QM 8.3 Text in the course is accessible. (Essential)

Owned by Gina Persichini
Dec 20, 2024
1 min read

Accessible text works seamlessly with assistive technologies, such as screen readers. Making text accessible means that all students, regardless of their physical abilities or learning preferences, can access, understand, and benefit from the educational materials. This standard includes the text in the course modules, but also text found in files, documents, slides, articles, pages, and websites.

Refresh Your Course

General Suggestions

  • All tables are set up as text and not embedded as images. Tables have header rows and columns. Tables have captions or alt-text.

  • Learners do not need to rely on sensory information for navigation (e.g., no "round button" or "text to the right")

  • Text is understandable when viewed without color.

  • The course does not require scrolling in two dimensions (e.g., horizontally and vertically for iframes, tables, and images) unless necessary to retain the meaning of course materials.

  • Titles use heading styles, not bold fonts, and are used in sequence (e.g. Heading 1 before Heading 2) to convey structure and relationships and enable tab navigation.

  • Underlined text is reserved for hyperlinks.

  • Any text contained in PDFs is selectable and searchable (e.g., PDFs are not scanned copies).

Faculty Development Opportunities

  • Introduction to Accessibility in Online Courses

  • Designing your Canvas Course to Support Accommodations Webinar

  • Using Ally to Identify Inaccessible Content and Improve the Accessibility of Your Online Courses Webinar

Sign up for these and other faculty development offerings by logging into CampusGroups.

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