Trainers and learning designers need to be able to make their learning accessible. I’ve curated an ever-evolving list of tools to help you do that. I can’t have included everything; let me know in the comments what I’ve missed.
General guidelines
Universal Design for Learning guidelines. This really needs its own blog post, hopefully coming soon. The whole idea behind UDL is having multiple means – lots of different ways for learners to engage with the learning so they can choose the way that works best for them.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The gold standard for web accessibility, but very technical.
Easy Checks from W3C. A good place to start with WCAG for non-technical folk.
Making documents and slides accessible
How to use the accessibility checker in Word/Powerpoint. Microsoft/Windows is the clear winning combination for checking accessibility. It’s not impossible, but much harder with other programmes/operating systems.
How to create acccesible PDFs.
Google: Make your document or presentation more accessible. Includes general advice as well as Google specifics.
Alternative text guide from WebAIM. Very comprehensive and thorough.
POET training tool. Learn how to write alt text for different scenarios, including some quite complicated ones. They’ve gamified it a bit too, so enjoy.
Check your colours
Clear writing
British dyslexia guide. I find this helpful to refer to periodically.
HemingwayApp. In itself not entirely accessible. as it is reliant on colour, but a very helpful way to write more clearly.
Grammarly to check your spelling and grammar.
Using Zoom
I do the vast majority of my training in Zoom. Alternatives exist and have their own accessibility features.
Royal National Institute for the Deaf: using accessibility features in Zoom
Zoom accessibility from Zoom.
Personas
Personas are a really helpful way to consider the needs of your learners. These personas are focused specifically on disabled people.
A day in the life personas from MOOCA (University of Southampton, CC-BY)
Stories of web users from WAI
Functional Needs (draft) from WAI – an alternative to personas focusing on the need
Where to learn more
AbilityNet free courses and webinars and fact sheets.
