Accessibility is the practice of making your content usable by as many people as possible. This article outlines how you can make your course accessible, and notify potential learners by indicating where content has been created for those with accessibility needs.
- Learn more about creating accessible learning content for your courses.
Accessibility checklists for instructors
Under “Create your content” you will find guidelines for course accessibility and the ability to indicate whether your course meets our criteria. Once you are confident that you have met the criteria outlined, you can mark your course as containing: 1) accessible closed captions, 2) accessible audio content, and 3) accessible course materials.
Accessibility indicators for learners
When you mark your course as having accessible captions and audio content, it will be indicated on your course landing page.
In addition, courses marked as having accessible captions can be found via a search filter on the Udemy marketplace.
Accessibility issues
Please ensure your content meets the accessibility guidelines before updating its status. If a learner reports an accessibility issue for a course that has been marked as accessible, the course will be reviewed by the Trust & Safety Team to ensure the landing page information is accurate.
Please note: While we strongly recommend adding accessibility features to your course, they are not a requirement for course publication. However, courses that do meet our accessibility guidelines are open to a wider audience of potential learners.
Closed captions accessibility checklist
- Make sure that captions meet a 99% accuracy rate — please check the auto-generated captions.
- Spell out all relevant sound effects pertinent to the course, for example: (beep) or (click).
- Indicate any non-speech elements like music, such as : (Jazzy music).
- Use verbal delivery style indicators,, for example: (Exclaims).
- Identify on- and off-screen speakers with captions.
Learn more about providing accessible closed captions.
Audio content accessibility checklist
- Try to make your audio script stand on its own like an audiobook. Where possible, do not have your script dependent on visuals.
- Explain what is on the screen when visual content isn’t decorative. Allow time to consume your content. Speak at a measured pace, that is not too quick. And pause to allow time for learners to consume your content, both audio and visual.
- Use plain language. Keep sentences and paragraphs concise.
- Use common words and avoid overly casual or colloquial language, abbreviations and jargon, and avoid complicated metaphors and idioms.
- Be clear, precise and to the point in your language to emphasize key points. Saying the same thing in different ways can be helpful to your learners’ comprehension.
Learn more about providing accessible audio content.
Course materials accessibility checklist
- Provide a table of contents for long documents and a glossary of terms .
- Use semantic markup for headings, bulleted lists, or numbered lists for all documents
- Organized content in short paragraphs and/or simple tables
- Link to external resources with descriptive language
- Provide alternate text for all images in documents or slide presentations
- Use strong color contrast for text and images