As online courses become more widely available, it is important that your online courses meet disability and accessibility standards known as 508 compliance. This is important so all students have equal access to information.
Add alternate text for screen readers
Alternate text, also known as alt tags, are descriptions and added information. They should accompany images and graphics in your courses and on your websites. Screen readers that accommodate blind students can only convey information with text. Your alt tags should describe any contextual information a sighted student would receive by viewing the images.
Provide transcripts and captions for audio and video files
For students with hearing impairments, information through audio is difficult to absorb. By providing transcripts and captions, students can read the information along with the video. Be sure to include information that may be seen in the video such as the Name and Title of the speaker.
Improve color contrast and delete color coding
One of the easiest changes you can make for color-blind students is to stop identifying correct answers with green and incorrect answers with red on assessments. Instead write out “That is correct/incorrect” or use icons such as a check mark (
) and X (✘). You may also want to download Chrome’s Color Contrast Analyzer extension. Through this extension, you can analyze screenshots with different level of contrasting scrutiny.
