With eLearning, most learners can overcome the barriers of time and space and access learning electronically. But what about learners who do not have access? If you are planning to design a Section 508 compliant course, here are a few questions that need to be answered:

2. With eLearning, most learners can overcome
the barriers of time and space and access
learning electronically. But what about learners
who do not have access?
How to Design 508 Compliant eLearning Courses

3. Statistically, over 285 million people worldwide
are visually impaired, and between one to nine
percent of the population have movement-
related disorders.The traditional use of a
website or eLearning course is often difficult
or impossible for these specially-abled groups.
How to Design 508 Compliant eLearning Courses

4. As learning experience designers, it is essential
that our eLearning courses are easily
accessible for all learner groups. If you are
going to make eLearning courses for all, it is
important that you understand the big picture
of 508 compliance.
How to Design 508 Compliant eLearning Courses

5. If you are planning to design a Section 508
compliant course, here are a few questions
that need to be answered:
How to Design 508 Compliant eLearning Courses

6. 1.Are all visual parts of your
course accessible?

7. While designing and creating a 508-compliant course, it is
important to provide text under images.
Alt text ensures that the images are accessible to ocular
learners.The screen reader will read the alt text aloud
for the given images, which will help learners to know
what images are included in your eLearning course.
How to Design 508 Compliant eLearning Courses

8. The rule of thumb is to provide an equivalent alt
text or long description for every image, graphic,
hyperlink, and button used in the course.
How to Design 508 Compliant eLearning Courses

9. 2. Is the audio accessible?

10. When designing a course, provide a text transcript for
audio files. Using a text transcript makes information
easily accessible to learners with hearing impairments.
Always provide captioning and transcripts of the course
audio and the course descriptions of any video.
How to Design 508 Compliant eLearning Courses

11. Closed captioning aids learners to read the audio
portion of your video if they can’t hear it.This
ensures the learner doesn’t miss any information
that’s presented in the audio form in your
eLearning course.
How to Design 508 Compliant eLearning Courses

12. All explanations of links added to your course
must make sense when read out.Also, keep in
mind to add instructional text both in the audio
and the screen.
How to Design 508 Compliant eLearning Courses

13. 3.Are there ways to make the
course navigation easier?

14. Course navigation determines the fate of an eLearning
module and mobility issues can make handling the mouse
difficult for some learners.Alternatively, make use of the
keyboard. Use the keyboard for text entry and navigation.
Build short-cuts to make it easier for the learner to
remember how to perform a function.
How to Design 508 Compliant eLearning Courses

15. Using shortcut keys for navigation such as “Pause”
and “Play” can reduce learner fatigue (Usually the
“tab” key is used for navigation by specially-abled
learners).
How to Design 508 Compliant eLearning Courses

16. 4.What elements can be used?

17. When picking elements for your eLearning course,
choose wisely. Sparingly make use of tables as they are
difficult to interpret. Screen reader’s make it difficult for
the users to locate a cell that is referred by the screen
reader and mapping it with corresponding column
headings and row names.
How to Design 508 Compliant eLearning Courses

18. Always summarize charts and graphs to help the
learners know the content discussed.While
building interactives, keep in mind that specially-
abled learners require more time to complete the
assigned tasks. Give the learners adequate time to
complete these activities.
How to Design 508 Compliant eLearning Courses

19. 4.Which tools can be used?

20. Choosing the right tool that promotes accessibility can
be a great challenge.Articulate Storyline,Adobe
Captivate, and Lectora are all excellent choices for
creating Section 508 courses as these tools use assistive
technology.
How to Design 508 Compliant eLearning Courses

21. Storyline works best for creating alt tags for
images and text.While Lectora provides better
options for synchronized captioning for multimedia
elements. It also works well to remove redundant
navigation items in the screen reader.
How to Design 508 Compliant eLearning Courses

22. Avoid the use of Flash when designing accessible
learning solutions, as screen readers have difficulty
navigating Flash objects.
How to Design 508 Compliant eLearning Courses

23. How can the right Learning
Management System help?

24. Picking up the right LMS is important as specially-abled
learners take extra time to complete online assessments.
How to Design 508 Compliant eLearning Courses

25. Therefore, always pick up an LMS such as GnosisConnect
LMS which allows you to extend the time to complete an
assessment.This will ensure that you save both time and
money by conducting a single assessment for different
types of learners.
How to Design 508 Compliant eLearning Courses

26. Once you have figured out the answers to all these
questions,you will be able to build a universally
accessible and 508 compliant module.
How to Design 508 Compliant eLearning Courses

27. To Read the Original Article Click Here:
How to Design 508 Compliant eLearning Courses

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