Accessible e-Learning

Because...making something accessible lends the power of choice and who doesn't want that?


Translation: No matter who you are and where you need to go, you should be provided a path that is accessible. Once there, what happens next should be up to you.

We learn through touch, vision, hearing and our ability to think.

 

I can remember as a child asking myself, “If I were to lose one of my senses which one would I rather it be, my hearing or my vision?” I carefully weighed the pros and cons of each choice and to this day, I don’t recall being able to settle on either one because the decision was just too tough to make.

Later, as my career evolved from preparing content for the classroom into developing online training, I was presented with the opportunity to create accessible e-Learning. This time, the decision wasn’t a tough one at all, and thus my journey began.

My Web Programmer skills have been very helpful for me in seeing the correlation between coding in HTML and how that corresponds to creating content using a WYSIWYG authoring tool, like Lectora. That’s important because accessible e-Learning needs to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and it’s the developer’s responsibility to make that happen.

By the way, I encourage my clients to avoid the mindset of “this training won’t have to be accessible”. It’s a trap you don’t want to fall into; some organizations assume they don’t need to make their training accessible but what they haven’t yet realized is that everyone benefits (sooner or later) from good design.  It simply should be. 

I discovered early in my journey that there’s a plethora of information out there about creating accessible e-Learning and not all of it was  accurate. Having led a Lectora user group in the past, I knew that creating a space for like-minded individuals to come together to ask questions and share best practices would ultimately benefit those who need developers like me to do our jobs to the best of our ability.

And that’s how the Lectora Accessibility User Group (LAUG) came about.

Where are you in your accessible e-Learning journey? Just starting out and need to better understand something or did someone help you in your journey and now you’re ready to pay it forward? If you have questions or knowledge you can share, I invite you to join the LAUG.

Together we can make a difference!