Principles of Digital Accessibility & Universal Design for Learning

Graphic with four thought bubbles: Faculty, Staff, Students, and Everyone, connected by arrows to the central question "Who's Responsible for Accessible Content?"
This graphic illustrates that responsibility for creating accessible content is shared among faculty, staff, and students, ultimately highlighting that it is a collective effort by “Everyone!”

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provides a shared international standard for web content accessibility, structured around four foundational principles known by the acronym POUR:

  • Perceivable: Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive. This includes adding alternative text to images, ensuring sufficient color contrast, and providing text alternatives for media.
  • Operable: User interface components and navigation must be operable by all users. This means providing keyboard-only navigation, allowing users to skip timed exercises, and effectively using section headings.
  • Understandable: Information and the operation of the user interface must be understandable. This involves using clear and simple language, consistent navigation, and providing good instructions.
  • Robust: Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide range of user agents, including assistive technologies, as technologies evolve. This includes publishing to well-formatted HTML and assigning names, roles, and values to all elements.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an educational framework that promotes a rich learning environment by considering the varied needs of learners and incorporating accessibility principles from the design phase. UDL empowers individuals to have agency over their learning by guiding educators and learners to set clear goals, anticipate environmental barriers, and create meaningful options. This framework is structured around three core principles:

  • Multiple Means of Engagement: This principle focuses on motivating learners and sustaining their interest, achieved by providing choices, fostering collaboration, and varying demands and resources.
  • Multiple Means of Representation: This addresses how information is presented, aiming to improve learners’ understanding of content by offering it in diverse formats such as text, audio, and visual modalities, and by clarifying vocabulary and syntax.
  • Multiple Means of Action & Expression: This principle centers on how learners demonstrate their knowledge and mastery of course goals, offering various methods for physical action, expression, and communication, and supporting executive functions.