Proactive accessible design

Emma Power (speech pathologist and academic) and Bronwyn Nolan (Project Manager, Learning & Teaching) from the Graduate School of Health, aimed to enhance the digital accessibility of the subject Interprofessional Education. This subject equips students with the skills needed to thrive in team-based professional environments, with a focus on careers in speech pathology, clinical psychology, orthoptics, genetic counselling, physiotherapy, and pharmacy. 

The student relies on a screen reader for accessibility and uses Apple’s native Spoken Content ‘Speak Selection’ feature, which converts only highlightable text into audio and offers screen magnification functionality. While other types of screen readers can access some of the subject’s planned activities, Apple’s native reader requires any interactive activities to be accompanied by a text-based alternative, as the screen reader does not pick up blank spaces. 

Emma and Bronwyn thoughtfully designed the module with accessibility as a priority from the start including alt text for images, consistent heading structures, downloadable text-based documents for images, video captions, strong visual contrast for text and background as well as in diagrams. The Inclusive Practices Team worked with Emma and Bronwyn to conduct an accessibility review, and some inaccessible elements were identified in one of the subjects within the module. The IPE team were not aware of what screen reader the student had and could not fully determine how H5P and other interactive activities were impacted in terms of accessibility for any changes. Activities that were impacted included drag-and-drop interactives, documentation tool activities, and videos and quiz questions that lacked captions or transcripts. The IP team collaborated with Emma and Bronwyn to find additional accessibility enhancements.

The Inclusive Practices team conducted a subject review by thoroughly examining each page of the Canvas site to identify potential accessibility issues. These issues were documented in an ‘Action Plan’, which includes recommendations and agreed-upon actions. The plan helps to ensure all actions are addressed and subsequently implemented within the Canvas site. Emma and Bronwyn actioned changes to various elements such as creating text versions of interactives like H5P drag and drop activities, and documentation tools which are used as consolidation activities. ‘Naked’ links were turned into descriptive links, which provided more context for students who use screen readers. Transcripts and captions were created for videos within the course. 

Take a moment to review your Canvas course sites. Are there any activities that may be inaccessible? For example, H5P activities are often not fully accessible. You will not always know which accessibility tools your students are using, and whether or not they are compatible with all interactive tasks. Investigate, and if necessary, seek support to find out which H5P activities can be made accessible. Ensure you’ve added descriptive tags or alternative text to images and interactive elements. Have you provided captions or transcripts for videos? Also, make sure any ‘naked’ links are replaced with descriptive links that provide context.  

Use the Canvas accessibility checker while in editing mode. Being proactive about these changes now will save time in the future and ensure your course materials are more accessible to all students, including those with accessibility needs.