How can librarians ensure their instruction materials are as accessible as possible? One way is through Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines, a set of best practices to improve teaching and learning and create inclusive and equitable educational experiences for all students.
The guidelines include three principles that instructors must provide via multiple means: engagement (the “why” of learning), representation (the “what” of learning), and action and expression (the “how” of learning). The guidelines are an excellent reference for planning library instruction sessions that can reach learners regardless of disability, learning styles, and preferences. However, to create a truly equitable educational experience, school library workers need to consider accessibility principles as well.
Any technology that we, as instruction librarians, use in our sessions, as well as any electronic materials we make available to students afterward, should be accessible to all. In the book Ensuring Digital Accessibility through Process and Policy, Jonathan Lazar, Daniel Goldstein, and Anne Taylor define accessible technology as “technology that can be utilized effectively by people with disabilities, at the time that they want to utilize the technology, without any modifications or accommodations.”
It is problematic to rework materials to make them digitally accessible only after learning that a student needs accommodation, because it requires the student to disclose their disability. It’s not always easy for students to receive the accommodations they need, and instruction librarians are not always informed ahead of time if a student has a disability that would influence their ability to engage in the library session. The formal accommodation request process may also result in the student gaining access to the educational materials later than other students, putting them at a disadvantage.
We must educate ourselves on accessibility. The UDL Guidelines and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) work together to create a road map for accessible instruction. Web accessibility standards help developers and authors to make their websites fully accessible to all users. The benefits are wide-reaching. For example, closed captioning on videos is essential for individuals with hearing loss, but captions also benefit individuals who learn best from written content or who want to watch a video in a crowded place but don’t have headphones.
The most widely used accessibility guidelines are the WCAG version 2.1. They are split into four areas to create the POUR framework:
- perceivable, in that information is presented in ways that all users can engage with
- operable, giving users multiple options for navigating and interacting with electronic materials
- understandable, in that users can easily comprehend content
- robust, meaning content is compatible with common device types, such as computers, smartphones, and screen readers.
While the WCAG were established with web content in mind, similar principles can be applied to any digital instruction materials, such as electronic worksheets, PowerPoint slides, or tutorials. We can use these guidelines in conjunction with the UDL framework to create inclusive library instruction for all learners.
Below I have outlined the best practices for accessible library instruction, which will help you create inclusive learning experiences for all students using UDL and WCAG.
1. Make your materials available outside of class
Giving your class a copy of materials in advance helps students who may need extra time to process the information. Not only is this practice helpful for those with learning disabilities or who use assistive technology, but it also benefits students who wish to engage with the content in multiple ways and at multiple times, even if they do not have a documented disability accommodation.
Creating and sharing online guides, such as LibGuides, is also helpful. HTML-based guides allow learners to easily zoom in, resize text, and use text-to-speech software. These also provide a useful reference for students to consult after class, which is especially helpful for those who have a hard time taking notes.
2. Use accessible file formats
All file formats are not created equal. When choosing which software to use, consider what your students have access to and are most familiar with in addition to accessibility features. For instance, both Microsoft and Google Suite are compatible with screen readers, but they do require content creators to do some work to make documents fully accessible.
Provide alternative text and use a consistent heading structure. Avoid PDFs whenever possible, as they are often difficult to use with assistive technology.
3. Make materials easy to find and navigate
Post your materials in a place that’s logical and easy for students to find. Posting them in multiple places such as a guide on the library website and the course’s page in your institution’s learning management system can help.
Make materials easier to access during class time by providing descriptive, shortened URLs through free tools like tinyurl.com or bitly.com. You could also create a QR code to allow students to quickly access materials on their mobile phones.
Break content into sections with clear headings. Try to strike the right balance between detailed descriptions and cognitive load. Screen reader users rely on headings to jump between sections of a website or document. Everyone can benefit from the automatically generated table of contents that appears in the navigation pane when headings are added in Microsoft Word or Google Docs. Headings also allow students to quickly scan content without getting distracted.
To make your PowerPoint presentations or Google Slides more navigable, give each slide a unique title. If you have multiple slides on the same topic, label them Slide Title (1), Slide Title (2), etc. You should also verify that the order in which a screen reader will read each item on a slide is logical.
