In today’s education industry, “Accessibility” is an important aspect of the global market standards. Institutions in greater numbers strive toward universal design for learning (UDL), both as a legal compliance requirement for equity and inclusivity and as a competitive advantage for diverse and innovative learning environments: being that the lack of accessible learning materials for learners results in educator’s lack of access to the learners’ abilities.

How does this affect my LMS experience?

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an approach to teaching and learning that gives all students equal opportunity to succeed while ‘accessibility’ is the concept of whether a product or service can be used by everyone, however, they encounter it.

Accessibility is especially valuable when assisted by eLearning solutions, which brings us to the concept of Web accessibility which is; making websites, content, applications, and platforms – usable to people of all abilities and disabilities (including students with attention deficits, who are on the autism spectrum, and/ or have other disabilities that are not obvious to the instructor).

Web accessibility is important because:

• It creates better learning opportunities for students providing anytime / anywhere access to learning, expanding the availability of courses to all students regardless of location.
• A significant number of people have disabilities that can make it difficult for them to take an online course. According to Premium Times, 32 million Nigerians have learning disorders. WHO report shows about 15% of the world population is living with a disability. This covers both physical and cognitive that can impact a user’s ability to access and interact with online platforms. Web accessibility expands the usability of the learning environment and technology tools with the support of plug-in applications and software innovations.
• Accessibility features benefit many students, not just those students with disabilities.

Web accessibility is not difficult to achieve with good LMS and education content. LMS by technological function is a multiple representation tool, but if built with accessibility in mind it does the heavy lifting to make e-Learning accessible. ARGVLE LMS provides the latest accessibility compliance for 21st-century learning accommodations and equity for a wide spectrum of learners. Contact us for more information and to schedule a demo.