Did you know that the way you format your course materials can affect how accessible they are to your students? In this age of technology, students have a wide range of tools and apps available to them to access online content. More and more we see students using their phones, tablets, iPads, etc. as their main means of access. By applying some universal design principles, you can remove many barriers to access for your learners.

You may often hear us talk about “accessibility” or asking if things are “accessible”. Did you know that “accessible” simply means opening up access by removing barriers for all learners.

Where do you begin? Simply be conscious of how you are formatting your documents. Reacquaint yourself with the tools in Word, specifically the “Paragraph” tools and “Styles” tools; these two areas can help you with almost all your formatting desires.

For instance, headings are important to add structure to your document. Just because you make the font bigger, or bold, doesn’t mean you just created a heading. It is important that you actually select the heading from the Styles menu. Once that proper structure is added, then you can change the look. It’s also important that you use headings in the proper order.

To create a bulleted or numbered list, use the Paragraph tool provided for you to do that. Don’t use the tab keys and space bar to create the formatting. Do use bullets for a random list of items or numbering for a list with a specific order to it.

If you want to learn more, feel free to contact Educational Media Technologies and we can help you out.