Why AI voice selection is a learning design decision, not just a sound-quality choice.

Why AI Voice Selection Matters More Than Ever in eLearning

AI narration has changed the economics of audio in online learning.

What used to require:

• Voice talent coordination
• Recording sessions
• Budget and timeline tradeoffs

…can now be done quickly and affordably using AI voice tools.

That’s a major opportunity for eLearning agencies and instructional design teams — but it also introduces a new risk: choosing a voice that sounds “good,” but works against learning.

As audio becomes easier to add, voice selection becomes a design decision, not a production afterthought.

What Research Reveals About Voice and Learning

Across cognitive psychology, multimedia learning, and human–computer interaction research, one pattern is consistent: how information is delivered affects how well it’s learned.

Voice tone, pacing, and emotional delivery influence:

• Cognitive load
• Learner trust
• Motivation and attention
• Emotional readiness to learn

Below are the research-backed insights that matter most for practice.

1. Cognitive Load: When Voice Helps — or Hurts — Learning

Learning is limited by working memory. When narration adds unnecessary effort, learners spend energy processing delivery instead of content.

Research on Cognitive Load Theory and multimedia learning shows that:

• Overly fast narration
• Excessive expressiveness
• Emotionally mismatched tone

…can increase extraneous cognitive load, especially in technical or procedural content.

Practical takeaway

For high-density learning (compliance, systems, procedures):

• Neutral, steady narration often improves comprehension
• Clear pacing supports retention
• Less “performance,” more clarity

A voice can be engaging—and still make learning harder.

2. Voice Tone and Learner Trust

Learners form rapid judgments about a narrator’s:

• Credibility
• Authority
• Warmth

Research in human–computer interaction shows that people respond to AI voices much like human ones—applying the same social expectations.

What this means for course design

• Neutral, confident voices often signal expertise
• Warm, supportive voices can build emotional safety

Neither is universally “better.”

The right choice depends on context and learning intent.

Voice choice shapes whether learners trust the content—or tune it out.

3. Emotion, Motivation, and Engagement

Learning is not purely cognitive.

Educational psychology and affective neuroscience show that emotion directly influences attention and motivation. Narration tone can:

• Increase alertness and engagement
• Support reflection and emotional processing
• Or create fatigue when mismatched

The key insight

Don’t default to:

• High energy
• High empathy
• Or “friendly” voices

Instead, match tone to learning outcomes, just like you do with visuals or interactions.

Why the Voice Selector Focuses on Tone (Not Gender or Accent)

You may notice that the Shine Content Voice Selector doesn’t start by asking for:

• Gender
• Accent
• Age

That’s intentional.

Research shows that preferences for these traits:

• Vary widely by culture and context
• Are shaped by individual experience
• Don’t reliably predict learning effectiveness

What does consistently matter:

• Tone
• Pacing
• Clarity
• Emotional alignment with content

Tone influences learning outcomes more reliably than demographic voice traits.

Once tone is selected, teams can choose from a diverse range of voices that fit their audience.

Human judgment still matters.

You know your learners best.

How to Integrate Voice Selection into Your Design Process

Most teams choose voices late—after scripts are finalized.

A better approach is to treat voice like any other design decision.

Practical starting points

1. Include tone in your creative briefAsk: What kind of presence should this course have?
2. Use sample clips earlyShort audio samples help stakeholders “feel” the course before it’s built.
3. Test with real contentDemo scripts hide problems. Real paragraphs reveal them.

Voice selection works best when it happens before narration—not after problems appear.

Final Thought

The real question isn’t: “Does this AI voice sound natural?”

It’s: “Does this voice help learners understand, stay engaged, and keep going?”

That’s where learning design shows up—and where thoughtful audio choices make a measurable difference.

References

Atkinson, R. K., Derry, S. J., Renkl, A., & Wortham, D. (2005). Learning from examples: Instructional principles from the worked examples research. Instructional Science, 33(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-004-6406-5

CAST. (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Wakefield, MA: Author. Retrieved from https://udlguidelines.cast.org

Immordino-Yang, M. H., & Damasio, A. (2007). We feel, therefore we learn: The relevance of affective and social neuroscience to education. Mind, Brain, and Education, 1(1), 3–10. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-228X.2007.00004.x

Kim, Y., & Sundar, S. S. (2012). Anthropomorphism of computers: Is it mindful or mindless?

