At a recent EduTech Summit panel on Enabling Inclusive and Accessible Education, I opened with a distinction that continues to shape how I think about digital learning:
“Accessibility is the door, inclusivity is the welcome”
This reframing helps us consider not just how students enter our learning spaces – but how they experience them once they’re inside.
- Accessibility asks: “Can I get in?”
- Inclusion asks: “Was this space designed with me in mind?”
Designing for more than entry
At UTS, our Learning Design Team approaches this difference intentionally. Accessibility is essential, from captions and alt text, to semantic HTML and colour contrast. These are foundational. But inclusion goes further. It’s about ensuring all learners feel seen, safe and able to participate with dignity.
We’re currently working with nursing academics teaching mental health nursing. They plan to collaborate with a substance abuse clinic on the co-creation of a case study video featuring authentic First Nations perspectives. Captioning and transcripts are a given, but we’ll also be embedding reflection prompts, culturally guided language and layered visual storytelling. The goal isn’t just access – it’s meaning, relevance and ethical representation.
Inclusion also means designing for identity safety more broadly. Our SPECTRA project equips academics to support LGBTQIA+ inclusion through Canvas-based student resources, facilitator guidance and practical steps like setting pronouns in Zoom or Canvas. These features build not just access, but trust and belonging.
From compliance to care
Inclusion isn’t something we retrofit. It’s embedded from the beginning. Our Canvas ‘Look and Feel’ framework ensures that each site uses semantic HTML, consistent layouts, icon glossaries and inclusive language – all designed to reduce cognitive load and support diverse learners. That includes neurodivergent students, first-in-family learners and those returning after time away.
One of my favourite analogies from Universal Design for Learning (UDL) compares inclusive design to a building ramp. These ramps were designed primarily for wheelchair users, but they’re also helpful for parents with prams, travellers with luggage, or anyone tired or injured. In digital learning, that ramp takes the form of online learning pacing guides, downloadable summaries, time planners and just-in-time scaffolds.
These features aren’t about lowering standards. They’re about making challenge navigable – supporting students who are juggling work, study or caring responsibilities, or transitioning between systems. We also build in metacognitive supports such as reflective prompts and multiple quiz attempts to foster confidence (not dependency).
Designing across systems
After speaking at the panel, I connected with educators in clinical disciplines like nursing, where students may lose access to university supports while on placement or once in the workforce. These conversations reminded me that inclusion must extend beyond the digital learning ecosystem.
We need to ask how we’re preparing students for learning environments that may not be inclusive yet. But we also need to acknowledge that asking students to self-advocate shouldn’t be the default. For many learners, particularly those navigating trauma, disability or marginalisation, disclosure carries risk. As the Disability Standards for Education 2005 and UDL guidelines remind us, inclusion isn’t only about accommodating known needs; it’s about anticipating diverse ways of engaging and ensuring that no learner is excluded by default.
Avoiding narrow assumptions
We need to reflect on how design intersects with policy, particularly when it comes to inherent requirements. These are essential for ensuring students are prepared for real-world professional standards, and I’ve worked closely with colleagues who apply them with great care and integrity. However, as educators and designers, we must be mindful that these requirements don’t unintentionally shape narrow assumptions about learner needs, especially in digital spaces.
For example, assuming that all students must be sighted can lead to skipping essential accessibility features like alternative text for images. But not all screen reader users have low vision and many students use assistive technologies for a range of reasons, from neurodivergence to cognitive load management. Alt text can also support students with unreliable internet, allowing them to understand image intent when visuals don’t load.
Alt text is just one example. Accessibility design supports more than diagnosed or disclosed needs — it supports the full spectrum of learner contexts. That’s why we approach digital inclusion with a broader lens: one that builds flexibility and clarity into the environment from the start, rather than waiting for students to ask.
Widening the door
As learning designers, we operate at the intersection of content, care and culture. We collaborate with academics, technologists, and students. Inclusion is not a checklist – it’s a mindset of clarity, empathy and intention.
We don’t just build doors. We build learning environments that welcome, challenge and affirm the full spectrum of student identities.
Such a great blog, Amelia, and a really clear and memorable way to explain the need for both accessibility and inclusion strategies working together.