Is Your Remote Learning Plan Accessible to All?
With COVID-19 forcing emergency closures across the country, schools are scrambling to implement remote learning and communication plans for students and families. But is the information you are posting accessible for students, families and staff members with disabilities?
The Importance of School Website Accessibility During Extended Closures
Right now, website accessibility is more important than ever. During an extended closure, the school website becomes the first stop for parents and students looking for up-to-date information about closure extensions or reopening plans, remote learning expectations, and communication strategies.
While schools may have many other communication tools—including email, social media, robocalling or texting, and LMS platforms—having basic information on the website is critical. Other communication platforms may miss some families—emails and phone numbers change, families may have trouble logging into LMS systems, and not everyone uses social media. But the information on the website is always available to everyone. During an extended closure, when parents may not even have an office number they can call with questions, the school website can act as a central hub for all closure and remote learning information. Class pages maintained by individual teachers can provide links to the resources and systems students need for remote learning or even be used to push out daily assignments. Read more: Using Public Class Pages During an Extended Closure.
That’s why it is critical to make sure the information on the school website and individual class pages is fully accessible to all visitors, regardless of disability status. Students, parents and staff members with visual, auditory, cognitive or dexterity differences must have equal access to up-to-date information and learning resources so they do not fall behind during this time.
More Website Collaborators—and More Website Accessibility Errors
Keeping everything on the website up to date during this fast-moving national emergency takes more than a single webmaster—especially with everyone doing their best to manage things remotely. Individual teachers need to be able to make changes to their class pages daily or weekly to post the latest assignments, links and information. Schools may also have multiple people involved with updating school-wide information and setting up emergency alerts.
Adding more website collaborators reduces workloads, but it also increases the likelihood that content accessibility errors will creep into the site. The vast majority of teachers—along with many of the staff members tasked with the job of webmaster at a school—have never been trained in website accessibility or ADA requirements for digital content. In fact, accessibility is not even on the radar for many content creators.
Without an understanding of online accessibility, teachers may put out information and learning materials in formats that can’t be accessed by parents and students with disabilities. Some of the content accessibility errors we have seen on teacher pages include:
Reading materials posted as an inaccessible PDF.
Video or audio lectures without transcripts or closed captioning.
Visuals for lessons posted without alt text for students who can’t see them.
Poor link naming conventions (e.g., “click here” used as the link for multiple pages or resources).
Confusing header structure that makes it difficult for people using screen readers to navigate to the part of the page they are looking for (such as today’s homework).
A “Just in Time” Training Approach for All Website Content Creators
Teachers and new webmasters can’t be expected to become website accessibility experts overnight. But understanding a few key principles about content accessibility will go a long way towards ensuring that no student (or parent) is left behind during these challenging times. Read more: What Every Teacher Should Know About Website Accessibility.
The challenge for districts is how to get a distributed, overburdened workforce trained in the essentials of website accessibility. Who has time? And how many districts even have the expertise?
That’s why eChalk builds accessibility best practices and training for content creators right into our website platform. Many accessibility issues are taken care of automatically by the platform itself. eChalk GUIDE acts as a “just-in-time trainer,” alerting content creators to content accessibility errors and showing them how to fix them within the eChalk CMS right on the spot. For example, if an administrator creates a notice that includes a poorly named link (e.g. “click here”), GUIDE will alert them to the accessibility problem before they publish the notice, and GUIDE will also explain why “click here” is not helpful for someone using a screenreader. Read more about eChalk’s approach to website accessibility.
Real-time feedback and guidance help to prevent inaccessible content from making it onto the school website. Over time, GUIDE also instills accessibility best practices in content creators and raises awareness of digital accessibility issues. Teachers can carry these lessons with them to all of the digital platforms they use to push out content and learning resources.
Website accessibility is everyone’s responsibility. A built-in, just-in-time GUIDE can help all content creators improve their accessibility awareness. When content creators follow best practices, everyone in the school community can get to the information and resources they need.
Need help with website accessibility? Ask us about our accessibility tools and training options.