Inclusive course design refers to all the considerations faculty make when designing their courses. The goal of inclusive course design is to ensure that all students have equal access to the content, creating the opportunity for them to succeed and meet the goals of the course.
Below are answers to frequently asked questions related to accessibility and inclusive course design. If you would like to learn more, faculty can work with one of our instructional designers at CourseDesign@molloy.edu.
When designing your Canvas course and assembling digital course materials, the following guidelines will help you to anticipate and address the most common accessibility issues. Each are annotated to specific Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
Provide headings to structure large text passages on Canvas Pages and documents. Be purposeful in selecting the heading level, starting with Heading 1, then Heading 2 for sub-topics, etc.). (WCAG 2.4.10)
When the text color is not in stark contrast to the background color, readers may have difficulty taking in that information. (WCAG 1.4.3)
Many students have color blindness, so emphasis is better expressed with bold or italic print. Color can be used but not as the sole method of expressing meaning. (WCAG 1.4.1)
Ensure that students know where to click next in order to proceed in your course. Use consistent formatting, such as using modules that express content and assessments. (WCAG 3.2.3)
Place the link on words that indicate where the link will take the reader (ex. "To learn more about our microcredentials, visit our Badges tab,"). Do not present the full URL on the page, and never put the link on the words "click here" or "learn more." (WCAG 2.4.4)
On Canvas pages and in files, images should provide alternative text for when they don't load properly or are read by assistive technology. Online tools are available to help generate alternative text for images, such as this tool offered by Arizona State University. When the image contains more information than a few sentences could summarize (i.e., an infographic), provide a transcript and mark the image as decorative. (WCAG 1.1.1)
When expressing information in table form, screen readers may have difficulty determining which cells to read in which order. Designating a header row or column provides guidance for how to read the table. Merged cells should be avoided. It is also helpful to provide a caption for the table (e.g., Table 1 - Student Demographics). (WCAG 1.3.1)
Most video platforms provide auto-generated captions, which are not generally accurate. If you create video content, be sure that your captions are edited for accuracy. If you find video content created by someone else who hasn't provided accurate captions, Molloy supports technology tools that can help you to edit those captions. (WCAG 1.2.2)
Most platforms for creating digital content come equipped with accessibility features, but it is up to the user to employ them. The instructional designers in the Office of Blended and Online Learning can guide you in using these tools.
For Word and PowerPoint files, the Microsoft Office “Check Accessibility” feature is found under the Review tab. This feature identifies accessibility issues in the file and offers suggested corrective action, such as providing alternative text to images and deliberate heading structure.
Video content should provide accurate captions. When recording lecture videos, captions should be enabled and edited according to the platform's directions, with attention paid to editing captions to ensure accuracy. Molloy-supported tools, such as Panopto and VoiceThread, offer these features, as well as platforms like YouTube.
Ally is a tool (integrated into Canvas) that identifies issues of accessibility in a course and offers steps to remediate. Issues that exist on a Canvas pages can be addressed directly. For issues that exist within a file, Ally will advise you what to look for when you open the file in the source program and use the program's accessibility features.
Once accessibility issues in your current course materials have been addressed, you should only need to re-check when adding new contents to your course. However, it is a good idea to check the "Accessibility Report" tool (see FAQ's about Ally box) before publishing the course to ensure that contents are at least 85%, as expressed on the Minimum Checklist for Online and Hybrid Courses.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an approach to designing courses that gives all students an equal opportunity to succeed. UDL considers the variability of all learners from the beginning of the course design process. Variables considered may include prior experience, culture, and learning preferences to name a few. Planning courses that encourage learner differences is the backbone of inclusive course design.
UDL has 3 guidelines, each with its own set of strategies to apply to improve students' ability to fully participate in the course. The UDL guidelines ask faculty to provide multiple means of:
Engagement: alternative ways that students engage -- and are motivated to engage -- with content, each other, and you, as well as resources to persevere when challenges arise.
Representation: alternative ways for students to have content presented to them. All students benefit, as varying how content is presented allows students to interact with it in a way that best suits them while students with disabilities may need content to be presented in a specific way (ex. a blind student may need to have content available as audio or in braille).
Action and Expression: alternative opportunities for students to show what they know. There is no single way to express understanding that works for all students. Providing students with multiple ways to demonstrate learning allows faculty to better understand how well students are progressing toward the learning objectives.
The Office of Blended and Online Learning offers a one-week asynchronous professional development course titled Learning for All (LfA) to provide an overview of UDL and how it can be incorporated into the design of web-enhanced, hybrid and online courses. To register for LfA, please go to the BOL Faculty Development LibCal page.
Ally converts files and Canvas pages into alternative formats that address the varied needs of different learners. Alternative files include readable text for screen readers, tablet-friendly pages, electronic braille and even audio versions.
There are several ways to assess the accessibility of the files in your course.
The Accessibility Report can be accessed in the left navigation of your Canvas course (if not, go to Settings and then the Navigation tab to activate). It will display a dashboard view accounting for all files and pages in the course and give an aggregate score out of 100%.
A gauge icon will appear on Canvas pages to the left of any files and will be green (high or perfect), yellow (medium), or red (low). To see the full report of the file's accessibility issues and suggested corrective action, click on the gauge.
If there is an accessibility issue on a Canvas page (i.e., color contrast between text and page background), another gauge can be found in the top right corner when in edit mode. Clicking the gauge will identify the issue.
Ally only can check the accessibility of files and pages in your course. If you are linking out to files stored in external cloud storage (i,e., Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox), then those files are not being scanned by Ally, and Ally will not be able to provide those alternative formats to your students.
If the articles are found among the online databases maintained by the JET Library, Ally will allow you to link to them by adding a permalink and bibliographic information. For directions, see this box on our Library Resources tab.
Although Ally does provide some guidance in this area, the Accessibility Report score does not reflect the accessibility of videos in your course. If faculty would like support in reviewing the captions for their course video content and, if necessary, editing them, an instructional designer can assist them in how to use other available resources.
The Office of Blended and Online Learning (BOL) offers additional training for faculty on digital accessibility.