Accessibility in teaching, learning and assessment

Considering accessibility needs of students in teaching, learning and assessment makes a better learning experience for all students.

Every design assumes that the 'user' has some kinds of abilities. Stairs assume you can walk, tea kettles assume you have hands, and educational designs assume that the student has certain cognitive abilities. These assumptions aren't necessarily bad, but if we're not careful, we can build in assumptions about abilities like sight, hearing, mobility, or executive functioning that exclude students unnecessarily.

These guides and practices will help you design accessible learning experiences. This way, we are designing for excellent students of all backgrounds.

Guides

  • Core accessibility skills

    Whether you are creating content in the LMS, the website, SharePoint, Word, PowerPoint, or even Adobe, all digital materials need to be accessible.

  • Creating accessible subjects in the LMS

    These ten tips will make your LMS subject much more accessible to students with access needs. As a bonus, most of them are also just good design practice.

  • Creating accessible PowerPoint slides

    Following accessibility principles in our PowerPoint slides is one way to help us honour human rights and follow University policy.

  • Creating accessible Word documents

    Creating accessible Word documents helps us honour human rights and meet University policy.

  • Remediating PDFs for accessibility

    When they PDFs necessary, remediating the accessibility helps ensure that all students can access and engage with learning materials.

  • Making assessment inclusive

    Accessible, inclusive assessment enables all students to participate fully in the assessment process. In this section, you will find practical guidance on how to design and implement an assessment inclusively and equitably.

  • Using Ally in Canvas

    Ally is a tool that assesses the accessibility of your content within the LMS and provides guidance for improving its accessibility rating. Ally also has the ability to provide students with alternative formats of your LMS content.

  • Using UDOIT in Canvas

    UDOIT is a tool for staff to make accessibility improvements to subject content in the LMS. UDOIT can also assist with turning Word documents, PowerPoint slides, and PDFs into Canvas Pages.

Simple practice upgrades

  • Consistency in LMS sites

    Subject coordinators often design LMS sites independently or inherit pre-built ones, resulting in inconsistent information placement across courses, challenging all students, particularly those with disabilities.

  • Adding alt text and alternative versions

    All non-text content needs a text alternative – including images, videos, and text ‘hidden’ in a PDF document.

  • Accessible teaching with LaTeX

    It is possible to consider accessibility in LaTeX documents – and it’s possible to build some equations in the LMS.

  • Using the lapel microphone

    A range of students rely on teachers using the mic. Consistent mic use is one of the simplest high-impact changes you can make to your teaching.

  • Supporting academic adjustments

    One element of accessibility in teaching and learning is supporting students' formal academic adjustments.

  • Providing a tour of the LMS

    It is a fallacy to assume that navigating the LMS is straightforward for all of our students just because it seems clear to us.

Templates

Showcase

To see an example of an accessible LMS subject, visit this showcase of an accessible subject.

Other resources

A range of resources for people with disabilities, and for people who wish to make their practices more accessible, is available through the Disability Resources Hub.

The Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE) also has a number of practical teaching resources, many of which enhance accessibility of teaching.

This page was last updated on 28 Sep 2026.

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