Five Tips on Making Your Online Learning More Accessible: Home

Hyperlinks

• For short links, like http://www.charlotteahec.org, you can place the link address within a sentence.
• For longer links, formatting the link within descriptive text increases readability.
• Avoid using "click here." It isn't descriptive, and doesn't help a person using a reader understand the text.

Text Design

• High contrast - light background with dark-colored font.
• Avoid yellow-blue or red-green combinations because individuals with color blindness have difficulty differentiating.
• Less is more - avoid unnecessary formatting. Use bolds and italics sparingly
• Underlining should be reserved for hyperlinks.
• Use sans serif font for readability.
• A sans serif font does not use any unnecessary strokes in its letters.

This is an example of a serif font.

This is an example of a sans serif font.

Images/Graphics

• Relevant to the content
• Clear and easy to see (preferably in high resolution)
• Avoid animated or blinking images - this isn't the 90s!
• Use alt text (alternative text) to write descriptions of the image. Most learning management systems (LMS) have a way to include this when adding a graphic.

Audio/Visual

• Clear audio and video with minimal background noise.
• Avoid blurred refocusing and excessive movement like "shaky cam."
• Both audio and visual files should have written transcriptions (closed captioning).
• Try to keep the videos short. 3-10 minutes is optimal.
• If the content takes longer, try to break it up into segments.

Documents

• All text should be searchable within the document.
• If a document (like a PDF) isn't searchable, an accompanying text version should be made available.
• Any table or chart should have identifying headers and labels, as well as summaries.
• There should be an accessibility statement for learners which outlines any ADA procedures.