LX Accessible Content Practices

Some students might experience barriers when accessing content in your subject. Adding content to your subject sites and learning materials in a certain way can help remove these barriers and create an inclusive and accessible learning environment.

We asked our Digital Accessibility Ambassadors – UTS students with lived experience of disability about why creating accessible content is important to them.

Follow these simple practices to make your subject site and learning materials clear and accessible for all students:

1. Structure your content clearly using subheadings and consistent formatting.
2. Use inbuilt styles like (following the order 1 to 6), bulleted lists and numbered lists.
3. Use clear and concise language, explain new discipline-specific terms and include instructions to students in plain English.
4. Add alternative text to images by asking “what is the purpose of this content”?
5. Add captions and/or transcripts to video and audio content.
6. Provide link text that is descriptive, so that the link destination makes sense out of context (and include file type and size for downloads after the link).
7. Be mindful of how you use colour – ensure there’s enough contrast between text and background, it’s not overwhelming and it’s not used to convey meaning alone.
8. Don’t use tables for formatting, instead use UTS Canvas templates or HTML/CSS (if you’re feeling fancy).
9. Avoid or provide warnings for flashing content in your subject site or classes.
10. Use the Canvas Accessibility Checker (mindfully).

In this resource collection you will learn about each of these accessible content practices – including how they improve the learning experience from the student’s perspective and how to implement them in your own subject.