Month: October 2023

Design in educational media is more than just aesthetics; it’s about ensuring that content is clear and accessible to everyone. As education continues to shift towards the digital realm, the role of color—a fundamental design element—becomes crucial in shaping user interactions and perceptions. Moving forward, the evolution of digital education will hinge on a thoughtful design approach. By blending visual design principles with digital pedagogy, educators have the opportunity to craft intuitive, inclusive, and visually engaging content, making certain that learning remains captivating and effective for everyone.

The Science Behind Color Contrast and Its Impact on User Experience

Color contrast is the difference in brightness between two colors. Scientifically, it’s about how light or dark colors appear against one another, with higher contrast making text and design elements stand out more distinctly. From a user experience perspective, this is critical. Think of students with color vision deficiencies or even the average reader facing glare on a screen – without proper contrast, content could become unreadable.

Let’s delve deeper into some practical scenarios to illustrate the significance of this issue:

Digital Textbooks: Imagine a high school student using an e-textbook with pale yellow text on a light gray background. If the contrast isn’t sufficient, students might struggle to read the content, especially during longer reading sessions, which could lead to eye strain or even headaches.

Interactive Learning Platforms: In a college setting, students often rely on online platforms for quizzes and assignments. If buttons or multiple-choice options have low contrast, a student with mild vision impairments or even one in a dimly lit room could mistakenly click on the wrong option.

Visual Aids in Lectures: Teachers, especially in PreK-12, often use slides with diagrams, charts, and text to enhance learning. When color contrasts are poor, students seated at the back or those with slight vision challenges might miss out on crucial information.

Educational Games and Simulations: In elementary schools, learning through games is prevalent. A game with low contrast colors might not only reduce the fun but can also impede the learning process. For instance, if a child can’t distinguish between game elements due to poor contrast, they may become frustrated and lose interest.

Annotations and Highlights: In both physical and digital textbooks, students frequently highlight and annotate. If a platform automatically sets annotations in colors that blend too much with the background, students might overlook their notes or struggle to find them later.

In fact, while the frequency of color blindness can vary across countries, overall an estimated 8% of males and 0.5% of females are affected by congenital color blindness. For them, discerning between certain color combinations can be a challenge. Beyond just those with color blindness, factors like screen brightness, ambient lighting, and even age can impact how content is perceived. This makes it imperative for education media creators to emphasize legibility in design, ensuring that the vast majority can seamlessly consume the content.

The Role of Color Contrast in Digital Design

The transition to digital has revolutionized education. With the plethora of digital learning platforms and digital textbooks, the importance of color contrast in digital design has skyrocketed. Digital interfaces must not only be pleasing to the eye but also comply with accessibility standards, like the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). This ensures that all users, including those with disabilities, can access and engage with the content with ease.

Good UI/UX practices put color contrast at the forefront. High contrast can lead to better comprehension and reduced eye strain, making learning sessions more productive and less tiring.

Tools & Techniques to Evaluate & Improve Color Contrast in Your Designs

WCAG Guidelines: The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provides a comprehensive guide on color contrast ratios. Guideline 1.4 Distinguishable of the WCAG2.1 standard provides guidelines for intelligent use of colors for truly inclusive design accessible for all users.

Color Contrast Checkers: These tools, available online, allow designers to test color combinations for accessibility. By entering foreground and background colors, one can determine if the contrast ratio meets accessibility standards. A free resource that on can use is the color contrast checker by WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind), a non-profit organization based at Utah State University.

Tips for Choosing the Right Color Combinations

A design can be beautiful and still be ineffective if it doesn’t prioritize readability. Here are some guidelines for striking the right balance:

Prioritize Readability Over Trend: Always prioritize legibility. A trending color palette may be enticing, but if it sacrifices readability, it’s a poor choice for educational content.

Utilize Palettes Effectively: Pre-existing color palettes, specifically curated for accessibility, can be invaluable. These palettes already factor in the best combinations, ensuring that text and background colors complement each other effectively.

Test Before Finalizing: It’s essential to test chosen colors on various devices under different conditions to guarantee they remain effective across the board.

Creating an Accessible Experience Through Thoughtful Use of Color Contrast

The essence of inclusivity in design lies in its universality. In the realm of education, where every piece of information is crucial, inclusivity ensures that no student is left behind due to design limitations.

Utilizing color contrast thoughtfully means not just adhering to guidelines but also empathizing with the end user. By marrying aesthetics with accessibility, we ensure that our education media caters to all, ensuring a brighter and more inclusive future for learners everywhere.

Integra is a trusted partner in content development, digital learning and accessibility services for many leading organizations worldwide. For more than a decade Integra has been supporting various organizations with accessibility services. Integra, as a Benetech Global Certified Accessible™ (GCA) Vendor, is committed to enabling organizations seeking to make their content accessible to everyone. Contact us today to learn more about how we can support you in accessibility compliance.

After all, in the world of education, inclusivity isn’t just a design principle; it’s a mandate.

The much-anticipated update to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 (WCAG 2.2) has been released as a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Recommendation. The announcement was made by the W3C’s Accessibility Guidelines Working Group on October 5, 2023.

