Skip to main content
UNSW Sydney Logo
Teaching
Mobile search
mobile nav menu button
  • About
  • Teaching
    • New to teaching
    • Educational design
    • Assessment and feedback
    • Evaluating education
    • More...
  • Educational Technology
    • Support
    • Training
    • TELT Administrator
  • Events & News
    • Upcoming events
    • Recent news
    • Event recordings & resources
    • Subscribe to education news
  • Awards
    • Awards
    • Fellowships
    • Gathering evidence of your teaching practice
  • Professional Development
    • Beginning to Teach (BTT)
    • Teaching Accelerator Program
    • Foundations of L&T (FULT)
    • Course Design Institute (CDI)
    • Self-paced learning
    • Academic Mentoring
    • More...
  • Contact & Support
  • About
  • Teaching
      1. New to teaching
      2. Educational design
      3. Assessment and feedback
      4. Evaluating education
      5. More...
  • Educational Technology
      1. Support
      2. Training
      3. TELT Administrator
  • Events & News
      1. Upcoming events
      2. Recent news
      3. Event recordings & resources
      4. Subscribe to education news
  • Awards
      1. Awards
      2. Fellowships
      3. Gathering evidence of your teaching practice
  • Professional Development
      1. Beginning to Teach (BTT)
      2. Teaching Accelerator Program
      3. Foundations of L&T (FULT)
      4. Course Design Institute (CDI)
      5. Self-paced learning
      6. Academic Mentoring
      7. More...
  • Contact & Support

Breadcrumb

  1. Teaching
  2. Technologies
  3. Accessibility Guidelines

4. Design for the various ways learners access and engage with online content

Consider the diverse ways students will perceive, operate, understand and interpret your content. Design your online course materials and environment to ensure all students can participate in the learning.

Factors to consider include use of colour, motor load, timing of activities, flash rate, and flexibility for users to control how content is displayed.

To meet this guideline:

  • Check that text has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1.
  • Use visual cues other than colour. For example, dotted and solid lines can be used to indicate differences in graphs, and bold text can be used to highlight key terms.
  • Ensure instructions to learners do not rely solely on sensory characteristics such as size, location, orientation, and sound.
  • Ensure all users have enough time to read and use the content.
  • Remove time limits on activities, unless this would invalidate the activity.
  • Allow users to save their activity progress and return at a later time, unless this would invalidate the activity.
  • Enable printer-friendly versions of content.
  • Enlarge target areas. For example, hyperlink a longer string of text, as opposed to a single character.
  • Ensure text can be resized up to 200% without loss of content.
  • Ensure content that moves, blinks, or auto-updates has a mechanism for the user to pause, stop or hide it.
  • Ensure content does not contain anything that flashes more than 3 times per second.

Additional resources

See also:

  • Introduction to cognitive disabilities (WebAIM)
  • Introduction to motor disabilities (WebAIM)
  • Introduction to seizure disorders (WebAIM)
  • Introduction to colour-blindness (WebAIM)
  • Color contrast checker (WebAIM)

WCAG 2.0 checkpoints

This guideline encompasses the following  WCAG 2.0 checkpoints:

  • 1.3.3 (A) Sensory Characteristics
  • 1.4.1 (A) Use of Color
  • 1.4.2 (A) Audio Control
  • 1.4.3 (AA) Contrast (Minimum)
  • 1.4.4 (AA) Resize Text
  • 2.2.1 (A) Timing Adjustable
  • 2.2.2 (A) Pause, Stop, Hide
  • 2.3.1 (A) Three Flashes or Below Threshold

See next

5. Make iterative improvements   >

 

  • MOOCs - Massive Open Online Courses
  • Access TELT Systems during a myUNSW Outage
  • Turnitin
  • Accessibility Guidelines
    • 1. Designing the environment
    • 2. Ensure content accessible
    • 3. Provide text alternatives for media
    • 4. Design for various learners
    • 5. Make iterative improvements

Events & news

Grades, Risk and Psychopathy: Students’ Willingness to Pay for Essays
Finding a teaching space just got much easier!
More
Back to top
  • Print
  • Share
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Google
    • Email
  • Home
  • About
  • Educational Technology
  • Events & news
  • Awards
  • Contacts

Authorised by Pro Vice-Chancellor Education
UNSW CRICOS Provider Code: 00098G, TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12055, ABN: 57 195 873 179
Teaching at UNSW, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia Telephone 9385 5989

Footer menu

  • Privacy Policy
  • Copyright & Disclaimer
  • Accessibility
  • Report an incident
  • Complaints
  • Site Map
  • Site Feedback
Page last updated: Tuesday 24 May 2022