Practical tips for accessible OER: How to make teaching materials more inclusive

Low-bar­rier Open Edu­ca­tional Resources (OER) are a cru­cial step towards includ­ing all stu­dents and pro­vid­ing fair access to knowl­edge. This arti­cle shows uni­ver­sity lec­tur­ers sim­ple and easy-to-imple­ment mea­sures that they can use to cre­ate acces­si­ble mate­ri­als.

What does accessibility mean and why is it important?

Low-bar­rier teach­ing mate­ri­als pro­mote inclu­sive learn­ing and sup­port stu­dents who are depen­dent on aids or have visual impair­ments. In 2009, Ger­many rat­i­fied the UN Con­ven­tion on the Rights of Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties, thereby com­mit­ting itself to pro­vid­ing equal access to edu­ca­tion for peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties. Bar­rier-free design in OER is there­fore not only an eth­i­cal oblig­a­tion, but also a legal require­ment to ensure inclu­sion and equal oppor­tu­ni­ties at uni­ver­si­ties.

Stu­dents with­out dis­abil­i­ties also ben­e­fit from acces­si­ble mate­ri­als, as they are eas­ier to read and more flex­i­ble to use on mobile devices and under dif­fer­ent con­di­tions. Low-bar­rier OER can also be more eas­ily adapted and redis­trib­uted by other teach­ers, which pro­motes sus­tain­able use and increases the avail­abil­ity of high-qual­ity edu­ca­tional resources. The fol­low­ing guide offers you prac­ti­cal tips for inte­grat­ing acces­si­bil­ity into your OER.

Practical tips for the accessible design of OER

1. adjust color contrasts and take color blindness into account

Col­ors are cen­tral to read­abil­ity and com­pre­hen­si­bil­ity. High-con­trast color com­bi­na­tions, e.g. dark text on a light back­ground, increase read­abil­ity. For peo­ple with impaired color vision, it is also impor­tant to design con­trasts in such a way that infor­ma­tion is rec­og­niz­able even with­out color dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion. Use the Color Blind­ness Sim­u­la­tor from Cob­lis or the Con­trast Cal­cu­la­tor from Leserlich.info to ensure that col­ors are adapted for dif­fer­ent types of color vision defi­cien­cies. Col­or­Brewer also offers rec­om­mended color palettes that take into account acces­si­ble con­trasts specif­i­cally for charts and maps to ben­e­fit stu­dents with visual impair­ments. By using pat­terns or sym­bols for dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion, infor­ma­tion can be made under­stand­able even with­out color con­trasts.

2. simple and clear language — strike the right note

For­mu­lat­ing con­tent in clear, sim­ple lan­guage is par­tic­u­larly help­ful in pre­sen­ta­tions to draw atten­tion to the essen­tials. Instead of com­plex sen­tence struc­tures, con­cise, com­pre­hen­si­ble for­mu­la­tions are rec­om­mended. This can also help learn­ers with cog­ni­tive impair­ments or lit­tle prior knowl­edge. They can use capi­to’s easy lan­guage tool for sup­port, which ana­lyzes texts and pro­vides rec­om­men­da­tions for opti­miza­tion. The Uni­ver­sity of Ros­tock also pro­vides a guide to acces­si­ble teach­ing.

3. alternative texts for images — AI-supported and efficient

Images and graph­ics are often indis­pens­able, but with­out alter­na­tive texts (alt texts) they are inac­ces­si­ble for visu­ally impaired peo­ple. Using AI tools such as You.com and Ope­nAI’s Chat­GPT, you can auto­mat­i­cally gen­er­ate descrip­tions for uploaded images that you can eas­ily insert into your mate­ri­als. You can cus­tomize the AI-gen­er­ated texts as needed to pro­vide more accu­rate infor­ma­tion for your con­tent. Fur­ther tips on cre­at­ing good alter­na­tive texts can be found in the hand­out from barrierefreiheit.nrw.

4. use clearly legible fonts and sizes

The choice of font and font size con­tributes sig­nif­i­cantly to read­abil­ity. Use easy-to-read, sans serif fonts such as Arial or Ver­dana and a min­i­mum size of 14 points so that stu­dents with visual impair­ments can also read with­out any prob­lems. Addi­tional infor­ma­tion on acces­si­ble font design can be found in the guide to acces­si­ble fonts from gehirngerecht.digital.

5. clear structuring of slides and documents

A clear struc­ture sup­ports all stu­dents, espe­cially those who rely on screen read­ers. Orga­nize con­tent with clear head­ings and para­graphs and use hier­ar­chi­cal styles in Pow­er­Point or Word. This makes it eas­ier to find your way around and increases acces­si­bil­ity for screen read­ers. Also make sure that your slides are for­mat­ted con­sis­tently — a uni­form font size and clear spac­ing between ele­ments pro­mote com­pre­hen­si­bil­ity.

6. speaking links for easy navigation

Links should be designed in such a way that they are under­stand­able with­out con­text. Avoid vague terms such as “click here” and choose more pre­cise for­mu­la­tions such as “More on acces­si­ble design in OER”. This makes nav­i­ga­tion eas­ier and is par­tic­u­larly help­ful for screen reader users. By using descrip­tive link texts, you also make your mate­ri­als more user-friendly over­all.

7. obtain feedback from students

Stu­dents can often pro­vide valu­able insights and con­crete sug­ges­tions for improve­ment when it comes to the acces­si­bil­ity of teach­ing mate­ri­als. A short sur­vey or an invi­ta­tion to pro­vide anony­mous feed­back can help you to make tar­geted adjust­ments to the mate­ri­als. Ask stu­dents with dis­abil­i­ties or impair­ments if the mate­ri­als meet their needs and if there are areas they would improve. This not only cre­ates a more inclu­sive learn­ing envi­ron­ment, but also lets stu­dents know that their needs are being taken seri­ously.

Conclusion and outlook

With the tips men­tioned here, acces­si­bil­ity can become rou­tine when cre­at­ing teach­ing mate­ri­als and OER. Small adjust­ments such as high-con­trast col­ors, clear struc­tur­ing and AI-sup­ported alter­na­tive texts make con­tent more acces­si­ble for every­one and strengthen inclu­sion at uni­ver­si­ties. Inclu­sive edu­ca­tion does not require major changes — it is often enough to use the right tools and pay atten­tion to a few details.

Acces­si­ble OER can also be more eas­ily adapted by other edu­ca­tional insti­tu­tions and con­tribute to the sus­tain­able pro­vi­sion of high-qual­ity edu­ca­tional resources. The OER com­mu­nity is increas­ingly com­mit­ted to the imple­men­ta­tion of acces­si­ble mate­ri­als and sup­ports teach­ers in adapt­ing and dis­sem­i­nat­ing their own resources. You can watch and down­load the most impor­tant (first) steps for acces­si­ble OER in our #briefly explained video. You can find lots more infor­ma­tion, e.g. on the design of videos or H5P ele­ments, at barrierefreiheit.nrw.