FLO tips - Accessibility and inclusivity

When you create accessible learning activities, resources and assessments, you are:

helping students to be successful by providing flexibility and support
removing physical, cognitive or technology barriers to learning
meeting Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) — a legal requirement

Tip 1: Create accessible learning activities and materials in FLO

You can check for accessibility in the FLO ecosystem by using built-in accessibility tools. The tools will help you to meet accessibility design standards and prompt you with further manual checks.

Resources that can help

Self-paced workshop: Online Accessibility

Tip 2: Apply Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a design framework that incorporates accessibility. Applying UDL within a FLO site helps you to provide students with flexible and customisable activities and resources for use on any device. Using UDL you are supporting students with diverse backgrounds, abilities and learning needs to be able to adapt the activities and materials in your topic site.

Resources that can help

Self-paced workshop: Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

Tip 3: Design flexible learning and assessment

How we design learning and assessment can also increase accessibility by incorporating the following:

Variations (adjustments, drafts, extensions, deferrals)
Flexibility (choice of assessment types, submission formats, deadlines)
Assessment and Evaluation (feedback choices, options, check-ins)

Example: UDL and Accessibility in practice

“Submit your assignment as a video.”

With UDL in mind, you can ask the following:

Variation: If students experience technical difficulties, cognitive barriers, or physical challenges in producing a video, what adjustments will be made?
Flexibility: Can students be provided with choice for alternative formats (eg. write a text script for a video; annotate a script with camera actions; audio-only recording)?
Assessment/evaluation: Are students supported with a series of steps for creating an assessed video? Are there workarounds for potential accessibility barriers to support students to submit their assessment?