3 tips for making your digital learning accessible

We believe that learning should be accessible to everyone, and unfortunately, accessibility is often an afterthought in many eLearning projects.

At Mint, we're always looking at ways to improve the accessibility of our digital content. Many people think that if they supply a text-only version that a screen reader can read, they meet the minimum standards set out by Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). (Spoiler: It doesn't.)

Below we’ve got some Mint tips to help you achieve some quick wins with your eLearning content.

#Tip 1. Learn about your learners

Talk to your client about your learners. Who are they?

Do they have any specific needs that may affect how they access learning content? What happens if they have a poor internet connection or want to access their learning on the go?

Fun fact: If a client identifies poor internet connection or mobile use as potential barriers to their learners' access, they're accessibility issues!

#Tip 2. Familiarise yourself with screen readers

Having a good idea of how screen readers work is a massive help when designing content that may require its use. Screen readers such as Narrator (Windows), VoiceOver (Apple) and Talkback (Android) are pre-installed on their respective devices and require minimal effort to set up.

#Tip 3. Evaluate

There are loads of tools you can use to check the accessibility of your content. At Mint, we're big fans of the WAVE tool, developed by WebAIM. It's an easy-to-install browser extension that enables you to evaluate web-based content for accessibility issues. When active, WAVE displays the page with tags to show what items pass and fail the accessibility check.

Summary

While accessibility can initially be daunting, there are tools and tutorials from the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative that can help expand your knowledge of creating accessible content.