Creating accessible course materials is not only about compliance, it is about creating a learning environment where all students can fully participate and succeed. In higher education, students interact with course content in many different ways: using immersive screen readers, mobile devices, captions, keyboard navigation, zoom tools, or assistive technologies.
The good news is that improving digital accessibility often starts with small, simple, and intentional design choices. Whether you are building content in Canvas, creating slides, uploading videos, or sharing documents, a few accessibility best practices can significantly improve usability for everyone.
Below are practical digital accessibility Dos and Don’ts centered around six key principles (i.e., color contrast, accessibile headings, image descriptions, video and audio accessibility, descriptive links, and accessible documents) that faculty members can immediately incorporate into their teaching materials and course design practices.
Color Contrast
Color contrast affects how easily students can read and navigate digital content. Poor contrast can create barriers for students with low vision, color blindness, visual fatigue, or those viewing materials in bright environments.
Good contrast improves readability for everyone, including students accessing materials on phones, tablets, projectors, or low-quality screens. Accessible color choices also reduce eye strain and cognitive fatigue.
Best Practices (Do)
- Use high contrast pairs (e.g., dark text on a light background, or vice versa).
- Use bold text or descriptive icons in addition to color to highlight key information.
- Ensure a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text to achieve WCAG Level AA compliance.
- Regularly run accessibility checkers within Canvas (YuJa Panorama), Microsoft Office (MS built-in accessibility checker), and Google Workspace (Grackle) to catch and fix contrast issues early.
- Choose clean, sans-serif fonts like Helvetica, Arial or Roboto for optimal digital readability.
Avoid These Pitfalls (Don’t)
- Don’t use light gray or pastel text on white background (i.e., low contrast pairs).
- Don’t rely on color alone to convey meaning (e.g., avoid saying “items in red are required”).
- Don’t place text over busy images or patterns that break readability.
- Don’t combine red and green elements, as this is the most common form of color-blindness deficiency.
- Don’t assume slides that look good on your monitor will be readable when projected in a large, brightly lit classroom.
Accessible Headings
Headings provide structure and organization to digital content, and clear heading structures help all students scan and navigate content more efficiently. They are especially important for screen reader users who often navigate pages by headings alone and students managing cognitive load in content-heavy courses.
Best Practices (Do)
- Use built-in heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.) instead of manually formatting text.
- Ensure each heading provides a clear, concise summary of the section it introduces.
- Follow a logical hierarchy:
- Heading 1 = title
- Heading 2 = major section
- Heading 3 = subsection
- Use headings to break up long pages/documents into manageable, bite-sized sections.
- Apply the same heading logic consistently across all course materials.
Avoid These Pitfalls (Don’t)
- Don’t manually bold, underline, or increase font size to “fake” a heading.
- Don’t skip heading levels (e.g., jumping from Heading 1 directly to Heading 3).
- Don’t create long, unstructured pages, which creates a high cognitive load for learners.
- Don’t use headings purely for visual styling; headings must represent structure, not style.
- Don’t overuse headings for every short sentence, use them only to introduce significant thematic shifts.
Image Descriptions (Alt Text)
Alternative text, commonly called “alt text,” is a short description that explains the content and purpose of an image. Students who are blind, have low vision, or use screen readers rely on alt text to access visual information in course materials, research, and presentations.
Writing meaningful alt text helps ensure that all learners can engage with instructional content equally. Alt text can also help people without disabilities, such as when images do not load because of a slow internet connection or when content is viewed in bright environments where images are difficult to see.
Best Practices (Do)
- Describe the purpose or instructional meaning of the image rather than every visual detail.
- Keep alt text concise (usually under ~125 characters) to ensure the screen reader doesn’t overwhelm the listener.
- For complex charts or infographics, provide a brief summary in the alt text and place the detailed data analysis in the surrounding body text.
- Mark purely decorative images as decorative when possible.
- Tailor the alt text to the learning context (e.g., An image of a sunset for a photography class needs different alt text than one for a meteorology class).
Avoid These Pitfalls (Don’t)
- Don’t leave alt text blank for informative images, this creates a knowledge gap for non-sighted students.
- Don’t start with “Image of…” or “Graphic of…” screen readers already announce the presence of an image, so these words are repetitive.
- Don’t use file names (e.g., Slide1_final.png) as alt text.
- Don’t repeat the exact text already nearby.
- Don’t add alt text to images that are purely decorative.
Video and Audio Accessibility
Captions and transcripts (multimedia accessibility) improve comprehension, retention, flexibility, and accessibility for a wide range of learners. They support students who are deaf or hard of hearing, multilingual learners, students in noisy or quiet environments, and anyone who benefits from reviewing content in multiple formats.
Best Practices (Do)
- Provide high-quality, synchronized captions for all video content to support deaf and hard-of-hearing students.
- Use media players (like Kaltura Media or YouTube) that support captions and speed control features.
