Making VLEs Accessible
There are many things you can do to make your VLE-based materials accessible for a wider range of users. Some of the checks you can employ are outlined below:
| Area |
Checks |
| Navigation |
- Remember not to use confusing terms - if the VLE has 'forward' and 'back' features, don't also use 'forward' and 'back' to move between pages of your material - use 'next page' or 'next module' instead.
- Remember sometimes users cannot 'see' where they currently are within the VLE, so remind them by putting an explanatory title or heading at regular intervals.
- Some users cannot use a mouse, so try moving around your materials just by using the Tab and arrow keys - can you do it? Can you check option boxes and access drop-down menus using just the keyboard? It should be possible within most VLEs to enable features like these.
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| Keyboard Dexterity |
- Some users can only hit one key at a time - are there places in your materials where two keys have to be pressed simultaneously?
- If a student accidentally gets to the wrong page or enters the wrong information is it obvious how to backtrack?
- Drag and drop questions may be difficult for some vision impaired users, but can be preferred by users with limited keyboard dexterity - try to keep a variety of material types within each class or module.
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| Audio content |
- Audio content can be of great benefit in providing a varied experience for students. Ensure that it is captioned or that a transcript is provided for students who are deaf or hard of hearing.
- Many institutions do not allow sound cards to be fitted into machines for student use (or for staff use in some cases) - check the situation in your institution before placing sound files into the VLE.
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| Language |
- Many students do not have English as their first language (including those whose first language is British Sign Language) so ensure language is clear and instructions are unambiguous.
- Dyslexic students may have additional difficulty in comprehending long and complex sentences. Break sentences down into shorter chunks by the use of punctuation where possible.
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| Screen Magnifiers |
- Ensure graphics and charts make sense at increased magnification (where only a portion of the whole may be visible at any one time)
- Do not use images of text (they tend to pixelate at increased magnification)
- Consider your choice of colour - imagine lime green text magnified sixteen times!
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| Screen Readers |
- These read in linear fashion, so try to ensure the items on your pages run in a logical order - this can be seen using the TAB key to jump between items.
- Tables can be a feat of memory for someone listening to them being read out, so try to design them so they are easy to comprehend when accessed aurally (for example: 'Chelsea 56 Liverpool 47 Wigan 45 Bolton 42...' is far easier to comprehend than 'Chelsea Liverpool Wigan Bolton....56 47 45 42').
- Links, action buttons, and diagrams often have names that make no sense when taken out of context. Some screen readers can pull all of the links from a page into a separate window for the user. If all of these are 'click here' they are meaningless - try to label each link and button with something contextual.
- Provide a text description of images and diagrams so blind students can access the information contained within the images. This will also aid those accessing materials using PDAs or phones.
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| Colour |
- Be aware of red/green combinations - a large proportion of students cannot distinguish between them.
- Do not use colour alone to convey meaning. How does a blind student know which are the important points written in red? Use heading tags as well, which will then be picked up by screen reading software.
- Try to keep a mild background colour, such as cream, pale green or pale yellow, rather than white, primary colours, or distracting background images.
- Hopefully your institution will allow students to choose their own preferred font size and style, but if not, use one which will be as accessible to as wide a range of students as possible - a sans serif font such as Arial or Comic Sans, and minimum of 12 point - in navy, purple or dark green rather than black. Use a minimum of 1.5 line spacing.
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Other sites showing handy hints and tricks for increasing the accessibility of online materials are available from Aberdeen University and the University of Essex.
These are just a few suggestions for making the materials you put into a VLE more accessible to a wide range of students. There are many more techniques you can use. Above all, though, there are two key things to remember:
decide how accessible you can realistically hope to make each item within your VLE, and then how you can create alternatives for those students who still can't access it;
if you aren't sure how your material will work with certain pieces of assistive technology or with certain students, contact the student support office and ask them to find you volunteers who would test out the materials (these are students remember, a small fee will usually get you volunteers!). Try to avoid approaching 'obviously disabled' students directly as they can find this troubling (personally, or in terms of increased workload) or even offensive.
Nationally, work on making VLE materials accessible has so far been isolated, as highlighted in an extremely useful report by Sara Dunn. However, this should simply be an added driver for you to try to get it right with your own materials and more widely across your own institution. Most institutions have an accessibility policy, but many do not tie this in with learning and teaching policy. It may be worthwhile finding your institution's accessibility policy, and perhaps using your intranet to identify colleagues who have already produced accessible VLE content who may be able to share their experience with you.
