.. _Supporting Learners with Diverse Needs: ###################################### Supporting Learners with Diverse Needs ###################################### .. tags:: educator, concept 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. edX 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 contact us at accessibility@edx.org. We welcome any comments and questions. .. Do not modify wording of the following note. Exact wording is from Legal. .. note:: Use of authoring tools other than those provided by edX might result in inaccessible course content. However, for clarity, use of edX authoring tools does not ensure that your course content will be accessible. ************************ 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. ***************************** Removing Barriers to Learning ***************************** edX highly recommends 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, edX recommends that you consult with resources at your organization such as Disability Services, or assistive technology and accessibility specialists. 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 edX platform. * `Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) `_ guides our efforts to make edX Studio more accessible. * `HTML5 `_ and `WAI-ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) `_ are the standards we follow to ensure that the edX platform is accessible. You should follow the same standards to ensure that learner content inside `xBlocks `_ (learning units) is accessible. * `EPUB 3.0 `_ is edX's preferred document 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 edX's 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. .. seealso:: :class: dropdown :ref:`Accessibility Best Practices for Course Content Development` (concept) :ref:`edX Accessibility Guidelines` (concept) :ref:`Designing for Mobile` (concept) :ref:`Accessibility Checker` (reference)