Computers in Human Behavior, 28(1), 241–250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2011.09.006

Mayer, R. E. (2014). The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (2nd ed.).

Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139547369

Nass, C., & Brave, S. (2005). Wired for Speech: How Voice Activates and Advances the Human-Computer Relationship.MIT Press.

Pekrun, R. (2014). Emotions and learning. Educational Practices Series–24. International Academy of Education. Retrieved from https://www.ibe.unesco.org/sites/default/files/resources/edu-practices_24_eng.pdf

Sweller, J., van Merriënboer, J. J. G., & Paas, F. G. W. C. (1998). Cognitive architecture and instructional design. Educational Psychology Review, 10(3), 251–296. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022193728205

van der Meij, H., & de Jong, T. (2006). Supporting software training: On the role of elaboration in mental model formation. Instructional Science, 34(6), 441–463. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-005-6922-7

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Read

7 tips for writing effective alt text

1. If you’re including words that matter, make sure they’re text, not part of an image.
2. If images matter, make sure they have alt text.
3. Caption your videos (and describe key visuals that aren’t obvious from the dialogue).
4. Keep it short. Describe what’s essential—not every detail. What would someone need to know if they couldn’t see it?
5. Don’t say “image of.” Screen readers already know it’s an image.
6. If an image is decorative and adds no value? Leave the alt text empty. (Yes, that’s okay, not everything needs a description.)
7. Focus on purpose, not aesthetics. Alt text should sound natural, clear, and human.

Examples of bad vs. good alt text

Example: Diagram of a workflow

• Bad: “Image of a flowchart with boxes and arrows.”
• Good: “A workflow showing the three steps for submitting an expense report, including: 1. Upload receipts. 2. Submit spreadsheet with totals. 3. Update quarterly budget.”

Example: Photo of people collaborating

• Bad: “Group of four people sitting at a table smiling.”
• Good: “Team members collaborating during a project planning session.”

Example: A chart showing a sales increase

• Bad: “Bar chart with blue and green bars representing quarterly growth.”
• Good: “Our Q1 and Q2 sales comparative chart shows Q1 sales at $1,000,000 and Q2 sales at $1,200,000 for a sales increase of 20% from Q1 to Q2.”

Bottom line

If an image helps your learners understand something, be sure to describe what they need to know from that image clearly, simply, and with any specific detail needed to have a full understanding.

Don’t forget videos…

If anything is show in a video that isn’t read aloud, learners may be missing out on that information or context. Just as with alt tags, if you’re showing something important, be sure to describe it.

For a video, this means having the narrator or speaker read out any important information that’s on screen, which then ensures it’s in captions and transcripts for easy readability.

Follow these tips and other accessibility best practices to help every learner engage with your course content.

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Here’s the 6-Step Quick-Start Guide to Designing for Learner Choice to help you get there.

Listen

Read

Can learners access key information in more than one way?

Offer text, audio, visuals, and captions so all learners can best perceive essential content.

Is your course easy to navigate?

Provide clear navigation, structure, headings, jump-ahead options, and replay capabilities.

Can learners control pace and flow?

Chunk content, allow pause, replay, and skip functionality, and don’t set arbitrary time limits.

Are you offering flexibility in how learners consume content?

Let learners read, listen, watch, or do — choice drives access and engagement.

Do learners have multiple ways to explore the topic?

Include varied means of engagement such as scenarios, discussions, reflections, and practice activities.

Are you supporting different ways of processing complex ideas?

Break down dense information with an effective mix of narration, visuals, examples, and summaries.

Go deeper with The learner-focused 6-step cognitive load checklist.

Bring multi-modal content to your Rise courses today

Automatically deliver an immersive narrative experience to your Rise courses with Shine.

See how Shine works

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When your course feels heavy, overwhelming, or hard to finish, cognitive load may be the culprit.

Here’s a quick checklist to help lighten that load so learners stay engaged and actually absorb what you’re teaching.

Listen

Read

Chunk your content

Break big topics into smaller, bite-sized sections. Think “one idea per screen” or “one task at a time.”

Sequence logically

Build a clear path: what should learners understand first, next, and last? Avoid jumping around or assuming learners can connect all the dots on their own.

