Designing for All: Creating Accessible Content in OttoLearn

To establish a diverse and inclusive learning environment, we, as LMS administrators, need to consider how we design our content. Is it accessible to all learners, including those with disabilities? Can everyone use and benefit from our training equally? 

While many LMS systems, including OttoLearn, provide learners with built-in accessibility features — such as increasing the font size or viewing things in high contrast — it’s our job to ensure the content is accessible. 

What is accessible eLearning? 

Accessibility refers to creating products, services, and environments specifically designed with the needs of disabled people in mind. It’s important to note that not all disabilities are visible. For example, an aging workforce includes many learners with declining hearing or eyesight. As another example, some learners have a lower reading comprehension than others. In both situations, learners are not “disabled” under an official designation but may have difficulty accessing or understanding your training content if you fail to make it accessible. 

Instead of aiming for an accessible design, we recommend creating your training to have a universal design. Universal design considers everyone’s abilities from the beginning of content creation and promotes inclusivity in all areas. It allows everyone — both those with and without disabilities — to benefit from your content.

Why is accessible content important?

Accessible content is essential for many reasons. For one, it ensures everyone can successfully complete your training program. Properly trained staff are more confident in their roles, more efficient, and make fewer errors. This can impact many areas of your company, such as the number of employees you need to hire, the number of safety incidents that occur, and the amount you spend on damaged products. 

The workforce comprises a diverse range of people with different ages, genders, backgrounds, languages, and abilities. Don’t limit your training to a select few when many talented people can positively impact your organization. Accessible content benefits all learners, not just those with disabilities. A well-designed course is easier to navigate, understand, and engage with, making it more valuable to all. 

Accessible content may also be required for legal reasons. Several industries require that digital content meet a minimum accessibility standard. For example, you may need to meet a AA or AAA standard according to WCAG. While we won’t go into much detail on WCAG in this post, it is a popular set of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (hence the name WCAG) that outline the accessibility standards required for content. There are other standards and mandates, so make sure you know what is required for your organization. 

How to design accessible content in OttoLearn

In the rest of this article, we’ll look at some best practices for creating accessible content using OttoLearn’s Content Studio. While you can create accessible content using various tools, OttoLearn’s built-in accessibility features make creating and maintaining inclusive content part of the workflow. Within OttoLearn, content can appear in Knowledge Cards or Activity questions, answer options, and feedback. 

When designing accessible content, it's essential to keep the following best practices in mind:

• Include media assets with a purpose: Limit the media (i.e., images, videos, diagrams) you include to those that add value to your training. While stock images can add visual interest, they can be distracting and make it harder to navigate and determine what information is important when using a screen reader. 
  
  You can add images and videos using OttoLearn’s WYSIWYG editor. 

• Include alternative (alt) text for all images: Every time you add an image, include alt text for learners using screen readers. The alt text describes the image, highlighting its importance and how it supplements the content. It should provide adequate detail so learners only using alt text get the same value from the image as those viewing it. Alt text also displays to learners when images are unable to load. 
  
  After adding an image in OttoLearn (see above), you can add alt text by selecting the image and clicking the Alt Text icon. 

• Provide subtitles and captions in videos: Ensure that learners with hearing or language difficulties can get the same information from your videos as other learners.
  While you can’t add subtitles or captions in OttoLearn directly, you can (and should) upload or embed videos that have them. You may also consider embedding media with described video for those with sight impairments.
• Provide alternatives to audio clips: Don’t rely on audio clips alone. When including audio, also provide a text transcript that learners can read instead.
  For example, you can use OttoLearn’s OttoLearn’s WYSIWYG editor to upload an audio clip and then provide the transcript below it. 

• Consider color: Don’t use color alone to convey meaning. For example, imagine you have a graph with two bars — one red and one green. Not everyone perceives color similarly, so don’t just refer to the green bar as “green.” Use additional labels or text cues to point learners toward the desired information. 
  
  For example, when referencing the following graph, use the labels — “before” and “after”.

• Consider the contrast: Make sure text, images, diagrams, and videos are displayed with enough contrast to be read by learners with visual impairments.
  Learners can control the text contrast using OttoLearn’s learner-side accessibility functionality. Specifically, they can open the User Profile Menu in the learner app and switch to high contrast mode. 

This won’t affect your media assets, so create those with adequate contrast before uploading or embedding them into your content. 

• Provide multilingual content: Allow learners to access your content in their preferred language. 
  
  Within OttoLearn, you can translate Knowledge Cards and Activities using the Translate icon. This will open the Translation panel, where you can manually add or automatically generate your translations. You can even add unique alt text and videos for each language! 

When writing accessible content, we recommend the following best practices: 

• Use plain language: Make sure your content is easy to understand by avoiding jargon and complex language. When introducing new terms, be sure to define them clearly. 
• Avoid gender-biased language: Don’t use gender-specific terms if there are gender-neutral alternatives. If necessary, use a gender-neutral, singular 'they' instead. Even though some jobs may be dominated by one gender, your training language should be tailored to all employees.
• Use descriptive headings: Make your content easy to read and scan by breaking it into clear sections and sub-sections. This may help learners use screen readers to navigate your content. 
• Include lists: In general, lists are easier for learners to read and scan than long blocks of text, especially on mobile devices. 

Before launching your training, test it using different assistive technologies, such as screen readers or keyboard-only navigation. If you can, use an accessibility audit tool or have some disabled learners go through your training and provide feedback on how you can improve things. As standards, technologies, and best practices evolve, be sure to make updates to ensure your content continues to meet the needs of your diverse workforce. 

With the best practices you’ve just learned and OttoLearn’s Content Studio, you have the tools you need to create better content for all of your learners. By providing an inclusive learning experience for everyone in your organization, you can avoid misunderstandings, cognitive overload, and other barriers to effective training and desired results. Next time you create content, make sure to keep accessibility in mind! 

Questions? Contact us at success@neovation.com.