Making Moodle courses accessible
To make their content accessible to all learners
The most accessible use of Moodle is possible if not only the Moodle system itself is designed to be accessible, but also the Moodle courses and the materials they contain.
As a web-based technical system, the Moodle learning platform fulfils accessibility standards. However, the extent to which a Moodle course is also accessible in terms of content is the responsibility of the course creator. Moodle offers various support functions for this purpose.
To make a Moodle course as accessible as possible, you can use the general design guidelines for accessible digital materials as listed, for example, in Creating accessible Word documents . – The tips concern, for example, the use of headings or links and are helpful both for the materials provided in the course and for the course design itself.
Functions in Moodle for digital accessibility:
Moodle supports you with regard to accessibility in the following ways.
- Just like Word or PowerPoint, the text editor in Moodle also offers style sheets for headings, paragraphs and tables. Use these so that screen readers can read them out accordingly.
- Use the equation editor, which is also located in the text editor, to display formulas instead of displaying the formula as an image.
- Text and media content that you create within the course can be checked with the ‘Accessibility tester’ in the text editor.
Tip: Whenever you use the text editor, run the check over the content you have just created in the editor. - If you upload/embed images in the course, the function to enter alternative text (a ‘description’) for the image appears in the upload menu (see also Adding alternative text to image content
). Use this or tick the box to indicate that the image is for decorative purposes only. It will then not be read out by the screen reader.
Tip: The image properties can also be adjusted later at any time.
Accessibility tester in the text editor
Equation editor in the text editor
Use style sheets, e.g. for headings, in the text editor
Use style sheets, e.g. for tables, in the text editor
Save image description as alternative text for images (or mark as ‘decorative’)
Design aspects in Moodle for digital accessibility
In addition to the functional settings mentioned above, you can also ensure digital accessibility by adhering to basic design aspects that are helpful for all learners in your course:
- A clear, concise, consistent course structure that supports good orientation
- Clear ‘speaking’ designations for materials, activities and links that quickly make it clear what they contain
- An overview introduction to the aims, structure, content and structure of the course as well as important organisational information and contact persons
- Orientating information for activities or the processing of materials on
- scope,
- time required,
- deadlines,
- what is compulsory/ relevant to the exam/ further/ additional/ bonus
- Clear, easily recognisable work assignments (not “hidden” in longer texts)
- Provide documents preferably in original format (e.g. docx, pptx) instead of PDF
In addition, keep the multi-sense principle in mind with the learning materials you make available in your Moodle course. This means in very practical terms:
- For audio files/podcasts, also provide a text transcript
- For slide-based lecture recordings, also make the slides available
- Set up subtitles for videos that learners can show or hide themselves in the video player.
Find out more about how you can create subtitles for Panopto videos with little effort (videos that are available on the Panopto video platform and can be easily integrated into a Moodle course via the Panopto-Moodle link ).
Further Tips:
- Use the requirement settings in Moodle to make certain materials available earlier to students with disabilities, as they may need more time to prepare.
- Use the feedback activity at the beginning of the course to anonymously enquire whether and what impairments your students have. You can then respond to this later on and take it into account in your teaching.
Recommended reading on the topic:
- The Moodle course “Designing accessible Moodle course rooms (opens in new tab)” from the University of Duisburg-Essen offers a good concise overview (simply log in as a guest).
- If you have integrated interactive learning content into your course with the help of H5P elements, the brief assessment of H5P elements from Barriefreiheit.nrw (opens in new tab) is also helpful.
- Checklist for creating a Moodle course that is as accessible as possible by Christin Stormer from the project SHUFFLE – Hochschulinitiative digitale Barrierefreiheit für Alle (opens in new tab) (licence: CC BY 4.0 (opens in new tab))
The course “Making Moodle courses accessible” (opens in new tab) on the OpenMoodle platform of Bielefeld University also offers a very good introduction to the topic. Among other things, you can find there:
- Results from an online survey on students' difficulties with Moodle
- What mistakes are often made?
- Checklist & implementation aid for an accessible Moodle course
- Assessment of individual H5P elements with regard to accessibility
The course was also developed as part of the SHUFFLE joint project. It is openly accessible. To be able to use the checklists interactively, you have to create an account yourself and can enrol in the course.
