What is Accessibility?
Accessible means something is usable by as many people as possible, regardless of their cognitive, physical or cultural situation. Accessibility can mean many different things to different people, as the students in these videos explain.
Watch more Students Explain Digital Accessibility
Why?
- We have a responsibility as educators, as humans and by law to create resources and teaching that don't disable people.
- Inclusive teaching practices will benefit all learners in your class, not just those with specific 'labels'.
5 steps towards accessible content
Use these steps to start your journey in making your content accessible to everyone.
Using Colour
- Avoid tricky color combinations
- Give enough contrast between different elements
- Use labels and patterns to convey information
Headings & Structure
- Use heading styles in Word/Moodle
- Don't manually format text
- In PowerPoint, aim for the default layouts
Learn
- Inclusive design workshop (monthly)
- Accessibility essentials (1 hour online)
- Use the 2 page Accessible Documents Guide
What type of content I am writing?
Accessibility for Moodle
Understand user needs and identify the 5-essentials for creating more accessible content for your Moodle course.
Accessibility for documents
Are you mainly creating digital content using Word, Excel and Outlook? Then check these 5 accessibility good practices.
Accessibility for PowerPoint
Check and practice these 5-steps for making accessible slides to upload in your Moodle course.
Accessibility for multimedia
Identify the 5 accessibility essentials that your users need when creating videos, podcast, audio files and images.
Accessible Technical Content
Learn about the challenges and solutions for creating accessible STEM resources.
How do I get started?
Workshops: Inclusive design for learning & communication
This online workshop raises awareness of students & staff accessibility issues, includes practical examples and simple guidelines to create accessible documents.
Monthly - see event page for details
Learn: Accessibility Essentials self-paced course
Work through this interactive set of resources and activities introducing digital accessibility (312 Accessibility Essentials), which is part of the wider CLT self-paced online courses on Moodle.
Office365 Accessibility Training
View these short clips on making PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook digitally accessible for all.
2-minute guides to improve accessibility
We have designed some resources to support you on how to get the best of the accessibility checkers for Moodle.
Accessibility+ Toolkit external training
Brickfield Labs Education offers a variety of training and resources that can help you to get the most of our newly integrated accessibility checker for Moodle. Click here to find more information.
Accessibility Tools
Accessibility+ Toolkit in Moodle
The Accessibility+ Toolkit brings a wide range of accessibility checks and autofix solutions for content authored in Moodle. For students, it supports converts course resources into a variety of formats using Sensus Access.
Anthology Ally checker
Ally accessibility checker will help staff to find and fix accessibility issues with uploaded files. Follow some of their guides you how to update your content.
365 Microsoft Accessibility Checker
This built-in accessibility checker in Microsoft Office Package is a key tool to audit and fix accessibility issues in your documents, presentations and emails.
Accessibility tips
Quick Tips: Running accessible online meetings
Read our quick tips on running accessible meetings to enhance your next call for everyone.
Quick Tips: Adjusting your mouse pointer
Easy instructions on making your mouse pointer more visible for students.
Quick Tips: Supporting Inclusive Teaching
Accessibility is more than alt text, subtitles and labelling students. Read these tips on inclusive teaching practices that benefit all leaners, as well as those with specific learning needs.
Our accessibility blogs and more
Blog: Using bookdown to generate accessible course materials
Read Dan Green's discussion with Dr Thomas Cottrell (Mathematics) about how Thomas switched from LaTeX to bookdown to write lecture notes and problem sheets.
Blog: Inclusion in Higher Education
CLT colleagues reflect on working with international colleagues on embedding inclusive learning and teaching approaches.
Video: Digital Accessibility and Education panel
Our panel of academic staff, support staff and students discuss the challenges and opportunities of inclusive education.
Blog: Does Being Off Camera (Still) Matter?
As we begin to navigate hybrid working, there has been a rise in the use of ‘cameras on’ policies in businesses and HE hyflex courses. This blog discusses the challenges and opportunities for creating inclusive environments which centre around the issue of webcams and visibility.
Accessibility Escape Room Game
Play our interactive online escape room from Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2022 to learn more about accessibility and put your skills to the test!
Contacts
- For advice on implementing this guidance to enhance learning, teaching and assessment contact the TEL team: tel@bath.ac.uk
- For help with using and getting specialist IT equipment and software to help increase your productivity and improve your access to technology: see Assistive Technology page
Updated on: 8 Nov 2022