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An understanding of the need for better online accessibility has grown markedly in recent years, perhaps accelerated by the digital shift during the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020. Legislation in different parts of the world has also been a driver of awareness and action.Accessible learning is good for everyone.As an online activity, e-learning falls squarely within the scope of accessibility requirements. But whether you’re responding to a compliance deadline, pressure from customers, or a corporate commitment to diversity and inclusion, it’s well worth noting that designing training with accessibility in mind can enrich the learning experience for everyone, not just those with a defined disability. So, accessibility should be a priority for any L&D professional who wants to optimize the learning experience.Where to start?Unless your strategy is to invest in your own in-house accessibility expertise, the natural first step is to find the right partner to advise and assist you.First, they should understand the requirements of any legislation you need to comply with. Second, if you’re interested in more than compliance—because, let’s face it, ticking compliance boxes is not always the same as taking a best-practice approach— they’ll be able to explain different standards and what you could be doing to transform learning through accessibility improvements. There’s a difference, for example, between a basic screen reader experience, which may be good enough for compliance, and a great screen reader experience, which makes a real difference for usability.Third, they should be able to help you develop a roadmap and a plan to achieve your e-learning accessibility objectives.Consider remediation from the start.Every respectable accessibility improvement plan starts with an audit against the relevant standards to establish what accessibility gaps exist. Once these are identified, the next step is remediation—fixing the identified accessibility issues—so it’s worth considering from the start whether you want your accessibility partner to help you with this.If you’re happy to handle remediation in-house or through a different partner, then it won’t matter if the accessibility specialist you choose doesn’t have specific expertise with e-learning platforms, hosted assets, and content formats. But if you do expect to need their remediation support, it can be a big advantage if they are also e-learning specialists. Consider this carefully before making your choice—and don’t forget that accessibility covers both your e-learning platform and the training content that it holds.Consider the impact of localization.Hopefully, localization is part of your e-learning strategy, since L&D has a greater chance of success when it happens in the learner’s native language. But this means that accessibility testing must cover all the languages you localize into. Even if you’re applying the same accessibility standards across countries and languages (legislative differences may mean this isn’t the case), it simply doesn’t follow that if your e-learning is accessible in one language, it will automatically be accessible in any other.For example, what if your e-learning platform doesn’t accept voice commands in all of the languages you cater to? Or, what if the way you’ve handled forced line breaks for certain Asian languages causes real trouble for screen readers?When you’re choosing an accessibility partner, make sure that they cover all of the languages you need. If they’re helping you with remediation, they also need to know coding best practices that address the user experience from both a localization and accessibility point of view—not compromising one for the sake of the other.Another way that localization and accessibility can go hand in hand is that the right localization partner can make a big difference to your accessibility journey. For example, video accessibility might feel like a big hurdle to clear, but it isn’t if your localization partner also offers (multilingual) accessible content services such as closed captions, signed videos, audio descriptions, and descriptive transcripts.It's an ongoing process.E-learning accessibility isn’t a one-off project that you complete and forget. It takes continuing vigilance and an accessibility-first approach to platform and content development. Otherwise, improvements you make will be undone over time.If you use a third-party e-learning platform or rely on e-learning vendors for course design and development, you’ll need to engage with them to achieve your accessibility objectives. If you do any of this in-house, you’ll need to update your own software standards, guidelines, and checklists, and educate your software engineers and learning designers to put accessibility front and center.There’s certainly a lot to get right when it comes to e-learning accessibility. But that doesn’t mean it needs to be painful. Help exists to make the complex more controllable and achievable. I hope I’ve inspired you to get started.

E-Learning for Everyone: How to Address Accessibility

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Blended learning is proving to be an effective development strategy. According to ATD Research, 75 percent of organizations are expanding their use of blended learning, and 87 percent of employees value the flexibility it provides.This ATD Research whitepaper explains that implementing a successful blended learning program takes a variety of skills. Furthermore, both internal and external organizational resources need to be balanced.How to do that successfully depends on the organizational context as well as how to motivate your teams. Motivate Your AudienceWhat motivates adults to learn? Clearly, there are different learning theories out there. Everyone has a unique mix of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors. These factors range from perceived reward and social or contextual influences to the quality and flexibility of available training.The UK’s innovation agency for social good, Nesta, details how to design a program to meet your audience’s readiness levels. For example, if you have a group in the precontemplation stage with no interest in learning, you can promote a change in cultural norms.Blended learning can be particularly useful for this type of audience because you can emphasize the “fun” aspect. Gaming experiences or book clubs for greater team bonding are some examples. As mentioned in our blog about why companies are moving toward blended learning, another powerful motivator is to integrate learning into the flow of work. The more people see relevance and the less it disrupts their work, the more they’ll appreciate the learning.Other ideas to motivate your teams to engage with learning:Self-driven blended learning – With multiple learning approaches, it’s easier to let learners lead so they feel empowered. Only then does true curiosity and learning blossom.Digital and leadership champions – Not everyone will have the same digital literacy so it’s important to provide the right guidance. Moreover, make sure you get buy-in and advocacy from your leaders.Career guidance and coaching interventions – Learning needs to be as beneficial for the organization as it is for the individual. With coaches, individuals can better align their personal goals and needs to the overall organizational learning goals.How Does Context Play a Role?Implementing a successful learning program is both about the content and the organizational learning culture.Promoting a learning culture and implementing blended learning encourages flexibility and innovation because of exposure to various learning modalities. As such, people find themselves becoming more curious and they feel empowered as they choose what works for them. Not only do they bring this energy and mindset back to the workplace but they also bring new perspectives. As this article on blended learning and learning culture describes, blended learning offers varied viewpoints and different problem-solving approaches that also nurtures greater diversity.Book clubs are another transformational activity because they create a group setting that boosts collaboration and reflection as detailed in this whitepaper on what separates good teams from exceptional ones. How blended learning supports a learning culture and vice versa:Continuous improvement – With small continuous feedback loops and incremental steps, learners gradually shift their mindset to bring this approach to their everyday work.Knowledge sharing and collaboration – Through blended learning, various groups and forums are created, which naturally encourages cross-learning. As this behavior becomes instilled, conflict shifts into a natural sharing of ideas rather than a competition over who is right.Personalization alongside team focus – How to balance individual with team needs is a constant paradox. Blended learning provides another opportunity to explore this balance, which shifts mindsets back in the workplace.Maximize Your Blended Learning EffortsGone are the days of reading out slides to people in classrooms with the hope that they will improve their day-to-day work. With technology, we have an opportunity to make learning fun, personal, and relevant.Most importantly, blended learning creates a more memorable and meaningful learning experience. It also encourages collaboration and innovation because of the varied multimedia methodologies now available.Don’t forget to watch the ATD webinar recording with more tips for how to apply blended learning effectively. To learn is to evolve and embrace life, so let’s keep moving forward in how we learn.

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