Optimize prior knowledge

If learners need background info, provide it first — or at least activate what they already know before diving in.

Minimize distractions

Remove unnecessary visuals, animations, or awkward interface elements that pull attention away from core learning.

Use modelling or step-by-step examples

Use demonstrations and worked examples to reduce guesswork and help learners focus on what matters.

Use multimedia wisely

Complement visuals, text, and audio — but avoid overloading.

Don’t just duplicate content across modalities in a way that forces learners to review the material without consideration of how each modality can best be used to support the content; let each format support learning in its own way.

Pro tip

Sometimes as experts, we’re blind to cognitive load — we forget what it’s like to not know.

Step back and ask:

What’s essential here?

Where might someone new to the topic struggle to keep up?

Use this checklist as a quick review anytime you’re preparing or revising a course.

Remember: reducing cognitive load isn’t about simplifying your content — it’s about making the content work for learners rather than making learners work harder to unpack the content.

Dig deeper into cognitive load and dual coding theory

If you’d like to dig deeper into the learning science related to both the cognitive load and dual coding theories, I encourage you to follow Dr Nidhi Sachdeva, who demonstrated these best practices at this year’s Canadian eLearning Conference.

You can also subscribe to the latest learning + technology insights from me, Say Yeah CEO, Lee Dale.

Sign me up

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The Articulate Rise web-based authoring tool has been a boon to course creators looking to build interactive, mobile-friendly online courses without deep technical skills.

Rise already does so many things well—from allowing for responsive design to incorporating interactive content blocks—but there are clear opportunities to improve accessibility, flexibility, and engagement. We’ve taken Rise to the next level by creating an add-on that lets users listen to the content immersively as they engage with media and interactive content, while allowing course managers to easily update content on an ongoing basis.

Trust us, it’s cool. Get a feel for Rise & Shine.

Let’s explore what Shine is and how it can provide a better user experience for your learners.

Shine makes every Rise course more engaging and accessible

No question, Rise is a great tool for course creators, but there are a number of out-of-the-box constraints for learners. The model of Rise courses is a slide-show style standard that’s augmented by an overreliance on animation that isn’t as immersive, flexible, or comfortable for every learner as it should be.

To address this, we created an immersive read-along narration that works with all standard Rise elements across a course. Easy to setup and seamless to update, courses become more immersive, flexible, and accessible for every learner.

Here’s how it works.

Automatic integration into existing content

Shine automatically syncs its narration—not only with text-based content, but with interactive Rise blocks too—as learners are guided through the course. This includes headings, quotes, images, lists, and more. The add-on requires no additional technical set-up—making enhancing existing courses quick and simple, and easy to update if you need to make any changes to course content.

Customization options

Learners have different preferences as to how they engage with course content. Shine empowers every learner to choose the path that best suits them. Each learner can control and adjust the speed of spoken content, while automatically scrolling through the text to create an immersive, hands-free learner experience.

You get to choose from multiple voices to match the tone of the course and adjust settings for more accessible text sizes, voice integration, and animations.

Enhanced interactivity

Shine makes spoken playback more engaging by automatically incorporating visual elements like tabs, accordions, and flash cards provided by standard Rise blocks.

Learners can also follow the narrated content while simultaneously interacting with multimedia elements, such as videos, quizzes, and clickable scenarios.

And audio prompts remind learners when their input is needed for assessments or other types of engagements, ensuring everyone gets to experience the full, expanded, and immersive learning experience of Rise & Shine.

Try out the latest demo at https://shine.sayyeah.courses

Compatibility

Shine is compatible across all devices and platforms. Whether learners access a course on a desktop, tablet, or mobile device, the narration will function smoothly, providing a consistent and seamless learning experience. Simply put: Shine works where Rise works, augmenting your Rise courses wherever they’re accessed.

Let’s highlight Shine’s benefits for learners

Improved accessibility

Shine makes Rise courses even more accessible by allowing learners with visual impairments, reading difficulties, or other specific learning needs more options for how they access and engage with the course content.

Increased engagement

Shine not only adds greater interactivity to courses, it also creates a multi-sensory experience that can help clarify complex ideas and reinforce key points.

