Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2 provides recommendations for making web content more accessible by adapting it to the needs of people with disabilities. Some of the disabilities included in the guideline include low vision, hearing loss, cognitive limitations, photosensitivity, and their combinations (Web Accessibility Initiative, 2008). Applying the standards to the existing educational modules can provide significant knowledge about major barriers in web content accessibility and potential measures that can be taken to remove those barriers.
The educational module for sample logistics was acquired for this study from St George’s Hospital. The module takes the form of a presentation with necessary information about blood sample-taking techniques and sample storage and transfer conditions (St George’s University Hospitals, 2020). Considering the module’s conformity to accessibility standards, the format of the document favors resizes of the text through zooming. Furthermore, the text is not justified, has a sufficient contrast ratio, and has no background audio in accordance with the WCAG. Next, the module provides ways for users to navigate the content through page titles and headings. However, some images or non-text content featured in the module have no text alternatives, which presents an accessibility problem that will keep individuals with learning disabilities from accessing the module. Lastly, considering the content’s readability and understandability, the content misses the opportunity to identify the meaning of abbreviations, such as EDTA and NIPT.
Combining the learning module assessment results shows that the format and applications used to create learning module materials do not favor accessibility. Thus, the use of presentations created with the use of PowerPoint viewed through Adobe Reader can present barriers for people with disabilities. In order to address the accessibility issue, the PowerPoint application recently introduced a function that allows users to check the accessibility of the presentation. Therefore, the major barrier to web content accessibility in learning materials is the use of old software programs which do not feature an accessibility check feature. Overcoming this issue requires developing more methods for educational specialists to create educational modules which will target the accessibility of the content.
References
St George’s University Hospitals. (2020). Module 4: Sample logistics. Web.
Web Accessibility Initiative. (2008). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. Web.