Ten Top Tips!How to make your materials more inclusive

Every person has a different perception of what they see and how they interpret information; learners accessing your material will be no exception.

Designing accessible curricula is good practice and is now a legal requirement for us all.

The following hints and tips will be helpful to refer to when creating your learning materials to help make them more accessible at the point of design and should help reduce the need adapt or change at the point of delivery.

ContentsFonts Presentation Style and ReadabilityUsing Paper Overheads and PowerPoint PresentationsColourGraphicsNavigational DesignAudioVideo AnimationUseful References

Fonts• Select sans serif fonts such as Arial or Comic Sans. Other

suggestions include Verdana or Trebuchet MS. • (click on word icon for more detail)

• Use a minimum of size 12pt or 14pt when producing text based information.

• Where possible use lower case letters rather than capitals. Using capital letters for emphasis can make text harder to read.

• Don't write sentences entirely in capitals; this infers that the reader is

being shouted at.

• Allow font style and background colour of text to be changed if necessary

Microsoft Word Document

Presentation Style and Readability• Keep sentences short; make average sentence length 15 to 20 words.

• Wherever possible text should be broken down into lists or short paragraphs.

• Rather than single line spacing, try to use 1.5 or 2 spacing between lines.

• Use words your readers are likely to understand - seek out unusual words or phrases and replace them with plainer alternatives.

• Part of writing well is writing concisely. Most readers are busy people who want to find out the main points of your message, and fast. So strike out useless words and don’t be afraid to rewrite a sentence entirely.

• Keep lines right margin unjustified with ragged right edge as this makes it easier to define where each line finishes. (click on word icon for more detail) Microsoft Word

Document

Presentation Style and Readability

• Avoid conveying important information in headers or footer or duplicate within the main body of the text. Screen readers and Braille translation systems may not be set to read this data.

• Use sex-neutral terms and try to avoid sexist language.

• Use language which reflects cultural diversity and racial equality.

• Use bold to highlight rather than italics or underlining as this can make the words ‘run together’.

• Using blocks of upper case font is hard to read, use mixed case.

Using Paper

• Use coloured paper instead of white, cream or off-white provides a good alternative.

• Matt paper is preferable to glossy paper as this reduces glare.

Overheads and PowerPoint Presentations

• Use a minimum font size of 20-30 pt or higher.

• Do not put too much information on each overhead. 6 bullet points are best.

• Use your speaker notes to include important information from your slides.

• Cover only one subject matter per slide.

• Create good background / foreground contrast.

• A dark background and light text may be better for dark rooms. • A light background and dark text may be better for light rooms.

A light background and dark text can be more effective in light

rooms

A dark background and light text works

well in a dark environment

Patterned TemplatesPatterned Templates

Can be more difficult to readCan be more difficult to read

Colour

• There are many groups of people who may experience colour-related barriers when trying to access multimedia content.

• Students with colour blindness or visual difficulties may not be able

to perceive colour accurately. Try not to rely on colour alone to convey meaning.

• Avoid colour combinations such as red/green, red/black and yellow/orange along with red/green. These cause difficulties for those with colour blindness. See some examples

• Colour contrast is important, if you lighten the light colours and darken the dark colours in your material, you will increase visual accessibility.

Graphics

• Do use relevant graphics, images and pictures to break up text.

• Check that you have included a concise text description of non text information such as pictures, flow diagrams bar charts etc

• If you are providing a visual image or non text based information such as pictures, flow diagrams bar charts etc ensure that you provide access to a written description of this for screen reader users.

Navigational Design• Use clear and understandable text descriptions for hyperlinks.

• Do not have hyperlinks simply labelled ‘click here’, instead provide a screen tip giving more information on the nature of the link.

• Ensure that objects such as text, navigation bars or buttons are in the same place on each screen and in the same order.

• Provide a clear description of how students can navigate around your learning materials.

• Icons if used, should be used consistently throughout

Audio

Audio information can provide a rich media for learning and provide a

powerful accessibility solution. Reasonable adjustments when using

audio might include:

a. Provide a transcript of any audio material.

b. A speech delivered by a public speaker may have tones and pitch designed to express irony or emphasis a transcript may not pick this nuance up. Ensure that a text based transcript emphasises important points in some alternative manner.

Video

Video should have a description of the content and the sense of any

commentary should be provided in captions. Reasonable adjustments

when using video might include:

a. Closed captioning on screen of any commentary made during the video.

b. Provide access to description of any learning content that is

intended.

Animation

• Animations can enrich learning content by providing vibrancy and clarity to still diagrams, images or other visual information. This can be very powerful as a learning tool and an accessibility solution for some groups of users.

• Provide a text based description of animation for those who cannot see it or understand the concept behind it.

• Ensuring that the student can access the animation when viewed at

different magnification scales.

Animation

• Animations can enrich learning content by providing vibrancy and clarity to still diagrams, images or other visual information. This can be very powerful as a learning tool and an accessibility solution for some groups of users.

• Provide a text based description of animation for those who cannot see it or understand the concept behind it.

• Ensuring that the student can access the animation when viewed at

different magnification scales.

Animation

• Animations can enrich learning content by providing vibrancy and clarity to still diagrams, images or other visual information. This can be very powerful as a learning tool and an accessibility solution for some groups of users.

• Provide a text based description of animation for those who cannot see it or understand the concept behind it.

• Ensuring that the student can access the animation when viewed at

different magnification scales.

So why is good design important?

Click on the image above and listen to Natasha talking in video clip 8

Useful References

• Ask Oxford.com – Plain English http://www.askoxford.com/betterwriting/plainenglish/?view=uk

• BRITE – Ways to Create and Inclusive Classroomhttp://www.brite.ac.uk/resources/inclusive_classroom.htm

• Access All Areas – Disability, technology and learninghttp://www.techdis.ac.uk/resources/files/AAA.pdf

• Guidelines for E-Learning Contenthttp://www.techdis.ac.uk/index.php?p=6_6_20040211031103

Useful References

• Avoid colour problems, general advicehttp://www.skillsforaccess.org.uk/howto.php?id=111

• Maximise text readability - general advicehttp://www.skillsforaccess.org.uk/howto.php?id=106

• Provide audio descriptions for video or animated content - general advicehttp://www.skillsforaccess.org.uk/howto.php?id=104

• Provide text equivalents for audio - general advice on captionshttp://www.skillsforaccess.org.uk/howto.php?id=103

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