How to Make Your Training Content Accessible for Diverse Learners

Easy accessibility in e-learning means that the training content is designed and developed to be easily usable for different learners or people with disabilities. Designing Inclusive training content means that diverse learners can access and engage freely with the provided resources without limitations due to their abilities or otherwise. 

For organizations in the educational field, this means creating content that adequately supports diverse learning needs while also boosting inclusivity, learner satisfaction, and compliance.

In this post, we will explore more about web accessibility and share tips and strategies you can implement to start making accessible training content for diverse learners of all abilities to navigate and fully engage with the resources it offers easily. We will also discuss the accessibility and inclusivity that KITABOO provides with its WCAG content.

Table of Contents

I. What is Accessibility in Training Content?

II. How to Make Training Content More Accessible for Diverse Learners

1. Alternative Text (Alt Text)
2. Use Descriptive Links
3. Text-to-speech (TTS)
4. Responsive Design
5. Caption Videos
6. Screen Readers
7. Select a Font Style and Structure That Are Accessible
8. Interactive Elements

III. The End Note

The World Wide Web Consortium, an international non-profit organization focused on developing web standards, defines web accessibility as “the design of websites, content, tools, and technologies in a manner that makes it reachable to a diverse set of people with different disabilities.”

However, accessibility is not all about making provisions for disabilities. It is just as much about embracing diversity and inclusion in learners of different learning types and preferences. Web accessibility includes all forms of disabilities that result in limited access to the web, including visual, speech, hearing, cognitive, neurological, and even physical limitations.

In addition to this, legal frameworks such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) also mandate that training and educational content should be accessible to all individuals.

Here is how you can implement inclusive learning strategies to make your training and educational content more accessible for a diverse set of learners-

To make training content more accessible, offering descriptive alt text for images is important. This means that alt text should convey the image’s purpose and content, thus allowing visually impaired learners to understand its context easily.

Accessible training content requires you to not just put “click here” in the text. Instead, the links within a document or content should be descriptively linked to indicate the resource it is being linked to. This helps both the learners who are using screen readers as well as the ones who wish to explore the resources you share.

Text-to-speech is another interesting accessibility tool that helps you convert spoken words into written text. You can use the tool in several ways to foster learning, and it is highly useful for diverse learners with dyslexia, visual impairments, or other similar mobility issues.

Another important requirement of accessible content is to ensure that the content is both responsive and adaptable to various screen sizes and devices. This, in turn, benefits individuals who use multiple devices to access content.

The use of video content for training purposes has been on a constant rise in the last few years. To make your training videos more accessible, it is essential to caption the content so learners with hearing disabilities can easily access the information. 

The power of screen readers as a powerful accessibility tool cannot be overemphasized enough. As the name suggests, screen readers are simply the software that reads out the on-screen written content for learners with diverse needs. There can be multiple benefits of screen readers such as demonstrating a concept to learners with visual disabilities. Platforms such as KITABOO cater to this need well and offer a unique “read aloud” feature to help readers listen to written content.

Optimizing different visual components to increase accessibility for a range of learners is another aspect of making training materials accessible. The content’s readability can be affected by various factors, including the typeface, text size, and arrangement.

Here are some tips you can use to make font and structure more accessible for diverse learners-

Keep a decent amount of space between each letter and word.

• Use a limited number of font variations to reduce cognitive load on learners.
• Use left-aligned text wherever possible. Likewise, avoid fully justified text, as uneven spacing can make it hard for people with dyslexia to read.
• Always use bold text instead of italics or underlines when emphasizing a piece of text to make it easier for learners with dyslexia and vision impairments.

Lastly, it is important to enhance the clickable areas in the training content that will be helpful for users with disabilities, such as visual and motor impairments. This is an excellent way to allow users to interact easily with buttons and links, which is especially important for building a mobile-friendly website for diverse learners.

When the training content is more accessible, there is a diverse learner engagement where learners come together to share their skills and experiences to make all members of the community better.

Likewise, accessible online learning platforms ensure that all learners can procure the same information and benefit from the same content or courses. Ensuring that your training and educational content align with eLearning accessibility standards leads to a more positive learning experience for everyone.

Leveraging robust digital publishing with KITABOO. Several accessibility features are simple for digital producers to include in their material. With KITABOO’s full compliance with WCAG and ADA standards, you can produce engaging, accessible training materials with cutting-edge elements like gamification and interaction.

Contact us today to learn more about KITABOO.

Also Check:

• K12 Publishers
• Associations & Societies
• Trade Publishers
• Training Companies
• Content Aggregators