In today’s digital age, it’s easy to take for granted the convenience and accessibility of web content, software, mobile apps, and other forms of digital media. But for individuals with disabilities, navigating the digital world can present a significant challenge. Up until recently, the digital world was not following the same accessibility requirements as the physical world. This is luckily changing, and more people are conscious and willing to create lasting improvements for their communities through digital accessibility.
Accessibility is the concept of making something as available as possible for as many people as possible. Digital accessibility expands upon this premise and aims to eradicate the obstacles that prevent people from accessing digital products or services. It’s about designing websites, applications, and digital content in a way that is usable and understandable for all individuals, regardless of their abilities. In this blog, we will explore some examples of digital accessibility, and the importance of digital accessibility especially in education and schools.
Examples of Digital Accessibility
As the Global Accessibility Awareness Day Foundation explains, “Every user deserves a first-rate digital experience on the web. Someone with a disability must be able to experience web-based services, content and other digital products with the same successful outcome as those without disabilities.”
Let’s explore some specific examples of digital accessibility in action. This will shed light on what you can do in your school – or any environment, for that matter – to enhance the learning experience, and contribute to a more inclusive environment for everyone.
When thinking about digital accessibility, sight impairment is probably the first thing that pops into mind. Indeed, many vision-related issues have already been addressed; for example, screen reading software can read the content of a website out loud, greatly simplifying browsing for those with visual impairments. Similarly, many web app designers now make color blindness a key consideration when it comes to color management, while high-quality computer monitors include built-in tools to assist color blind individuals.
Yet, there are many other examples of digital accessibility features. Video content will now often display subtitles or closed captions to assist those with hearing impairments. Furthermore, modern software solutions will often include shortcut keys, keyboard navigation options, and even voice control. These can all aid users who may have physical impairments that make it difficult to operate a mouse, laptop touchpad, or touchscreen.
One of the indicators that digital accessibility awareness has gained power is the presence of global guidelines. These greatly contribute to standardizing the various recommendations to make digital media more inclusive and able to reach a wider audience. Digital accessibility is not only good for consumers of digital media but also for the creators of content, products, and services. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) include success criteria, like the four ‘POUR’ principles, which outline that digital content should be:
- Perceivable: the content and interface should not be ‘invisible’ to people with sensory impairments.
- Operable: the content should not require actions that cannot be performed by users with impairments.
- Understandable: the content should be able to be understood by all users.
- Robust: the content should be able to be reliably interpreted by user agents such as assistive technology.
Within schools and other education and academic settings, this means that all digital content should follow all four principles. This is especially important regarding any digital media that is directly accessible by students, such as online learning materials or any digital media that is used by teachers during lessons.
Why Digital Accessibility is Important in Education
Digital accessibility is crucial in education and schools because it’s how students with disabilities and impairments are provided with equal access to education technology (EdTech) and learning materials. At the same time, a focus on digital accessibility can empower these students to enjoy the same learning experiences as their peers. It’s worth stressing that digital accessibility can be achieved through the optimization of digital media, software, and mobile apps, but also through hardware solutions. For instance, computer monitors may include a color-blind mode, which helps visually impaired users differentiate between colors. Additionally, listening to audio descriptions on headphones amplifies the learning experience without distracting other students.
Digital accessibility is concerned with fairness and inclusive education. Let’s explore some of the specific benefits associated with digital accessibility success in education.
Benefit #1: Student Engagement
Student engagement is one of the most important aspects of inclusive learning. It’s a way to make kids feel part of the class and be willing to participate. Student engagement can be summarized as the extent to which students are interested and emotionally invested in what they are being taught. True student engagement occurs when students attend classes, take an active interest, participate in the lesson, and become interested in their learning outcomes. However, it can be further broken down into behavioral engagement, emotional engagement, and cognitive engagement. This significant distinction shows that students can be engaged in some ways but disengaged in others.
