Course delivery

When designing for accessibility, it helps to plan out how students will receive the content you’re providing. How will students access course readings and other materials? Will your course be primarily in person, or will students collaborate asynchronously and/or remotely? Which platforms will they use – and are those platforms secure and accessible?

When building your course schedule, bear in mind that tables and other complex layouts can be difficult to read. Consider using simplified list formats, where possible – this benefits students who have visual or other disabilities, but can also help avoid information overwhelm. Use layout and organization to highlight key information instead of relying on font indicators like bold, underline, italic, or colour – using lots of different font settings can make your document difficult to read. Documents with simple formatting have the advantage of being easy to update, as well, making them easier to revise from term to term.

Posting readings, assignments, deadlines, and other key course information to Canvas also helps ensure students can easily access the information they need to succeed – this also lets you change or update portions of the syllabus as needed, and easily notify students of those changes.