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Accessible Technology

E-Learning Accessibility

When creating e-learning content for workplace training, the following steps are recommended for ensuring your content is accessible to all learners.

Step 1. Build an understanding of digital accessibility.

The following resources are a great place to start for understanding digital accessibility broadly:

Also, a wide variety of Training Opportunities are available at the UW, including Deque University, an extensive library of asynchronous online courses on digital accessibility (free to everyone in the UW community). In particular, check out the “Fast Track to Accessibility for Any Role”.

The UW also hosts a wide variety of meetups, trainings, workshops, hackathons, and study sessions focused on digital accessibility. Please see our Events page for current and upcoming events.

Step 2. Learn the accessibility features of your authoring tool.

The tools most commonly used at the UW for authoring e-learning content are Articulate’s Rise and Storyline. Articulate provides documentation to help authors understand how to create accessible content using their tools. Accessibility at Articulate, the Articulate accessibility home page, is a central hub for learning about their other resources.

Step 3. Design your course with accessibility in mind.

Best practices in digital accessibility provide a natural counterpart to best practices in e-Learning design, among them clear structure; easy navigation; short, active lessons; engaging and usable interactions.

Clear structure means easier navigation.

Learners sometimes need to return to earlier content within a lesson, either to review that content or to finish a step that’s discovered to be incomplete when they’re unable to advance to the next lesson. This can be very challenging for learners who use assistive technology such as screen readers, and for learners who are physically unable to use a mouse. Both of these groups of users navigate through digital content using the keyboard alone.

With this in mind, organize your course with a clear, cohesive structure. Consider how many times a keyboard user will need to press the tab key to get from the start to the end of each lesson.

  • Use modules to organize the course.
  • Keep lessons short within those modules.
  • Use headings and other cues to help learners orient themselves in a lesson.
  • Provide clear instructions for moving forward or moving back in a lesson or module.

Short lessons also help to prevent information overload and improve retention.

Step 4. Choose accessible components.

The more complex your content, the more challenging it is for some learners with disabilities to navigate. Interactivity is good, as it increases engagement and facilitates learning. While it is important to design engaging and interactive lessons, we want to do so in a way that enables learners to focus on the content instead of trying to figure out the user interface. Engaging content should not be overly complex or unwieldy for users.

Articulate maintains a list of components in Rise 360, grouped as either “Fully Accessible”, “Mostly Accessible”, or “Currently Inaccessible”.  Always consult this resource when choosing components: Rise 360: Choosing Accessible Components to Create Online Learning.

Step 5. Test for accessibility.

Test with a keyboard. Set your mouse aside and use the tab key to navigate through your web pages. You should be able to access all interactive features (e.g., menus, links, form fields, buttons, controls) and operate them by using intuitive keystrokes like enter, space, arrow keys, and so on. If you are unable to access some of your site’s features using only a keyboard, then your site likely has accessibility problems.

Use accessibility checkers.  Storyline 360 includes an accessibility checker. See the following Articulate articles for instructions and insights:

There is currently no built-in accessibility checker for Rise 360, but many of the free tools listed on our Tools and resources page can be used for checking Rise content.

Step 6. Get help

If you get stuck with any of the previous steps, or simply have questions along the way, UW-IT Accessible Technology Services is happy to help.  We may not have the bandwidth to conduct a full accessibility review of your e-learning course, but we can test specific components you may have concerns about or answer whatever questions you may have.  Please see our Help page for options.

Additional Resources from Articulate

Other Resources