This article describes best practices for ensuring eClass course content meets accessibility standards and has been provided by the Academic Success Centre.

Captioning

As a part of the transition to remote class delivery in response to COVID-19, the Center for Teaching and Learning has provided the following suggestions for accessibility considerations specifically for synchronous lectures:

• Enable Automatic Live captioning: This is available in Google Meet (turn on the CC feature at the bottom of your screen) and is automatically enabled for all videos uploaded into YuJa by instructors. 
  • When using another video chat platform, You may wish to use Google Slides and enable the live captioning feature within Google Slides. If you share your screen using Google Slides, your voice will be captured and live captions will appear. See Present Slides with Captions for more information.
  • Zoom has options for automatic captions or live transcription: Adding Closed Captions or Live Subtitles to Zoom Meetings 

• For students who are blind or have low visibility, narrate the material that you are displaying visually on the screen. Just as you might read materials aloud in class, read screen material that you share on-screen just in case students are not able to see essential text.

• Keep in mind the different accessibility needs of your students. For best practices, consult resources on Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Some examples include:
  • CAST Professional Learning’s site
  • eCampus Alberta’s Open Educational Resource on UDL in Online Learning Environments

eClass General Accessibility Performance

Moodle, the application running eClass, has a strong focus on accessibility. The default standard for Moodle content presentation is WCAG 2.0 - an internationally accepted standard for web accessibility developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an international team of experts (beginning January 1, 2021, all public websites and web content must meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA.) For more detailed documentation on Moodle accessibility, see here.

Beyond the Basics

Instructors constructing courses on eClass should also consider accessibility when creating their content. Web pages are fundamentally designed to work for all people, whatever their hardware, software, language, culture, location, or physical or mental ability. When the Web meets this goal, it is accessible to people with a diverse range of hearing, movement, sight, and cognitive ability. The W3C provides 3 examples of areas where web sites have accessibility barriers:

1. Images without alternate text
2. Interactive features that operate by mouse only
3. Audio files without text-based transcripts
   

Instructors can now add a self-serve file conversion utility into their courses that students can use to obtain accessible and alternate format versions of files within the course.

The W3C also delivers the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) which brings together people from industry, disability organizations, government, and research labs from around the world to develop guidelines and resources to help make the Web accessible to people with disabilities including auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical, speech, and visual disabilities.

WAI Guidelines

• • Color is not used as the only way of conveying information or identifying content
  • Default foreground and background colour combinations provide sufficient contrast
  • Text is resizable up to 200% without losing information, using a standard browser
  • Images of text are resizable, replaced with actual text, or avoided where possible
  • Users can pause, stop, or adjust the volume of audio that is played on a website
  • Background audio is low, or can be turned off, to avoid interference or distraction
  • Pages have clear titles and are organized using descriptive section headings
  • There is more than one way to find relevant pages within a set of web pages
  • Users are informed about their current location within a set of related pages
  • There are ways to bypass blocks of content that are repeated on multiple pages
  • The keyboard focus is visible and the focus order follows a meaningful sequence
  • The purpose of a link is clear, ideally even when the link is viewed on its own

WAI Resources

• • Provide sufficient contrast between foreground and background (Colour contrast checker)
  • Don't use colour alone to convey information
  • Ensure that interactive elements are easy to identify
  • Provide clear and consistent navigation options
  • Ensure that form elements include clearly associated labels
  • Provide easily identifiable feedback
  • Use headings and spacing to group related content
  • Create designs for different viewport sizes
  • Include image and media alternatives in your design
  • Provide controls for content that starts automatically
  • Learn more about accessibility