Here are my top favourite practices that can ensure accessibility of courses, pages and documents. I'ld love to start a dialogue about the how doable is this for AU? And if anyone has found examples, good or bad.

1 Navigation - make navigation consistent, simple and accurate - this includes meaningful hierarchical headings structure (use H1 to H6, ARIA landmark regions), skip to main content links, reduce multiple pages opening and a way back, dynamic menus need to function from the keyboard too, ensure forms have a form label so assistive technology can find buttons and edit fields  easily.

2 Naming practices - avoid "click here" or similar vague text. Just make the item a link with meaningful text, reduce duplication

3 Don't rely on sensory cues to convey information - the ability to perceive colour, shape, or sound should not be the sole method used to convey information or participate

4 Choose fonts that are san serif and at relative, compared to absolute values. Minimum 11 point

5 Alternatives for non-text items - meaningful and relevant alt text or long descriptions for images, transcripts and captions for multimedia content

6 Organization - use plain language, chunking of information and bulleted or numbered lists as appropriate

7 100% keyboard functionality - allows users to take advantage of built in navigation elements that help them get to the desired area quickly, then to function and interact with the item.

8 Getting Help - users should find it easy to find help, compatibility statements and if accommodations are required the appropriate information is readily available

9 Accessible Documents - if providing documents to students, provide ones with accessible features such as navigation and organization via use of styles, alt text for images, narration or captions/transcripts for multimedia. This includes PowerPoint, Word, Excel and PDF documents.  At minimum the document should be searchable for any word in that document. And a transcript for any multimedia embedded.

10 Choose IT software/hardware, templates, LMS/CMS wisely in an informed manner - many have accessibility features built in. These features ensure maximum independent use by those products.

Stay informed. Resources to follow on my Wiki.

Carrie