Making Digital Learning Accessible for Everyone

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This week I explored Topic 7 on Assistive Tech & Intentionality in Technology Enabled Learning Design. It made me realize how important accessibility is in a digital space, as well as physical. 

Accessibility Practices We Often Miss

The biggest practice I see missing is good alt-text for images. Many people add alt-text, but it’s often too basic. Personally, I’ve written things like “students in classroom” when I should have written “three elementary students examining plant samples with magnifying glasses.” A blind student needs to know what the image shows, not just that it exists. These are things I need to be more aware of going into the teaching profession. 

Secondly, video captions are another big one. I see teachers post videos without captions all the time, or they rely on auto-generated captions that are full of errors. Auto-captions might say “their” when the speaker said “there,” or completely butcher technical terms and big vocabulary. Hard-of-hearing students deserve accurate captions, and not only that but, captions help everyone. I really appreciate captions, especially if I am watching something in a busy environment, like a classroom full of high-schoolers. 

Finally, PDFs are often a disaster for accessibility. People create beautiful PDFs in design programs, but they’re essentially just images of text. Screen readers can’t read them or the text can’t be copied into any accessibility software. If you’re sharing a PDF, it needs to be created with accessibility in mind, or you should offer an alternative format like a Word document or web page.

Photo by Thomas Park on Unsplash

What Surprised Me About Accessibility

I was shocked to learn about colour contrast ratios. Looking at the infographic in class, I thought box eight or even nine would pass accessibility standards. It was actually box five! This made me rethink every presentation I’ve made. How many students couldn’t read my “pretty” pastel text on white backgrounds?

Why Isn’t Accessibility More Common?

I think there are a few reasons why accessibility practices aren’t well-known:

  1. Lack of awareness. Many teachers don’t know these practices exist. Teacher training rarely covers digital accessibility. We can’t use what we don’t know about.
  2. Seen as extra work. There’s a feeling that accessibility is a burden on top of everything else. When we treat accessibility as an add-on, it’s easy to skip.
  3. Feels distant. This goes hand-in-hand with number 2. When people don’t personally know someone with a disability, accessibility feels abstract. Over one-fifth of Canadians have a disability, but we don’t always see it.
  4. Technology challenges. Tools like YouTube’s auto-captions help, but they’re not perfect. Fixing them takes time and skills many teachers don’t have yet.

Moving Forward

This week changed how I think about technology in education. The SAMR model and Triple E Framework help us evaluate tools, but accessibility needs to come first. A tool might transform learning, but if it excludes students with disabilities, it’s a barrier, not an innovation. The video we watched said it well. Stating that accessibility means students can participate fully with their peers. Not separately. Not as an afterthought. Included from the start.

I’m looking forward to building it into lesson planning, learning more, and pushing for change in schools. Every student deserves to access and learn from the content we create.