Small Changes, Big Impact: Making Course Materials Accessible

Accessibility features are designed to support students with disabilities, but they often benefit all learners. For example, closed captioning, originally created for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, is now widely used by people watching videos in noisy environments, studying in quiet spaces, or reviewing complex material. The same principle applies to lecture materials. Clear organization, readable slides, and well-described visuals help all students understand and review content more easily. These examples illustrate how accessibility often improves usability for everyone, not just those who require accommodations. Because accessible design benefits so many learners, it has also become an important legal and institutional responsibility for public universities.

Why It Matters

As medical education becomes increasingly digital, ensuring that course materials are accessible to all learners is both a best practice in teaching and a legal responsibility for public universities. All public institutions are subject to Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires state and local government entities to ensure that individuals with disabilities have equal access to their programs, services, and activities. Because public colleges and universities are considered public entities, this requirement applies to instructional materials and other digital course content.

As teaching and learning increasingly rely on digital platforms, accessibility expectations extend to electronic materials such as PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, videos, learning management system content, and institutional websites. In April 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice issued updated regulations clarifying that digital content provided by public entities must be accessible to individuals with disabilities. The rule aligns accessibility expectations with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA, an internationally recognized standard for accessible digital design.

In practice, this means that course materials should be designed for use with assistive technologies, such as screen readers and captioning tools, helping ensure that all learners can fully engage with the curriculum. To get started, faculty members are encouraged to register for the Digital Accessibility 101 course offered by the Office for Academic Innovation, which introduces key accessibility principles and provides practical strategies for creating accessible documents, presentations, and Canvas content.

Quick Tips for Presentations

• Use built-in slide layouts to maintain proper reading order for screen readers.
• Choose simple fonts such as Calibri or Arial and aim for 24-point text or larger.
• Increase the contrast between text and background to improve readability. Light colored backgrounds should have dark text, and darker backgrounds should have light colored text.
• Include brief alt text descriptions for images, charts, and diagrams.
• Avoid relying on color alone. Use labels or symbols in addition to color to convey meaning.
• Use PowerPoint’s Accessibility Checker to quickly identify common issues. You can find the Accessibility Checker in the Review tab.

Preparing Physicians for Inclusive Care

The practice of medicine emphasizes meeting patients where they are and ensuring that care is accessible to everyone. Designing accessible learning materials reflects that same commitment. By creating an educational environment where every student can fully engage with the curriculum, we model the principles of equity and patient-centered care that we hope future physicians will carry into their practice.