Ed Tech Start-ups & ADA Compliance: Three Tips for Success

Photo by Thomas Park on Unsplash

Online education is certainly having its hay day right now. Consequently, it is no surprise that a heavy demand for online coursework is creating market entry opportunities for Ed Tech Start-ups. However, this fertile market space can be laden with accessibility mine fields that could take your dream business from “start-up” to “end-up” very quickly and no one wants to see that happen.

In order to avoid those mine fields, here are Three Tips for Success when building your courses:

1. Make your course accessible for blind and visually-impaired people. Think about their limitations when navigating your course: They cannot use a mouse and will generally use a keyboard to move through sections and modules. Be sure to label icons and menus along with including alt-text for pictures or graphics. Assistive technology reads text, not pictures of text — keep that in mind.
2. Make your course accessible for deaf and hearing-impaired people. For videos with audio or audio files in general, always have close captioning. Include transcripts of the audio content to ensure your user can access all of the content and information you are providing.
3. Make your course accessible for people with mobility issues. Make sure the icons and/or buttons you use are of a sufficient size and separation to be selected intentionally. The icons and apps on our mobile devices are a certain size for a reason — they are based on the average size of a finger-tip. Keep that in mind when you add directional indicators in your courses that may be utilized by a touchscreen or mouse.

At the end of the day, you are building your courses to meet the needs of your audience while simultaneously advancing your business goals. So why not make your courses accessible to the widest possible audience in order to provide the best user experience? Hire instructional designers who understand and follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1), the industry standard in online accessibility. You can also have your courses reviewed and/or audited by an accessibility consultant to ensure you are meeting ADA compliance metrics.

You started your business for a reason, so put in place the accessibility safeguards that will facilitate your success. You will be happy you did.