Open edX® Accessibility Guidelines#
Almost one fifth of the world’s population has some kind of disability. Online courses can reduce many barriers to education for these learners by providing access to courses from any location, at any time, and through the use of assistive technologies.
The Open edX project is dedicated to creating a platform that is not only itself accessible, but also enables course content creators to create accessible content. If you encounter platform issues that you believe might affect your ability to provide accessible course content, please submit a Github issue to the Open edX project.
It is highly recommended that you implement the best practices in this document and in other resources. If you cannot easily address any of these barriers to providing accessible course content, it is recommended that you consult with resources at your organization such as Disability Services, or assistive technology and accessibility specialists.
Who Are Our Learners?#
In the following sections, we provide guidance on creating and delivering course content that allows students to use built-in accessibility functionality (such as text-to-speech and magnification features), assistive technologies, and alternative formats. These practices consider learners with diverse needs, such as those in the following list.
Blind learners who use a screen reader, which reads page text aloud, or a Braille display device, which renders page text in refreshable Braille.
Low-vision learners who use screen magnification software to enlarge or modify the contrast of text and other onscreen content.
Learners with vision impairments, such as difficulty seeing in low-light conditions, who modify their browser or operating system to change background colors and text settings to make text easier to read.
Learners with learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, who use text-to- speech technology that reads page content aloud.
Physically disabled learners who control their computers using switching devices, voice recognition software, or eye gaze-activated technology instead of mouse devices or keyboards.
Learners who modify their operating system settings to make the mouse or keyboard easier to use.
Learners with hearing impairments who cannot access audio content and need the equivalent information in an alternative format, such as captions.
Open edX® Accessibility Standards#
As the Open edX® platform is strongly based on well-accepted HTML5 markup standards and WAI-ARIA, we expect that learners who require additional accessibility tools such as screen readers and screen magnifiers will enjoy strong compatibility.
In addition, our guidance is based on principles of universal design (usable by all, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Course teams who build courses based on these principles create an inclusive experience that considers the diverse set of learning styles and needs of all learners, including learners with disabilities, learners whose native language is not English, and learners with technical issues such as low bandwidth internet or no access to audio.
To supplement the accessibility of the materials you can create within our platform, we recommend that you engage the resources available at your institution to support learners with disabilities. Most institutions offer disability support services and information technology resources that provide accessibility advice and support. These trained professionals typically provide the following services, which may be equally applicable to courses that are taught online:
Help with making disability accommodation decisions and advise you on what accommodations may be appropriate in light of the goals of the course and the instructional methodologies employed.
Help with document accessibility remediation
For live events, they can help with sourcing providers for learners’ real-time captioning, signed-language interpretation, or cued speech transliteration needs.
Additional Accessibility Resources#
The following resources might also assist you in producing accessible course content.
User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) may be useful if you’re intending to implement a browser or browser extension that will be compatible with the Open edX® platform.
Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) guides efforts to make Studio more accessible.
HTML5 and WAI-ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) are the standards to help ensure that the platform is accessible. You should follow the same standards to ensure that learner content inside xBlocks (learning units) is accessible.
EPUB 3.0 is a format for ensuring that redistributable learning materials are accessible, though Adobe PDF, Microsoft Office, and Google Docs may also be made accessible.
The DAISY Consortium contributes to EPUB accessibility standards and has a tool for che checking EPUB document accessibility.
MathML is a preferred markup format for all math content.
MathJax is the system we use for rendering MathML content.
WCAG2ICT covers non-web Information and Communications Technologies.
While your ability to support students in the MOOC context might be different from supporting on-campus students, we encourage you to develop a plan to respond to students who inform you of accessibility barriers to learning. However, given the large numbers of learners enrolling in many of the courses, you will quickly see how important it is to address accessibility concerns when creating a course.
See also
Designing Your Course For a Mobile Experience (concept)
Accessibility Best Practices Checklist (reference)
Accessibility Checker (reference)
Maintenance chart
Review Date |
Working Group Reviewer |
Release |
Test situation |