Design & Experience
New to Accessibility? Design eLearning More Learners Can Use
A simple accessibility guide for instructional designers—so you can design courses that are easier to navigate, understand, and complete.
Accessibility can feel intimidating when you are new to instructional design. It may sound like a long list of technical rules, screen reader settings, contrast checks, captions, alt text, keyboard navigation, and compliance requirements.
Those details matter, but accessibility starts with a simpler idea: learners should be able to access the content, understand what to do, and complete the course without unnecessary barriers.
Start with the learner experience
Accessible design removes barriers before they become problems.
In eLearning, accessibility is about making sure learners can move through the course in more than one way. A learner may use a keyboard, a screen reader, captions, zoom, high contrast settings, or extra time to process information.
You do not need to become an accessibility expert overnight. Start by checking whether the course depends too heavily on one sense, one interaction style, or one perfect learner condition.
- Can learners see or hear the information in another way?
- Can learners navigate without a mouse?
- Can learners understand what to do next?
- Can learners complete activities without guessing?
- Can learners use the course if they need captions, alt text, or readable structure?
This keeps accessibility connected to the learning experience instead of treating it as a separate technical task at the end.
Use accessibility checks while you design
Small design decisions can make a course easier or harder to use.
Accessibility issues often show up when a course assumes every learner interacts with the screen in the same way. A drag-and-drop may require a mouse. A color-coded activity may depend on color alone. A video may explain something that is not available in captions or text.
Example: If a learner is told to “click the green button,” the instruction may not work for someone who cannot easily distinguish color, uses a screen reader, or navigates by keyboard. A clearer instruction would name the action or label: “Select Continue.”
Use the table below as a practical starting point. It will not cover every accessibility requirement, but it can help new IDs catch common barriers early.
| Accessibility area | What to check | If you notice... | What to do next |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1) Navigation | Buttons, links, menus, tabs, keyboard movement, and focus order. | The learner may not know where they are, where to go next, or how to move through an interaction. | Use clear labels, predictable navigation, and a logical focus order. Test whether the course can be completed without relying only on a mouse. |
| 2) Visual design | Text size, contrast, spacing, layout, color use, and visual hierarchy. | Text is hard to read, important elements blend in, or instructions rely on color alone. | Increase readability, avoid color-only instructions, and make the primary action easy to find. |
| 3) Media | Audio, video, captions, transcripts, narration, and on-screen text. | Important information is only spoken, only shown visually, or missing from captions or text support. | Add captions, transcripts, or text alternatives so learners can access the information another way. |
| 4) Images and graphics | Alt text, decorative images, charts, icons, diagrams, and screenshots. | An image carries meaning, but the meaning is not available in text. | Add helpful alt text or include the key meaning in nearby body text. Mark purely decorative images appropriately when the tool allows it. |
| 5) Interactions | Drag-and-drop, sliders, hotspots, click-and-reveal, quizzes, scenarios, and custom buttons. | The interaction requires a very specific motion, pointer action, or visual-only cue. | Offer another way to complete the interaction, simplify the activity, or choose a more accessible interaction pattern. |
| 6) Instructions | Prompts, feedback, activity directions, quiz wording, and next-step cues. | Learners may have to guess what to do, what changed, or why feedback appeared. | Write direct instructions that name the action, explain the purpose, and avoid relying only on visual placement or color. |
The goal is not to make accessibility feel like a separate project. The goal is to make accessibility part of how you design, build, and review the learning experience.
A quick accessibility check for new IDs
Use this before you send a course for review.
Before review, take one pass through the course with accessibility in mind. You are looking for barriers that could prevent learners from accessing the content, navigating the course, or understanding what to do.
- Keyboard: Can the learner move through the course without relying only on a mouse?
- Captions: Is spoken information supported with captions or text?
- Alt text: Do meaningful images, charts, and diagrams have useful text support?
- Color: Does the course avoid using color as the only way to communicate meaning?
- Instructions: Are directions clear, specific, and easy to follow?
- Readability: Is the text easy to read, scan, and understand?
Wrap-up
Accessibility helps more learners participate in the course without unnecessary friction. It is not only about checking boxes at the end. It is about designing with more learners in mind from the beginning.
Start small: check navigation, readability, media support, image meaning, interaction access, and instructions. Those habits can make your eLearning work clearer, more usable, and more inclusive.