Reflecting on a Typical User Experience and Accessibility

Richelle Jose
Richelle Jose
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Published 2022-07-18
This animation was created during an internship for the American College of Education. It seeks to have the audience reflect on a typical user experience and how that same experience would change if you had a disability. Keeping in mind accessibility when creating online content is pertinent to help all learners be successful.

Script:
Why is accessibility important?

Have you ever been in an online course? According to the World Economic Forum, more than 92 million people registered for an online course in 2021. So odds are, you probably have!

Let’s imagine a typical user experience that maybe you can relate to.

You are in your home office and ready to jump into your assignments for this week.

You turn on your device and navigate to Canvas. You read the prompts and click through the web pages.

Aha! Module 1 presentations. Module 1 has five videos to watch. You start the videos and listen carefully as your guide speaks, not wanting to miss important information.

After you watch the videos, you visit the required readings.

You open each article and read them to yourself. You take notes as you read.

You go to the discussion board and type your response with care, making sure you add pertinent quotes.

You flip back through your notes just to make sure you haven’t missed anything.

You feel accomplished. You finished a lot of your coursework today.

You turn off your laptop and walk to the kitchen to get a well-deserved snack.

Time for bed now, but tomorrow, you will tackle more!

Does this sound familiar? Maybe you can relate to the actions in this narrative. But, what if you had a disability? How would this narrative change?

What if you were blind or had low vision? How would you navigate the web pages and required readings?

What if you were deaf or hard of hearing? How would you absorb the video content?

What about if you had an issue that affected your mobility? How would you navigate without a mouse or keyboard?

There are many disabilities that can affect participation in e-learning environments. Not everyone has the same user experience.

Take a moment to think about these differences as you strive to meet the needs of every learner in your courses.
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