A more flexible learning experience

Shine makes it easy for learners to access their online courses on any device, whether at home, work, class, or on a commute, while tailoring the learning experience to their preferences.

How does Rise & Shine work?

Unlocking these benefits couldn’t be easier.

You simply take your Rise course package, drop it into Shine, choose a voice, and let the magic happen. You then take your Shined Rise package, publish it as you usually do, and you’re done!

Need to make changes?

No trouble! Update your course content in Rise and drop the latest version back into Shine. Shine will automatically update all the audio based on the latest course content and you’ll get your latest Shined Rise package back.

Shine for Rise courses is available now!

Get in touch today to get started or for a personalized Shine demo.

Get in touch for a custom demo

See Shine in action

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Much of this work is driven by English-language business. So much so that organizations we’ve worked with in South America, the Middle East, and South Asia have asked us to focus on English-language training for their staff and students.

The intention behind this English-first approach is to grow capacity and capability in doing business globally, but the result can make onboarding, upskilling, and collaboration more difficult.

Through our ongoing research and practice at Say Yeah, we asked: how might we improve how language is incorporated in learning programs to better enable a global and diverse workforce?

Let’s take a look at how this works.

Getting started with an English-language course is common across the globe. In the examples that follow, we’ll reference our Practical Inclusive Design course.

One of the key considerations (and gaps we see across courses) is that, while new terms are consistently introduced to learners throughout a course, there’s no easy way to gather or reference those terms.

A Glossary should be standard across all courses.

A Glossary is a central reference for learners to jog their memory related to key topical terms. And it allows for so much more.

In addition to gathering key terms related to a course topic, we can move beyond the written word to incorporate audio. This helps learners not just see and spell a word, but also incorporate it into their vocabulary with confidence, whether reading, writing, or speaking.

Better still, we can expand the capabilities of a glossary to include the most common languages spoken in a region, workplace, or with global partners. In our course example, we’ve included English, French, Spanish, and Arabic.

You can easily add more languages that may be relevant to your workforce or group of learners.

Now you can prepare for a discussion with a colleague who speaks another language by reading and listening to those keywords relevant to your conversation in their native language.

And there’s more.

The foundation of the glossary allows for new integrated multi-lingual references across an entire course. Consider when you’re working through a new course, coming across new terms.

On any page of a course, the terms you may not be familiar with are highlighted. By clicking on the term, not only do you see the definition in the language of the course, but you can hear how this word sounds.

If you’re new to English, you can see the word in your native language to help you make the connection to this new English term.

Or, if you’re collaborating with a colleague who prefers a language other than English, you can review the word in their language and join them in conversation.

This kind of integrated multi-lingual learning is a natural evolution for eLearning that we can help you provide, whether integrating these capabilities within your existing eLearning authoring tools or helping you get started.

Get in touch today to talk about how we can help your entire organization learn and work smarter.

Let’s talk

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This new technology:

• opens up course accessibility
• automates personalization for learners
• remains portable and compatible with existing LMS and HRIS systems.

And it’s only available from Say Yeah!

Let’s explore why this is so important and how it works.

There’s a fundamental challenge with learning where most courses—whether online, hybrid, in a classroom, or led by a workplace trainer—follow a single, typically lecture-based model.

One course, delivered one way, for everyone.

The challenge is, people learn in different ways. And this single model or format for delivering a course doesn’t help everyone learn and grow with confidence.

That’s a problem for workplace preparedness and development, where success is measured by growing the capacity and capability of everyone on a team.

To address this, we’ve developed a software framework that helps you deliver next-generation learning programs to everyone, whether you’re launching a brand new course, or working with an existing LMS or HRIS system.

I’d like to share with you a transformative shift in eLearning that celebrates and supports every learner, giving them the options they need to engage more effectively with course content in order to move from knowledge to action in their day-to-day work. ~ Say Yeah CEO, Lee Dale

When we develop a course together, we combine course content best practices with the latest AI-powered eLearning automations to quickly and easily expand single-track learning to allow people to watch, listen, or read a course.

Included is the ability for every learning to adjust the settings to their ideal:

• Auto advance to the next lesson to keep the course material flowing.
• Scroll with spoken text and have the video move along with you. The video anchors in the corner and the screen scrolls to the text that’s being spoken.
• Highlight spoken text so you can follow along with the narration even more closely.

