Accessibility Now: Making Digital Learning Available to Everyone!

August 21st, 2026

By Andrew Salcido, Learning Experience Designer Sr., Leslie Arlette Mora, Learning Experience Design Associate

At ASU, accessibility is part of our commitment to inclusion and student success as prominently expressed in our charter. Accessibility can feel like a topic that only applies in specific situations, but inclusive design benefits all learners. When course materials are easier to navigate, understand, and use, students have more flexibility in how they engage with the content. Although accessibility is essential for students with disabilities, the benefits reach far beyond one group of learners.

Accessibility has a broad definition. When we talk about accessibility, we mean designing products, devices, services, and environments so that everyone has a more equitable opportunity to use them. In this context, the choices we make when we design and teach our courses can further remove barriers, expand access, and create more equitable opportunities for all students.

Making instructional materials more accessible has become an increasingly important part of digital teaching. Did you know? Nearly 9,800 ASU students received disability related support or classroom accommodations in FY 2024 (Arizona State University, 2025). As the number of students receiving these services grows, designing with accessibility in mind can help create more opportunities for learners to participate fully, independently, and with dignity.

But accessible design benefits all students, not only those who receive accommodations. Captions can support students learning in noisy environments or engaging with content in a language that is not their first. Clear organization, readable documents, descriptive visuals, and flexible ways to engage with content can make learning easier to navigate and understand for everyone.

The Shift From Reactive to Proactive Accessibility

As we develop courses, accessibility of digital learning activities often feels as a reactive measure that can only be “applied” to materials that have already been created, such as adding closed-captions to videos or ALT text to images. A more sustainable approach is to consider accessibility from the beginning. By making it part of how we create and deliver our courses proactively, accessibility becomes less about fixing barriers and more about designing with access in mind for all users.

Although accessibility is essential for students with disabilities, the benefits reach far beyond one group of learners. Captions support students who are deaf or hard of hearing, but they also help students watching videos in a noisy space or assist students who are non native speakers better understand the content. Clear headings support screen reader users, but they also help every learner scan and understand a page. Strong color contrast helps students with low vision, but it also improves readability for anyone working on a small screen or in poor lighting. Good learning design is accessible by design. It supports flexibility, clarity, and student success. It also aligns with the larger goal of digital learning: making education more reachable, usable, and meaningful for every learner.

Using FRAME as a Support System

In addition, ASU has developed Faculty Resources for Accessible Media Essentials (FRAME), to further make accessibility manageable. FRAME creates a centralized place for guidance, support, and shared expectations. Resources such as FAQs, how-to pages, office hours, and escalation pathways can help teams understand what needs to be fixed and how to fix it.

Across ASU, these resources also help create consistency. By following shared accessibility practices, accessibility becomes the norm rather than an additional task, helping faculty create more inclusive and consistent learning experiences for every student.

Five Things You Can Do Today

Starting with a few intentional choices. Building from there can have immediate as well as long term impact. Over time, these practices can become part of how we create and teach, reducing the need for later fixes while creating better learning experiences for our students. Here are five simple tasks you can do to incorporate impactful accessibility practices into the work you already do.

Organize content with headings
Use meaningful headings in Canvas pages and documents to make content easier to navigate and understand.

Get started: Titles and Headings
Create accessible documents
Use built in styles, meaningful link text, readable formatting, and accessibility checkers when creating course materials.

Get started: FRAME: Documents and Presentations for Accessibility
Provide accurate captions
Caption video and audio content and review automatically generated captions for accuracy.

Get started: FRAME: Video and Audio Content for Accessibility
Make visual content accessible
Add meaningful alt text to images and use appropriate color contrast so important information is available to everyone.

Get started: Alternative Text for Images and Color and Contrast
Check accessibility as you build
Use Ally and built in accessibility tools throughout the creation process so accessibility becomes part of your regular workflow.

Get started: FRAME: Canvas Sites for Accessibility

Accessibility Is an Ongoing Practice

Accessibility does not happen all at once. We can start by addressing barriers in the materials students use today while also building accessibility into what we create moving forward. Remediation does not have to happen all at once either. Prioritizing high use course materials and making improvements in stages can create meaningful progress. With resources like FRAME and Ally, accessibility can become a natural part of how we improve, design, and teach our courses.

Ultimately, this work brings us back to our ASU Charter and our commitment to whom we include and how they succeed. When we design with accessibility in mind, we create better learning experiences and more opportunities for every learner to participate and succeed.

_{Author’s Note: This article was drafted with the assistance of a generative AI tool to support wording and formatting; content generated by AI has been reviewed and approved by the author.}

References

Arizona State University, University Office of Institutional Analysis. (2025). 2025 master list of state government programs and five-year strategic plan. https://uoia.asu.edu/sites/g/files/litvpz1436/files/2025-09/2025%20Master%20List%20of%20State%20Government%20Programs%20and%20Five%20Year%20Strategic%20Plan.pdf

U.S. Department of Justice. (2024). Nondiscrimination on the basis of disability; Accessibility of web information and services of state and local government entities. https://www.ada.gov/assets/pdfs/web-rule.pdf

World Wide Web Consortium. (2018). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/