Digital accessibility

Summary
This page is about digital accessibility within Fontys ICT. We delineate what is meant by this, why this is an important subject, where it is relevant and give tools on how to implement it.

Surf writes the following (source) on this subject:

“Online information and facilities should be accessible to all students. For optimal accessibility, it is important that you offer information in different ways … Digital accessibility prevents many obstacles for students who experience obstruction during their studies.”

The vision of Fontys ICT describes that the individual student is our target group. We offer each student a customised study. The way in which this is offered is therefore essential. Every student is different and learns in their own way. Diversity increases as student numbers continue to grow. Because of this diversity, our institute has to deal more and more with limitations that some of our students have. This page describes digital accessibility with this target group in mind.

The Guidelines for Web Content Accessibility writes the following about digital accessibility:

“Accessibility concerns a wide range of functional impairments, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, language, learning and neurological impairments. Although these guidelines cover a wide range of concerns, they are not able to address the needs of people with all types, degrees, and combinations of disability. These guidelines also make web content more usable for older people, whose skills change with age, and improve usability for users in general.”

Although you can never take all limitations into account, there are certainly steps that can be taken to improve digital accessibility. This also means that users without limitations will find the systems more pleasant to work with.

The next section looks at our digital learning environment. For now, only Canvas and the EduResources Wiki are described. Others will follow later. Next, something is said about the communication around support processes. This lemma ends with a number of practical, directly applicable tips and some references.

For more information or support in the development or maintenance of a semester, please contact Student+ or an educational specialist involved in the implementation of your semester.

Our institute consists of a complex digital landscape that our students (and colleagues) have to deal with on a daily basis. Think Progress, Canvas, this Policy Wiki, our EduResourses Wiki, the Fontys ICT portal, and much more. Below is a brief description of each tool or platform that you should consider when dealing with it in the context of educational development and digital accessibility.

There is a lot of freedom when setting up a Canvas environment. However, consistency and uniformity contribute positively to improved digital accessibility. A template that every Canvas developer should use has been developed with great care. Keep the homepage and navigation menu intact. This is how we create consistency together. See this page about the agreements and guidelines around Canvas: Canvas.

Also read this page about declarations and design requirements.

See also these official design guidelines from Canvas itself: General Accessibility Design Guidelines

Starting in September 2021, all newly developed educational units will be referenced on the EduResources Wiki. All relevant sources are collected centrally there. From Canvas, the page of the EduResources Wiki can be seamlessly integrated via an iframe. So instead of posting the same resources on similar topics in multiple places, the central page on this concept can be used. You can do this by using the following embed code:

<iframe
    src="https://eduresources.fhict.nl/doku.php/sources:software_design?do=export_html"
    width="100%"
    height="1200">
</iframe>

The same guidelines as everywhere else apply to the EduResources Wiki. Also, take a good look at the manifesto described on the home page of the Wiki: EduResources Wiki manifest

• Make sure that all images such as videos and animations are subtitled.
• Check the accessibility of your website with the accessibility checker, for example with Siteimprove (according to WCAG).
• Do not use applications where reading software crashes.
• Organise regular meetings with all communications advisors around digital accessibility.
• Communicate with those who visit the site and ask for experiences and areas for improvement.
• Use the simplest language possible.
• Explain jargon and other difficult words.
• Use descriptive headings and subheads and start a new paragraph for each new topic.
• Begin a text with the most important information.
• Give images an alt text or caption and also explain in text what can be seen in the image/graph/diagram/animation.
• Don't just use colour to highlight special text.
• Do not use tables to format a text or create an overview in a text, use them only to process data (and then make them accessible).
• Use the formatting profiles (e.g. Header1) to highlight special text, do not do this by making parts of the text bold or larger.
• Choose a sans serif font (without 'brackets' on the letters).

Resources:

• Quick wins for lecturers - Ecio
• 15 tips for embedding in your educational institution - Surf communities

Below are some useful and directly applicable resources:

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines v2.1
• Explanation of requirements digital accessibility - digitoegankelijk.nl
• Responsibilities within educational institutions - Surf communities
• What is it and what are the benefits? - Surf communities
• Fontys website about web accessibility