Digital Accessibility Glossary

The practice of making digital content usable by all people, including those with disabilities. Accessibility involves design practices that allow content to be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. 

In education, accessibility means creating learning environments and online content so every learner has a chance to succeed. By making information accessible through different formats and teaching methods, all learners can engage in the curriculum, fostering a more inclusive and successful learning experience. 

"Accessibility benefits everyone". 

Accessibility training is offered via Brickfield Education. For more information and to sign up to a workshop, have a look at the Brickfield Accessibility Toolkit course area. 

Alt text (or alternative text) is text descriptions of images that can be read aloud by screen readers for users who cannot see the images. Alt text should be descriptive and succint. 

Alt text should be added to any and all images uploaded online. 

If you are unsure how to describe images, have a look at the Poet Training Tool. It provides guidance on WHEN to describe, HOW to describe and also gives you an opportunity to PRACTICE describing. 

Brickfield offers alternative formats of resources on QMplus. Students and staff can elect to download these formats in a variety of ways. You can find the list of supported content types and the conversion options on the Alternate Content Formats page. 

Any item, piece of equipment, software, or product system used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities. 

At QM, the Disability & Dyslexia Service (DDS) provides assistive technologies to our students. 

Brickfield Education Labs help organisations to better manage their Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) sites, such as QMplus, and improve the accessibility, usability and effectiveness of the content they create. 

In addition to providing synchronous and asynchronous workshops on accessibility awareness, they also offer an Accessibility Toolkit for staff to find, fix, and futureproof content within Moodle (QMplus). 

Captions are text versions of the audio content in videos, displayed to provide access for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. 

Closed captions are captions that are embedded within the video file itself, ensuring they are always available and synchronised with the audio. You may see 'CC' at the bottom of videos - this means Closed Captions. 

Ensuring sufficient contrast between text and background colours to make content readable for all users, including those with visual impairments. 

Within QMplus, we need to be mindful when we create content that it has an acceptable colour contrast. If you are unsure if the colours you want to use are acceptable, please use the WebAIM Contrast Checker. 

Being copyright compliant is essential and is related to accessibility. The Library offer a Copyright workshop and you can find more information via the CPD site. 

Digital Accessibility is about making websites and digital services that can be used by everyone - people on different devices, in different environments, and with different abilities. 

Every document we create and upload to QMplus needs to be accessible. 

To learn how to create accessible documents, have a look at the Document Accessibility workshop information on the Brickfield course area. Or if you would prefer to complete course content self-paced, have a look at the self-directed courses chapter of the same resource. 

At QM, we have access to Sensus Access to provide file conversions of academic content on QMplus. You can also use the Sensus Access portal on the DDS website to convert your own documents. 

Look out for the file conversion icon on your QMplus areas.

Structural markup used to convey hierarchy and organisation in digital content. Properly coded headings facilitate navigation by screen readers. 

We should always use headings when creating content that will be uploaded online, for example in Word documents or PowerPoint presentations. 

We have to describe digital images with alternative (alt) text. This is essential for accessibility, as it ensures that visually impaired individuals using screen readers can understand what an image is trying to portray. Alt text also enhances search engine optimisation (SEO) by allowing search engines to index images, making content more discoverable. Additionally, it provides context when images fail to load, ensuring that the message remains clear and accessible to all users.

See also Alt Text.

When we create multimedia, we have to ensure the content is accessible. For example videos, podcasts, audio files, and images. We have to provide captions and/or transcripts for media such as video or audio. We also have to ensure alternative text is added to images. 

To learn more about multimedia accessibility, head over to the Brickfield Accessibility Training Book - chapter 1.5 to sign up to the training. 

Microsoft PowerPoint has it's own inbuilt accessibility checker. Have a look at the Microsoft section on the Brickfield home page to learn more. 

Responsive design is an approach to web design that ensures layouts and content adapt and remain accessible across various devices and screen sizes. 

Some content creators use a 'mobile first' approach when designing content, meaning they are designing from the mobile perspective from scratch, not retrospectively adjusting content. 

Software that renders text and image content as speech or braille output, used by people who are blind or have low vision. Screen readers read digital content aloud. 

Some web browsers and apps have in-built screen readers so users don't have to download anything extra. 

Text version of all audio and visual content in videos, including descriptions of key visual information, to provide access for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or blind. 

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are international standards for making web content more accessible, published by the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative. 

Building accessible web content is important. For further information and training on web accessibility, have a look at the Brikfield Accessibility Training book, chapter 1.3.

Microsoft Word has it's own inbuilt accessibility checker. Have a look at the section on the Brickfield home page to learn more.