The settings are designed to support multiple learning modes so every learner can work through the course in a way that works best for them, with the flexibility to adjust at any time.

A sample course interface showing how text highlights as video and audio play and all the available settings adjustments you may choose from.

Impressively, our software accelerates the previously manual process of creating multiple formats for content by leveraging subject matter expertise, instructional design expertise, custom code, and artificial intelligence to quickly and automatically deliver multiple formats that support every learner.

So what used to be difficult to make and manage becomes almost automatic to create, and effortless to update.

Get in touch today to transform your learning programs with automated personalization and discover the impact of adaptive eLearning.

Let’s talk

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With an estimated 50% of employees requiring reskilling by 2025, businesses that offer training and upskilling opportunities own a significant competitive advantage.

In this environment, the digital transformation of employee training through eLearning is a game changer. From onboarding to reskilling, online learning saves companies time and money, and has the potential to revolutionize the way we work and learn.

Effective and scalable eLearning gives your workforce the skills and capacity to adapt, innovate, and drive business growth to meet the challenges and opportunities of evolving global trends. However, unlocking the transformational aspects of going digital requires a shift of mindset. It starts with understanding key aspects unique to the digital learning experience.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)

Effective eLearning incorporates principles of DEI by creating a sense of belonging for all course participants and helping them connect more deeply to the learning content. This not only improves the quality and effectiveness of employee training programs but can have a significant impact across your business.

Advantages of integrating DEI into your training program

• Increased profits. Companies without a DEI strategy or with an ineffective one are 27% less likely to be profitable compared to their peers. Bringing this practice to your training programs helps set the tone across your organization.
• Employee retention. Creating workplace environments that value the unique perspectives of employees reduces turnover. Demonstrating that you value your diverse employees through your training program content helps set this standard for every employee.
• Greater and more inspired innovation. Employees are more likely to innovate when they are empowered to bring their own ideas and worldviews to their work. Delivering improved, more inclusive training helps every employee grow their capacity and capability to innovate.

When inclusion flourishes, it permeates the whole work environment. It enables everyone to succeed, and it leaves no one out. It has a positive impact on people’s desire to work for an organization and how productive they are, the quality of decision making, customer relations, innovation, revenues, and reputations. ~ Rebekah Steele, INdivisible, 2020

How to leverage DEI to enrich your corporate learning programs

Championing DEI in learning involves engaging learners on a deeper level, for example, by:

• encouraging employees to bring their rich perspectives and realities to their learning experiences
• empowering employees to broaden their perspectives and innovate solutions for diverse markets
• exploring creative ways to promote DEI in organizational processes and practices

To achieve these objectives, digital learning programs can be made more accessible and inclusive through the following tactics.

Snapshot from an organizational training module on inclusive writing guidelines that we created for a client offering health support services for a diverse group of clients. We designed this custom writing guide to support their capacity to be inclusive in serving their market base. These kinds of writing considerations can be applied to any training program content and extend to any content developed by your organization.

• Ensure the stock images, videos, and illustrations used in a course reflect the diverse identities, backgrounds, and roles in your company.
• Use simple, clear, and inclusive language that everyone can easily understand and relate to. We recommend creating a company-wide inclusive writing framework that can be customized for each department.
• Incorporate video translations to serve a multilingual market. For Canadian organizations, consider French, American Sign Language (ASL), and Langue des Signes Quebecoise (LSQ). US organizations may prioritize Spanish and ASL.
• Give learners agency by providing a balanced mix of audio, text, images, and videos.
• Evaluate content for bias and preconceived assumptions about the employees and any other course participants. Are there options for flexibility in the learning program? Do all employees have access to resources and requirements to take the course?

Put learners at the centre of your training programs and watch them flourish.

User experience (UX) and accessibility

Today’s employees have high expectations of their online experiences and interfaces, and that includes your eLearning offerings. Leveraging the convenience and flexibility of eLearning requires expertise in designing a user experience that helps ensure employees can retain and connect new knowledge to their work.

Complicated learning software features, unfamiliar navigation controls, and disorganized course interfaces and content structure on learning management systems (LMSs) can make content inaccessible and difficult to understand.