Below are the new Level A and AA success criteria that are introduced in the new recommended guidelines:

• 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum) (AA)
• 2.4.12 Focus Not Obscured (Enhanced) (AAA)
• 2.4.13 Focus Appearance (AAA)
• 2.5.7 Dragging Movements (AA)
• 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum) (AA)
• 3.2.6 Consistent Help (A)
• 3.3.7 Redundant Entry (A)
• 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum) (AA)
• 3.3.9 Accessible Authentication (Enhanced) (AAA)

The primary focus of the new criteria in WCAG 2.2 is to enhance the user experience by improving accessibility in navigation and interaction. In a recent blog post, we provided an overview of the updated guidelines, offering examples for each success criterion.

It’s worth noting that over 80% of all the Web Accessibility Laws & Policies enacted across the globe, and 100% of the accessibility laws in major economies like the USA, European Union, Canada, Australia, in the last decade are based on WCAG recommended guidelines (WCAG2.0) or a derivative of WCAG2.0. Interestingly the UK Government’s digital accessibility guidance has already updated its guidance referring to WCAG2.2 for websites and mobile apps.

Countries around the world are prioritizing accessibility and inclusivity in all aspects of life. As a result, content publishers, including those of books and digital learning resources, must swiftly ensure their content meets accessibility standards.

Since 1994, Integra has been a trusted partner in content development, digital learning media development, and accessibility services for leading organizations worldwide. For over 12 years, Integra has provided accessibility services. As a Benetech Global Certified Accessible™ (GCA) Vendor, Integra is dedicated to helping organizations ensure their content is accessible to all.

“One in five children, adolescents and youth are entirely excluded from education,” reports UNESCO. While there are multiple reasons for this, including poverty, gender, ethnicity, language, religion, location, etc., one of the primary reasons is disability. In fact, the UNESCO report goes on to state that children with disabilities are “disproportionately excluded from school.”

If we, as a society, aim to better the lives of our children and their children after them, we need to start now by working to reduce barriers to equitable education access for all. For us, as technology-based solution providers for the education sector, this is a mission that takes precedence over our ambitions to garner market share or maximize revenue.

Barriers to Education for Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities face not just physical barriers to education but also technological and attitudinal barriers. The most common barriers to education include:

Physical Access

Educational institutions in most countries lack the infrastructure to support physical access for students with disabilities. The lack of ramps, accessible washrooms, appropriate tile marking for students with visual impairments, accessible transportations options, and accommodation facilities are the most common obstacles.

Personalization

The one-size-fits-all approach does not take into account the strengths and individual needs of differently abled students. Stringent policies, such as those for suspension, or minimum attendance requirements, that don’t consider the varying abilities and requirements of differently abled students can lead to discrimination. This also holds true for the pace of curriculum progress and support.

Stereotypes and Attitudes

While strides are being taken to promote DEI, negative stereotypes regarding students with disabilities still exist. Lack of awareness and/sensitivity among educators and students can make it difficult for students with disabilities to access equal opportunities in education. In some countries, students with disabilities are provided education in separate institutions, propagating existing attitudes and stereotypes.

Accessible Learning Resources

Availability of braille, audiobooks, or text-to-speech materials for students with visual impairments, captioning for students with hearing impairments, access to multiple content formats for students with learning disabilities or ADHD, etc., can go a long way in ensuring education content accessibility.

Principles of Creating Accessible Education Content

The role of inclusive learning materials in improving access to education is undeniable. Educational publishers and EdTech solution providers are the critical link to creating accessible materials and spaces for students with disabilities. The starting point is compliance with the web accessibility guidelines and standards for education content and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework.

Universal Design for Learning

UDL provides concrete guidelines to ensure that all types of learners are able to “access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.” The framework is based on scientific research on the way humans learn. Here are the basic guidelines at a glance:

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

A whopping 90% of websites did not meet the WCAG standards, as of 2018. The situation has not improved despite the shift to online resources in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. A study of 1,000,000 websites revealed more than 51 million different accessibility errors and an average error count of 51.4 per home page, as of 2021. The web accessibility guidelines and standards are crucial for ensuring accessibility in education content with learning becoming increasingly hybrid, remote and virtual.

The core principles of the WCAG guidelines are:

Strategies to Create Accessible Educational Content

By following the UDL and WCAG 2.1 guidelines, inclusive learning materials that help in improving access to education can be created.

Ensure Ease of Seeing and Reading

Choose colors, fonts, size, contrast, layouts and headings that are easily distinguishable, especially for students with visual impairments or learning disabilities. Clear structures and layouts go a long way in promoting accessibility in education content.

Make Images Accessible

Add image descriptions, alt tags, and alt text to provide text-based alternatives for images. This helps those using screen readers for learning materials. But keep this text concise and avoid embedding important information as text within images. This is not machine-readable.

Accessibility for Videos

Closed captioning is crucial for students with hearing impairments. This also helps students who might access videos in public spaces, where it is difficult to use sound or hear clearly.

Offer Multiple Content Formats

Multiple formats will cater to the learning styles and preferences of all types of students, including those with disabilities. They also prove useful for students with ADHD and learning disabilities, allowing access to materials in audio, video or text format. Also, offer the flexibility to view materials online as well as offline, via downloads.

Accessibility as a Pathway to DEI

The Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of the United States lists 13 categories of disabilities that could hamper learning. Data released by the National Center for Education Statistics in May 2023 reveals that about 14% of students enrolled in public schools in America can be classified in at least one of these categories.

Ensuring accessibility in education can further our attempts at ensuring Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity (DEI), especially for students with special needs. Fortunately, the creation and distribution of accessible educational content has been eased with the availability of cloud-based, AI/ML-powered technology platforms. Now, all that needs to be done is to choose a powerful platform to further accessibility in education.