If students with impairments or disabilities are unable to perceive, operate, understand, or otherwise utilize digital media, they are less likely to be emotionally invested in lessons, and their motivation levels are also likely to decrease. Digital accessibility assists with student engagement because it means students can have multilevel engagement with digital media during lessons. They can access online learning materials and utilize all the relevant software. Additionally, there is a social component to student engagement, which is hindered when certain students feel excluded or ‘othered’.
Benefit #2: Collaborative Learning
Collaboration within schools and other academic settings is a fundamental part of the modern learning experience and offers many benefits. Collaborative sessions can help engage students and keep lessons varied and interesting, but they also teach valuable life skills, such as teamwork, critical thinking, and communication skills.
Over time, however, collaboration within education has relied upon digital media more and more, and this has created a divide between those with disabilities or even temporary impairments and those without impairments. When digital accessibility is given an appropriate level of focus, collaborative learning becomes more inclusive. Within classrooms, students have equal access to learning materials, and students with disabilities can more freely collaborate with any of their peers, regardless of their own impairments or capabilities.
Benefit #3: Equal Access to Resources
Another reason why digital accessibility matters in education is that it helps with the goal of providing equal access to resources. This can be especially significant in situations where students are asked to utilize online resources to obtain information or carry out activities outside of the classroom. For content creators, there are techniques that can help ensure that everybody has the same access to resources. For instance, content could be uploaded in multiple formats, including text, audio, and video, which can cater to people with different disabilities or impairments. Visual content can be specifically designed with color blindness in mind, for example, while written content can be designed with an awareness of issues like dyslexia.
As an article for Codecademy explains, design with digital accessibility in mind is an example of universal design and, as the name suggests, universal design can benefit everyone. One given example is the fact that alt tags used to explain the content of images can assist the visually impaired because the alt tags can be read aloud by screen reading software. However, this also benefits other users too, for example, when an image fails to load.
Benefit #4: Use of Education Technology
Education technology, or EdTech, helps teachers and students alike, and there are many types of EdTech that are relevant to the topic of digital accessibility. Some main examples include desktop computers, laptop computers, interactive whiteboards, projectors, tablets, smartphones, and similar devices. The use of education technology can help students to complete work activities more efficiently, to better understand what they are learning, and communicate and collaborate with others. Furthermore, EdTech can help educators to accommodate different learning styles and can break down physical or geographical barriers.
Digital accessibility is crucial for ensuring that all students have access to the same technology. Of course, it is important to make sure that students with impairments or more complex needs are not unfairly disadvantaged. Without a clear focus on achieving digital accessibility, able-bodied students could potentially have access to additional tools, which students with disabilities would not be able to use effectively.
Benefit #5: The Value of Digital Literacy for All Students
One of the most significant concepts related to digital accessibility is the idea of digital literacy. This can be described or defined as the ability of ICT-related technology to find, share, create, and communicate information. Essentially, it can be thought of as the development of skills that are required to thrive in an increasingly digital world. The development of these skills and the achievement of digital literacy are necessary for students throughout their time in school and higher education. Moreover, digital literacy is also in high demand within the workforce, and students who do not acquire the necessary skills may have limited future employment opportunities.
Digital literacy can be acquired through a combination of time spent using digital technology in school and outside of school. However, different households will have different levels of exposure to technology based on a variety of factors, including household income. Therefore, there is a strong argument to suggest that schools should serve as an equalizer in this regard, but for that to be possible, digital accessibility needs to be guaranteed for everybody.
Digital Accessibility: Summing It All Up
Understanding digital accessibility is extremely important for everyone, especially for educators. Digital accessibility is crucial in education to ensure that all students have equal access to digital media, software, apps, and technologies, as well as educational resources and opportunities. By incorporating accessibility features into online learning platforms, educational institutions can support students with disabilities and provide them with the tools they need to succeed academically. Additionally, ensuring digital accessibility in education is not only the right thing to do, but it also aligns with legal requirements and promotes a more inclusive society. By prioritizing digital accessibility in education, we can empower students with disabilities to reach their full potential and create a more equitable and inclusive learning environment for all.
(From the editor: Parts of this article were originally published on ViewSonic Library.)