Drawbacks of poor UX design

• Low learning engagement. Learners disengage when navigating poorly designed interfaces.
• Poor knowledge retention. Employees can’t assess their knowledge and retain information if the course interface and structure are not accessible, organized, and responsive.

How to enhance UX and accessibility to maximize eLearning ROI

Screenshot from a case study demonstrating user experience-led features we developed for George Brown College. Read the case study here.

• Ensure consistency in content flow, navigation controls, and design elements. (Leading with people-centred design allowed us to build a flexible and accessible eLearning program for George Brown College that is now being used across Ontario higher education institutions.)
• Make the course more flexible by providing access via multiple screen sizes and devices. It’s helpful to adapt the course to fit the needs of employees who prefer to learn on their smartphones and mobile devices.
• Tailor the interactions and activities to give choice and agency to the learners. For instance, you may want to incorporate features such as resource aids, personalized reflection activities, and scenario-based assessments to enable course participants to put their learning into practice.
• Deliver similar content in multiple formats—from text to images, quotes, and videos—to improve accessibility and enable participants to engage with content in more than one way and support the diverse learning preferences of each of your learners.

Digital instructional design principles

Instructional design is different from UX design in eLearning, although they work hand in hand. Instructional design focuses on how people learn and how to transform subject matter content into a learning product. UX design then leverages instructional design to ensure the course material translates seamlessly on an LMS platform and is usable, scalable, effective, and accessible to all course participants.

Business impacts of incorporating instructional design principles into corporate training

Implementing instructional design principles in your training programs benefits your employees and organization, improving eLearning ROI in the following ways:

• Enhanced productivity and engagement. From onboarding to reskilling, effective learning programs empower people with the skills to become more effective at their jobs, which leads to increased efficiency and productivity.
• Improved retention. A 2023 Work Institute report analyzing employee retention complexities shows that professional development is a leading reason people resign. Learner-centred training programs help address this by opening up ways for employees to add value and impact to the business while pursuing self-improvement.
• Saved costs. It costs more to hire new employees than to train and reskill existing ones. Improving retention through people-focused professional development programs will save you time and money while adding to your bottom line.

Investing in learning helps establish a critical competitive advantage—and eLearning designed with a focus on DEI, UX, and instructional design will give your organization a chance to realize this advantage in terms of hiring, employee retention, and performance.

Start the discussion about eLearning ROI with your learning and training team by asking the following questions:

• Is there more we could be doing to make our eLearning programs inclusive, accessible, and effective for all employees?
• Are we creating opportunities for learners to apply new knowledge and skills in their work?
• How are we leveraging the latest eLearning practices to improve retention and productivity?

Interested in learning more about how to maximize the impacts of your digital learning and training programs?

We’d love to chat. Our multidisciplinary team at Say Yeah specializes in delivering holistic and customized corporate eLearning solutions that help organizations turn training into a competitive advantage.

Get in touch

The post How to Maximize Your Company’s Learning & Development ROI in 2024 appeared first on Say Yeah!.

Most importantly, we know course accessibility is a difficult outcome to reach. That’s not because it’s particularly expensive, challenging, or unattainable. On the contrary, it’s never been easier. But the processes to get there are not well understood.

This guide unpacks those processes succinctly, supporting you, the educator, in having direct and fruitful conversations with the technologists you work with or may hire to ensure they’re taking the steps necessary and, together, you’re able to deliver the best learning outcomes through more accessible online courses.

Guide highlights

• Understanding the value and importance of web accessibility
• A standard of practice for achieving and validating online course accessibility
• Understanding the steps necessary to coordinate with your technical support or course development team to confirm accessibility
• Use the Accessibility Validation Template to track your progress

The value of accessibility

Following accessibility practices allow us to increase course access and engagement while improving learning outcomes for all. Let’s look at the many benefits of ensuring accessibility for the courses you develop. An accessible online course:

• opens up access for all potential course participants by reducing barriers to accessing your course
• improves content engagement by providing multiple means of engagement with course content
• reduces overall effort by following a shared and documented set of web standards that avoid costly and time-consuming accessibility auditing and course retrofitting
• grows market share by setting ourselves apart from the competition and leading in access and engagement for all

So, how do we get there? First of all, it’s important to understand that accessibility is a collaborative effort across the course development team, including those people responsible for content, design, and code, or technical development.

