Creating 100% AODA Compliant Accessible eLearning
In order to ensure that your eLearning course is accessible to everyone, you have to keep in mind the new Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Act (AODA) act when designing your course and activities. The AODA act as it relates to eLearning, means that all learners, regardless of disabilities should be able to complete the same course and achieve the same objectives as fully-abled learners.
Assistive technologies such as screen readers can help learners to access the content, but it is also important that your course is compatible with these tools, if you want your eLearning to be accessible and fully compliant. Put yourself in the position of someone using these aids to interact when designing and testing your eLearning and to ensure all learners will have the same experience.
Here are some tips to help make your elearning better for everyone to use, when building your accessible eLearning module in Articulate Storyline.
Minimize the number of tab-interactable objects on screen. Turn off the tab interactivity of unnecessary objects.
Where possible, keep colour contrasts in mind with regard to the different types of colour blindness that some of your learners might have.
Make alt text to describe images and instructions for selectable objects.
Have closed captions for all audio.
Avoid interactions that require use of the mouse (e.g.: drag and drop activities).
Make sure that navigation is clear. Use ‘select’ instead of ‘click’ for objects to be clicked on. Be descriptive and provide as much detail as possible.
Choose a large, easy to read font for your text. Sans serif fonts are friendlier for learners with dyslexia. Recommended typefaces are Calibri, Myriad Pro, Century Gothic, Trebuchet MS and Arial, and they are all easily available.
To learn more about how to design accessible eLearning and the eLearning and technology training solutions offered by Pathways please visit our website!