4. Provide text alternatives and captions
The “perceivable” section of the WCAG involves text alternatives and time-based media related to all three dimensions of UDL. To meet these standards, provide alternative text for image-based content. The alternative text should describe the main information that you hope users will glean from the image. It should be concise, and it should not repeat information from the main text.
Make videos accessible to users with hearing impairments by providing captions and transcripts. Some platforms, such as YouTube and Panopto, provide automatic captioning. Automated captions are a useful starting point, but they often have missing punctuation and other transcription errors. Edit your captions before sharing video content with users.
We must educate ourselves on accessibility to meet the needs of all students.
Turn on closed captioning when showing videos during a class session. If you are presenting from a computer with a microphone enabled, both PowerPoint and Google Slides provide a live captioning feature. Synchronous online teaching platforms such as Zoom, WebEx, and Blackboard Collaborate also provide live captioning, but they may require the meeting creator to enable that setting ahead of time.
Transcripts are another useful resource. They allow students to review content in a different format and at a different pace. For live class sessions in which you are not speaking from a script, provide additional context in your speaker notes to help students review after class.
5. Use animation sparingly
Animation, flashing, and videos that play automatically may induce seizures and other physical reactions in some students. Animation in PowerPoint or Google Slides can disrupt the reading order and cause a screen reader to read the same content multiple times. If you like to use some animations, such as questions or bullet points that appear sequentially during a live session, allow users to opt out. Create a separate, screen reader–friendly version to share with students.
6. Be careful with color
Overreliance on color can cause colorblind users to miss important information. Students who like to read from printed materials may also have trouble interpreting images if they do not have access to a color printer. Therefore, you should not use color as the only means of conveying key content.
If you want to create contrast and draw attention to different words, passages, or parts of an image, use color in conjunction with other formatting. For example, you could use bold, italics, or underline in addition to color to differentiate text. For graphs, use different line styles (such as solid, dashed, or dotted) or fill patterns.
7. Provide clear instructions
When you provide worksheets or activities to students, include a description of what that content is and how it is useful to them. Reduce uncertainty and guesswork by clearly labeling where a response is needed and what type of response (such as text, number, or date) you expect.
You can also provide quick hints or links to useful resources to help students remember or locate information that may help them complete the activity. Provide your contact information so students know how to reach you if they need clarification outside of class.
8. Use plain language
The WCAG recommend writing web content at a middle school reading level or lower. This principle can be applied to other electronic materials as well. Defining uncommon terms, library jargon, and acronyms will help learners follow your instruction.
Using plain language in digital materials helps novice and advanced students alike, as an individual’s reading level may be lower for online materials than print materials. Online tools such as the Hemingway app and Microsoft’s built-in readability feature can identify the reading level of your text and offer suggestions for improvement.
9. Research and test your technology’s accessibility
In an ideal world, we would only purchase databases and other software that are fully compliant with the WCAG. In reality, we must do our best with what we have available. We should give preference to tools that are compatible with assistive technology in our instruction sessions.
When you must teach students to use databases with accessibility issues, you can help them by describing known issues and explaining possible workarounds. Point out accessibility and customization features such as display options and available file formats to help students use the tools more effectively. You can also recommend alternate databases with fewer accessibility issues that students may use to find comparable information. Do not be afraid to contact the database vendor to report issues.
10. Test the accessibility of your own materials
Microsoft products have built-in accessibility checkers that will flag common issues like missing alternative text or incorrect heading levels. Do your own spot-checking for common issues as well.
Make sure your materials are compatible with different technologies. Try loading your content on a computer, tablet, and smartphone and make sure it is easy to read and use on all three. Check how your content looks when zoomed in 200% and adjust if needed.
You can also conduct basic keyboard navigation and screen reader testing. Familiarize yourself with common keyboard shortcuts and try navigating your content using a keyboard and screen reader. NVDA is a good free and open source screen reader option.
Look out for common issues such as information displayed on the screen but not read by the screen reader and keyboard traps—when you’re stuck on a page element like a dropdown menu or hyperlink and can’t navigate forward or backward. Focus on spotting major errors and check the guides for any software you use to get additional accessibility information.
