the effort? That makes sense if your course doesn’t have creating accessible content as part of a learning outcome. Or are you grading on accuracy and quality? Perhaps you teach a course where creating accessible material is built into the learning outcomes, in a design or web editing course, for instance. Make sure to be upfront with your students by sharing your expectations and grading policies surrounding digital accessibility.
If you would like to speak more about digital accessibility for public-facing student work, please schedule a consultation with the LSA Learning and Teaching Consultants.
