Accessibility in Learning

Why Accessibility Matters – Online education promises flexibility, personalization, and global reach. But for students with disabilities, neurodivergence, or limited access to technology, these promises can fall short. Accessibility means ensuring that course content, platforms, and interactions are usable by all students, regardless of ability or circumstance. At its core, accessibility ensures that every learner feels seen, supported, and able to participate fully. In online education, where physical presence is replaced by digital interfaces, the design of those interfaces becomes a gatekeeper. If a student can’t navigate a platform, hear a lecture, or understand a diagram, they’re effectively excluded and its not because of ability, but because of design.

As Rob Power writes in Thriving Online: A Guide for Busy Educators, “It can be fairly easy to maximize the accessibility of our courses by following a few simple guidelines” but those guidelines must be intentional and embedded from the start

Cognitive and Neurodivergent Inclusion (information adapted from Yang et al., (2023))- Students with ADHD, dyslexia, autism, or other cognitive differences often face barriers in rigid online systems. Timed quizzes, cluttered interfaces, or text heavy modules can overwhelm or exclude these groups. Accessible design like flexible deadlines, multimodal content, and simplified navigation are all tools to support those with cognitive differences. This reduces cognitive load and supports diverse processing styles. For example a student with dyslexia may benefit from text to speech tools or other audio options for readings.

Furthermore students who are blind, deaf, or have motor impairments may rely on assistive technologies like screen readers, captions, and keyboard navigation. If a course lacks alt text, proper tagging, or transcripts, it becomes functionally inaccessible (Dilmanpreet, Webability). For example, video lecture without captions excludes deaf students and a PDF without tagging is unreadable by screen readers.

Socioeconomic and Technological Equity – Accessibility in online learning isn’t only about disability accommodations, it also includes technological and socioeconomic equity. Many students face barriers such as limited internet bandwidth, outdated devices, or reliance on mobile phones rather than laptops. If platforms are designed only for high speed connections and powerful hardware, they unintentionally exclude these learners.

Tate and Warschauer (2022) highlighted that students need access to appropriate hardware, reliable and robust internet access and a quiet environment to study. They noticed that there is a signficant unmet need in relation to internet access. Out of the 51 million public K-12 students in the United States, 1 million lacked access to the necessary digital devices, 5-6 million had insufficient internet, and 9 million lacked both. The lack of access was also found to be uneven across races, 18% of White households lacked broadband, compared to 26% of Hispanic, 30% of Black, and 35% of Native Americans. To combat some of these issues courses should be optimized for smartphones and tablets, since many students especially in rural or low income areas access learning primarily through mobile devices. Further, downloadable materials (PDFs, audio lectures, or offline modules) allow students to continue learning even when internet access is intermittent and offering text based alternatives to video, compressed file formats, and adaptive streaming ensures that students with slower connections can still participate fully.

Examples of Accessible Design in Online Learning –

• Universal Design for Learning (Ontario Institute for Studies) is an educational framework that emphasizes designing courses, materials, and interactions so they are accessible and effective for all learners, regardless of ability, background, or learning style. Instead of providing accommodations after barriers appear, UDL encourages educators to anticipate diversity from the start. UDL asks teachers to consider equity and diversity proactively. For example recognizing that requiring students to post images of themselves in online discussions may exclude those uncomfortable with being judged on appearance, gender, or cultural norms. The UDL principal would suggest that educators should provide multiple means of engagement so students can participate in ways that feel safe and inclusive.

• Screen Reader Compatibility – Digital materials must be readable by assistive technologies. This can look like PDFs being tagged properly, and images including descriptive alt text. This would support blind and low vision students to navigate content independently. Interestingly Yang et al .,(2023) found that many online courses still lack basic screen reader compatibility despite their being legal mandates such as the ADA and Section 504. This is very interesting as the amount of online course delivery has skyrocketed since COVID.

Good vs Poor Examples of Using Alt Text

Common Barriers – These barriers aren’t just technical, they’re pedagogical. They signal who belongs and who doesn’t.

• Poor color contrast or font choices
• Videos without captions or transcripts
• Navigation that requires precise mouse control
• Timed assessments without accommodations

Moving Forward – Accessibility is not a checklist when creating informative content on the internet. It means being consciously aware of others needs and asking question such as

• Who might be excluded by this design?
• How can I offer multiple ways to access and express learning?
• What assumptions am I making about ability, time, or technology?