- Review auto-generated captions for accuracy, double check and edit them for punctuation, terminology, and speaker identification.
- Provide full transcripts for audio-only content to improve scannability and searchability.
- Verbally describe on-screen text, charts, or other visual demonstrations during the recording rather than solely saying “look at this image”.
Avoid These Pitfalls (Don’t)
- Don’t rely on uncorrected auto-generated captions, which may contain errors that change the meaning of your lecture.
- Don’t upload videos with no captions and upload audios with no transcripts.
- Don’t present key information solely through silent on-screen graphics; if you don’t say it, a student using a screen reader won’t “see” it.
- Don’t speak about complex topics while the relevant visual content is not yet visible or has already passed.
- Don’t forget accessibility when sharing external videos (e.g., YouTube or Vimeo videos).
Descriptive Links
Descriptive links help students understand the destination or purpose of a link before selecting it. This is especially important for screen reader users, who often navigate webpages by reviewing links independently of the surrounding content.
Clear, meaningful link text improves navigation, reduces confusion, and creates a more accessible experience for students using screen readers or keyboard navigation. Generic phrases such as “Read more,” “Learning more” or displaying long/raw URLs should be avoided because they do not clearly communicate the link’s purpose or destination but are annoying.
Best Practices (Do)
- Write link text that clearly describes the purpose or destination (e.g., “Download the Week 3 Exam Study Guide”).
- Ensure links make sense out of context so even when viewed as a standalone list by a screen reader.
- Place links within complete, meaningful sentences rather than isolating them.
- Use consistent naming for recurring resources (e.g., always use “Weekly Reflection Journal”) to build students familiarity.
- Check that all links work correctly to ensure they are active and directing students to the correct location.
Avoid These Pitfalls (Don’t)
- Don’t use vague, non-descriptive phrases like “Click here,” “Read More,” or “Link”.
- Don’t paste long raw URLs (e.g., https://…) directly into your content, they are tedious for screen readers to announce.
- Don’t use the same link text if the destinations are different (e.g., don’t have three links called “Assignment” that lead to different tasks).
- Don’t cluster too many hyperlinks in one section, which can be overwhelming and difficult to navigate.
- Don’t rely on color alone to identify links, ensure they are also underlined or bolded to assist users with color-blindness.
Accessible Documents (Google Workspace, Microsoft Office, PDFs)
Accessible documents are designed so everyone can read, navigate, and interact with the content more easily, including people using screen readers, keyboard navigation, zoom tools, or other assistive technologies. Whether you are creating a Word document, Google Doc, PowerPoint, Google Slides presentation, or PDF, accessibility helps make your work clearer, more organized, and easier for all readers to use.
Best Practices (Do)
- Use a PDF decision tree to determine whether PDF is the most appropriate format for sharing content. (Usually, it is NOT!)
- Create and edit documents in their original application (such as Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or PowerPoint) before exporting them to PDF.
- Always run an accessibility checker before publishing or sharing documents, such as the built-in Microsoft Accessibility Checker for Microsoft Office files, the Grackle add-on for Google Workspace, or Adobe Acrobat Pro for PDFs.
- Use readable fonts and ensure sufficient color contrast between text and background.
- Export PDFs using accessibility-preserving options such as “Save As PDF” or “Export to PDF.”
Avoid These Pitfalls (Don’t)
- Don’t upload scanned PDFs that contain only image-based text without searchable text or OCR.
- Don’t use “Print to PDF,” as it often removes accessibility tags and document structure.
- Don’t assume a document is accessible simply because it appears visually organized.
- Don’t skip accessibility testing before publishing or distributing documents.
- Don’t default to using PDFs when more accessible formats, such as Word documents, Google Docs, or webpages, would be more effective.
Accessibility Benefits Everyone
Digital accessibility is usually framed as accommodation specifically provided for people/students with disabilities, but in reality, accessible design improves the learning experience for everyone. Clear structure, readable content, meaningful organization, captions, descriptive links, and accessible documents help all students engage with course materials more efficiently, regardless of their learning preferences, devices, environments, or temporary barriers.
The good news is that accessibility improvements do not always require major redesigns or advanced technical skills; small, intentional changes made consistently over time can create a big impact, which creates a more inclusive learning environment where all students have a better opportunity to participate, learn, and succeed!
Specifically, many accessibility practices are simply examples of good teaching and thoughtful course design. For instance, captions help students review lectures in noisy environments, clear headings make long content easier to scan and study, and high color contrast improves readability on mobile devices and classroom projectors, etc. Accessibility is also not about achieving a perfect score in tools such as YuJa Panorama or checking a compliance box at the end of course development. Rather, it is about building sustainable, inclusive habits into everyday teaching practices. Just as faculty naturally organize course materials, write clear instructions, or communicate deadlines, accessibility should become part of the regular course design process instead of an afterthought. In digital accessibility, small changes truly can make a big impact.