Students with diverse cognitive, linguistic, and academic abilities benefit from accessible text. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) establish numerous requirements (known as success criteria) to ensure that text is perceivable, operable, and understandable to all users. This guide synthesizes the essential criteria related to text accessibility. Following these guidelines when creating course content, such as documents, slides, and pages in the LMS, will help you eliminate potential barriers for your learners.
Guidelines
Ensure sufficient color contrast between text and the background. There are numerous considerations for using color, which we explore more thoroughly in our post, Accessible Use of Color. Regarding text content, the most essential consideration is that the chosen text color is sufficiently perceivable against the background color. As a best practice, minimize the use of unnecessary color.
For more information about this accessibility requirement, see Understanding Success Criterion 1.4.3: Contrast (Minimum).
Do not use individual sensory characteristics to provide information or instructions. As a rule, remember that not every learner will perceive color, position, size, shape, and other sensory characteristics in the same way as you. Therefore, when providing instructions, aim to use multiple characteristics in your descriptions, which will be more inclusive of all learners. For example, instead of saying something like “Group B will research all of the companies listed in blue;” ensure that the companies have an additional identifiable characteristic, such as bolded text, position, or a label, and refer to them accordingly: “Group B will research the first group of companies in the list—the ones in blue.”
For more information about this accessibility requirement, see Understanding Success Criterion 1.3.3: Sensory Characteristics.
Avoid using images of text. At times it may seem easier to include a screenshot of text when compiling course materials. For example, you might be trying to avoid retyping formulas in a different program, or you might be including an excerpt from a PDF in another document or page. However, images of text can introduce a variety of barriers for different types of learners. Users of screen readers won’t be able to interpret the information unless complete alternative text is provided (see: Alternative Text). Users with low vision may not be able to enlarge the text with sufficient clarity, and learners with cognitive disabilities may have trouble navigating and interpreting the content. Unless the content is decorative or nonessential (think memes), you should always provide it as text.
For more information about this accessibility requirement, see Understanding Success Criterion 1.4.5: Images of Text.
Use sequential headings to organize content. Headings are an important yet often overlooked tool that supports diverse learners in a variety of ways. Properly structured headings allow all learners to scan and mentally organize the content on a page. This is especially helpful for students with cognitive or learning disabilities. Headings can also reduce scroll fatigue and eye strain caused by long blocks of text. Enabling learners to review smaller sections of content more easily can also aid with concentration, greatly benefiting students with disabilities such as ADHD or dyslexia. And users of assistive technologies or keyboard navigation may be able to jump section to section when a proper heading structure is in place. Additional considerations for using headings include:
- Use heading styles, as opposed to enlarging or emphasizing text. Assistive technologies are dependent on the semantic markup of a page, meaning that they will not recognize large or bolded font as headers unless a heading style is used. Read more about using heading styles in common programs: Change Text Style in Canvas; Headings in Microsoft Word.
- Don’t skip heading levels. It’s important to understand which heading level your document or web page begins with so that you do not inadvertently create a broken heading structure. For example, page titles in the Canvas LMS are heading level 1 (h1) by default. This means that your first header on every page you create in Canvas must be a heading level 2. Parallel sections should also begin with h2, but any subsections should be set to h3.
For more information about this accessibility requirement, see Understanding Success Criterion 2.4.6: Headings and Labels and Understanding Success Criterion 2.4.10: Section Headings.
Use formatting that aligns with the meaning of your text. Text should be formatted using semantic markup. This might sound complicated or overly technical, and for web developers it can be. But for the rest of us, it is actually quite simple to follow this practice when using word processing software or an LMS. It simply means that you should select text formatting options from the editor menu as opposed to taking shortcuts like manually creating bullets, enlarging font instead of using a heading style, etc. This is most important for users of assistive technology. For example, many screen readers will announce the number of items in a list and then pause between items.
For more information about this accessibility requirement, see Understanding Success Criterion 1.3.1: Info and Relationships.
Create concise, precise, and unique hyperlinks. Hyperlink text should allow learners to identify the destination of a link so that they can determine whether they want to follow it. This is beneficial to users of a variety of assistive technologies, as well as students with learning or cognitive disabilities. Screen readers, for example, sometimes compile all of the links from a page so that the user can navigate through them at once. Avoiding redundancy and using precise labels will facilitate a better experience. Similarly, some students may want to minimize the number of links that they click, whether to reduce distractions, prioritize their tasks, or avoid cumbersome technology. Vague hyperlinked expressions such as “click here” can frustrate many learners who don’t want to waste time following a link to a mystery destination.
For more information about this accessibility requirement, see Understanding Success Criterion 2.4.9: Link Purpose (Link Only).
Do not underline text for emphasis. While not quite an accessibility requirement, avoiding underlining for emphasis and decoration can help reduce frustrations for all types of learners, who have grown accustomed to associating underlined text with hyperlinks. Users may try to click on an underlined item, potentially spending unnecessary time because they believe a link to be broken.
Use fonts and styles that promote readability. Despite many people believing that sans serifs fonts are superior, research has not been able to determine whether there is one specific font or typeface that is best for readability (Nielsen, 2022). Individuals may simply be too diverse in terms of abilities and preferences, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. That said, selecting commonly used fonts and not altering the kerning and line spacing is a safe approach to ensure most learners will be able to read your text with ease. For learners who struggle, you might be able to share resources for them to identify the best font for themselves (See, for example: Virtual Readability Lab) and customize fonts in their own browser (See, for example: Fonts Changer).
Use accessible language. What exactly is accessible language? According to WCAG, it means that abbreviations are spelled out, unusual words or jargon are explained, and insofar as possible, text requires no more than approximately an 8th grade reading level. It should be noted that these success criteria constitute AAA conformance, which means they go beyond baseline accessibility requirements and might be considered somewhat aspirational. However, efforts to use accessible language help to include learners from diverse linguistic backgrounds and learners with learning disabilities. You can also simply make your course easier to follow, allowing students to focus on their tasks rather than working too hard to understand instructions. In situations where the complexity of the text is beyond your control. Such as academic journals, you can help students who may struggle with interpreting complex writing by providing summaries, synthesis, and/or helpful reading strategies. Note that accessible language does not necessarily constitute inclusive language. For more, see the Envision article: Inclusive Language.
For more information about this accessibility requirement, see Understanding Success Criterion 3.1.3: Unusual Words; Understanding Success Criterion 3.1.4: Abbreviations; and Understanding Success Criterion 3.1.5: Reading Level.
References
Canvas (2015). General accessibility design guidelines.
Nielsen, J. (24 April, 2022). Best font for online reading: No single answer. Nielsen Norman Group.
W3C. (2018). Web content accessibility guidelines.
WebAIM. (n.d.). Typefaces and fonts.
WebAIM. (n.d.). Cognitive disabilities: Design considerations.
WebAIM. (n.d.). Links and hypertext.