Sherry Fest Winter Games have been incredible, and now it’s time for the ultimate Closing Ceremony! Accessibility Checkers are your final step towards making sure your course materials leave a gold-medal impression on every student.

Module 5: Accessibility Checkers focuses on using automated tools to quickly spot potential hazards in your documents—much like an Olympic official ensuring the course is clear—while reminding us that a human touch is required to truly “stick the landing.”

The Final Review Victory Lap

Accessibility checkers are like the high-speed cameras at the finish line; they are excellent for spotting the technicalities that might hinder students with disabilities or those using assistive technology. They provide a rapid, automated assessment to ensure you’re meeting the qualifying standards.

However, even the best technology needs a judge’s eye. Keep these Critical Checkpoints in mind:

• Automated Limitations: Checkers are limited in their “judgment” and may occasionally flag things that aren’t errors (false positives) or, more importantly, miss subtle nuances that a human would catch.
• The Manual Medal Round: To ensure your document, website, or application is fully accessible–World Record material–you must perform a manual inspection. This includes:
  • Reviewing your content for clear structure and flow.
  • Testing with a keyboard only to check navigation ease.
  • Using a screen reader to experience your materials as others will.

Train Like a Champion, Outshine the Tool

Think of these checkers as your personal coach. They help you learn the basic “rules of the sport,” training your eye to spot accessibility gaps before they even happen. As you review the errors they flag, you’re building the muscle memory needed to create accessible content from the start. Soon, you won’t just be using the tool—you’ll be outperforming it!

Your Final Objective

Your goal is to complete Module 5 and successfully pass the Accessibility Checkers Knowledge Check quiz. We encourage you to run a checker on one of your current documents, review the feedback, and perform your own manual verification yourself.

To stay on track with the challenge, please complete Module 5 by Sunday, March 29th. All Knowledge Check quizzes for Modules 1-5 must be completed to earn a free lunch from Ed Tech & CIE and to be entered into the drawing for the NMC hoodie.

You may have noticed that there is a 6th Module in the course: Math & STEM. Module 6 is completely optional. It contains some great information, but it isn’t applicable to all faculty or courses, so please only complete Module 6 if you want to. 

If you encounter any hurdles or need a coach’s perspective on this final module, head over to the “Questions” discussion at the top of the course.

Let’s cap off these Games with a powerful, accessible conclusion—it’s time for the Closing Ceremony!