Making Lesson Materials Accessible
written by Tracey Brown, Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist
Fonts
One last consideration for fonts, think about color combinations. Black text on a white background is considered most readable. But it has also been shown to lead to eye strain if the sample includes a lot of text. Other dark colors can work well on white, and light or bright colors work well on dark backgrounds. Avoid bright colored fonts on bright colored backgrounds, or light on light, or dark on dark. For some color combinations that work well, see the Web Accessibility Guidelines from Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.
Alt Text
Another consideration for making lesson materials more accessible is adding Alt Text to images when the option is available. Images placed in a Google file, into Brightspace or onto a website allow for Alt Text. Alt Text allows a screen reader to tell a visually impaired reader what is pictured. When people wonder what they should include in an Alt Text box, we often say, “imagine you were describing a picture to someone over the phone.” Descriptions like “girl sitting at desk” are okay, but “teenage girl sitting at desk with an open textbook and laptop computer” are even better.
Animations
Another thing to consider is limiting animations. Text and images flying in and out of lesson presentations might seem cool and might even occasionally get an OOOH out of students when they boost anticipation of a reveal, but for students prone to seizures or anxiety they can trigger problems that derail instruction and learning for the rest of class or the day.
Closed Captions
It is not just students with auditory impairments that can benefit from captioning. Studies have shown that captions improve comprehension, attention, and retention of video content. It also beneficial to those watching a video in their non-native language. While some video platforms require a complicated .srt file in order to add captioning, in AACPS we have options in several platforms that will automatically add captions to videos, including Brightspace, YouTube and Microsoft Stream. For information on how to add or use CC in any AACPS application, see the Closed Captioning document.
Link vs. Embed
Finally, let’s talk about linking vs. embedding files such as slideshows and documents. This topic can be controversial and sometimes you will find resources that state that embedding is more accessible because it limits the number of tabs that a user has to navigate. But for students accessing lesson materials, linking is more accessible than embedding. Embedding might look cool, but the size of the embedded file is dependent on the size of the screen the viewer is using. That means for our students on Chromebooks, embedded items are often too small to read clearly. Sometimes vertical and horizontal scroll bars appear to help them navigate a file that will not fit on the screen entirely, at other times the embedded item is simply shrunk by the application, resulting in shrunken images and text. Many of these applications include an icon to pop embedded items out into their own window to enlarge them. This icon is a great option but when the item is popped out, it is often in a dedicated window that removes access to extensions like our Read & Write that many students rely on to access text. Also, popping the item out still opens it in another tab that needs to be closed in order to move on through the lesson materials, so why not skip the fancy embed and just link so students can learn to close extra tabs while navigating the web?
