What Do Course Designers Need to Know About Building Accessible E-Learning? #304

Designing Accessible E-Learning #304: Challenge | Recap

“Why do I keep hearing so much about accessibility?” That question came up in one of my recent training webinars, and it’s just one variation of the types of accessibility questions we hear daily.

For many organizations, creating accessible e-learning is already a business goal and a legal requirement. For others, the concept of accessibility might be new, even if they’ve developed online training for years.

What do we mean by accessible e-learning? For e-learning designers, accessibility means the course is designed for all learners—including those with auditory, visual, mobility, or learning disabilities. This means that people with disabilities can still learn the course material as well as all the other learners.

What do course designers need to know about building accessible e-learning? That’s what this week’s challenge is all about!

Challenge of the Week

This week, your challenge is to design a short demo, quiz, or interaction to help course designers learn more about creating accessible courses.

Your example can focus on tool-specific features or general considerations when designing accessible e-learning.

Here are some topic ideas to get you started:

• Why accessibility matters
• Accessibility FAQs
• Accessibility testing tools
• Using contrast checkers
• Section 508 and WCAG 2.0 for e-learning
• Interactive cheat sheets or job aids

Resources

Articulate Training Webinars

• 5 Things You Need to Know About Accessibility

Articles and Blog Posts

• 6 Tips To Help You Build An Accessibility Strategy by Melissa Milloway
• “But It’s to Code”: Thoughts on Accessibility in E-Learning by Jane Bozarth
• Accessibility in the News by Microassist

User Guides

• Articulate 360 FAQs: Accessibility
• How to Test Storyline 360 Content with a Screenreader
• Storyline 360: How to Design an Accessible Course
• Storyline 360: Adding Alternate Text
• Storyline 360: Importing Closed Captions
• Storyline 360: Creating Closed Captions
• Storyline 360: Customizing the Tab Order

Share Your E-Learning Work 

• Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published example and blog post.
• Forums: Start  your own thread and share a link to your published example..
• Personal blog:  If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure.
• Social Media: If you share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness.

Last Week’s Challenge:

Before you get started with this week’s challenge, check out the creative ways course designers are using dos and don’ts in e-learning:

Dos and Don'ts in E-Learning #303: Challenge | Recap

New to the E-Learning Challenges?

The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos.