What is this?
Creating a more accessible course doesn’t require a full redesign or hours of extra work. Accessibility Quick Wins is designed to meet you where you are, offering small, practical changes you can make in under 10 minutes to reduce barriers for students and improve the learning experience for everyone. Whether you’re new to accessibility or looking for easy ways to strengthen what you already do, this series helps you focus on progress, not perfection. Small changes can lead to a big impact!
How does this work?
Below are eight Accessibility Quick Wins, each focused on a specific aspect of digital accessibility. Every Quick Win includes a brief overview of the topic, a short embedded video that walks you through the essentials, and a curated list of tools and resources for further support and exploration. Select a Quick Win to expand and view the content.
Accessibility Quick Wins
Our first Accessibility Quick Win invites you to rethink how accessibility is often thought of. While accessibility is often framed as a compliance requirement (which is certainly part of the conversation), it’s ultimately about inclusion: ensuring all students can access, engage with, and succeed. It’s about removing barriers and creating learning experiences that support all learners. In this first Quick Win, we’ll set the stage for the practical, approachable strategies we’ll explore throughout this Accessibility Quick Wins Series. If you’d like to dive deeper, additional resources are available below the video.
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Images are everywhere in online content. But, without alternative text, some learners miss out on the message they’re meant to convey. In this Accessibility Quick Win, we focus on alternative text (alt text): what it is, why it matters, and how it supports inclusion for all learners. You’ll walk away with some simple best practices for writing clear, meaningful alt text.
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Long, unstructured pages of text can feel overwhelming to everyone, and they can create real barriers for learners who rely on assistive technology like screen reading tools. In this Accessibility Quick Win, we show how using proper heading styles can instantly make your documents and course pages more organized, scannable, and accessible. You’ll discover why headings are essential for screen reader users and learn how to apply built-in heading styles correctly, making your content clearer and easier to navigate for all of your learners.
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Even simple design choices can create big barriers (or big opportunities!) for accessibility. In this Accessibility Quick Win, we explore color contrast, and the importance of ensuring your text and other visuals are easy to read and identify. You’ll walk away with practical strategies for choosing accessible color combinations, and some free tools to help you check your contrast.
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Imagine walking down a long hallway lined with dozens of doors, but none of them have labels. You have no idea what’s behind each door until you open it. That’s what navigating a page full of “click here” and “read more” links feels like. Screen readers often let users navigate by jumping from link to link, and when every link says the same generic thing, you’re forced to open each door blindly, hoping you’ll find what you’re looking for. In this Quick Win, we’ll discuss how to make your links descriptive, which makes navigation easier and faster for everyone.
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Accessible lists give structure to your content, letting every user, whether they’re reading visually or listening, easily understand the order and relationship of items. In this Quick Win, we’ll show you how to make your lists clear, organized, and fully accessible.
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Tables might seem intimidating to make accessible at first, but once you know the basics, it’s actually pretty straightforward, and the benefits for accessibility make it absolutely worth it.
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Our final Quick Win focuses on using accessibility checkers to help identify potential accessibility issues in your content. Think of these tools as spellcheck, but for accessibility! They highlight things you might otherwise miss and take the guesswork out of trying to hunt down issues.
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