Accessibility is collaborative

Accessibility objectives are reached through shared responsibilities across multi-disciplinary teams. When considering an online course system, accessibility is achieved across a collaborative mix of:

• Content and course development and input into the course system
• Design of the course and course system interface
• Code and setup of the technology system, learning management system (LMS), and course elements, including interactions

While design and code help enable content teams by providing tools to support their work, the content teams ensure access and engagement with every new piece of content they publish.

This mix of foundational and ongoing work is necessary to ensure accessibility is achieved and retained.

The best practices gap

Accessibility is achieved through a collaborative combination of content, design, and code that most organizations are not set up to follow.

Accessibility is supported by web standards that most developers do not fully understand.

Checklists and automated tools are seen as the solution, but automated tools are not enough.

Accessibility cannot be achieved without manual testing.

Automated tests can help point out the most glaring or obvious issues, but accessibility is more than a checklist of technical issues: it’s a user experience consideration.

User experience is measured by understanding how course participants will interact with your course.

Course participants may use screen readers, a keyboard only, zooming, and other assistive technology, in addition to mouse/touch and multiple screen sizes (such as a desktop, phone, or tablet).

Testing must be done to ensure that when users engage with an interface and content, it both works for users and, ideally, is enjoyable.

None of this can effectively be achieved without content, design, and code teams working together to set this foundation from the start.

Let’s look at how you can take next steps with your next course by having the information you need to hold your technology provider accountable.

Holding your technology provider accountable

Technology is an enabler. Online learning can bring increased equity for participants, improving course access and engagement.

However, how technology is used in online learning can create barriers. Standards-of-practice must be followed by technologists, and understood by course creators—including SMEs, educators, and instructional designers—to ensure technology is implemented and used effectively.

The following phases of course development must be practiced by your technology team, including:

• Establishing a standard of practice from the start
• Manual testing
• Automated tools & testing

In addition, you can participate in the accessibility validation process so you know your course is as open, accessible, and engaging as possible.

Let’s expand on these best practices so you can address these with your technology support and development teams.

Establishing a standard of practice from the start

Whether you’re using an off-the-shelf LMS or working on custom development, you should expect and be able to confirm the following:

• Web interfaces must be designed and developed using semantic HTML structuring and, when necessary for novel interactions, HTML’s ARIA functionality
• Mechanisms that allow content creators to add accessible content features such as image alt tags, page titles, video captions and transcripts must be provided
• Advice and feedback from disabled users, other developers, and industry professionals is essential when approaching novel interactive concepts to gain insight into how others have or may approach the problem based on their experience and best practices
• Interfaces must be tested internally and by external users to validate usability, accessibility, and inclusion across all methods of engagement, including:
  • mouse/touch
  • using only a keyboard
  • while zooming the interface
  • across different screen sizes
  • using a screen reader

Manual testing

Manual testing must ensure access by mouse/touch, keyboard, screen reader, and zoom across multiple screen sizes. Here’s what your technologist should be doing:

• Using a mobile phone to test touch interactions and smaller screen sizes
• Using a desktop computer with a mouse and/or trackpad
• Using only a keyboard to ensure a user can navigate and access functionality available on the website without using touch screens or a mouse
• Using a screen reader (desktop and smartphone) to ensure the site can be navigated and understood and that interactions function correctly (or have a suitable alternative) in a speech-only context
• Ensuring the site can be zoomed in and that the course and page layouts respond in a way that ensures content is visible and readable at a large scale

Automated tools & testing

The following automated practices and tools augment manual test processes and validate ongoing coding practices. Your technologist should confirm these practices and be able to share the results of any tests conducted, including:

• Code linting during the development process to identify syntax and typos that could introduce bugs
• Validating the output HTML with a validator to ensure it is properly formatted
• Testing the code with a combination of tools, which can include:
  • Deque’s AXE
  • TPGI’s Arc
  • IBM Equal Access Accessibility Checker
  • Lighthouse from Google
  • Others

Going a step further

The best way to verify accessibility is by asking a range of users to try the course to learn more about their experience. If you can plan or budget for some usability testing with a mix of users who typically interact with the web and courses differently, you’ll learn how to improve the course for everyone.

Connect with users who interact with the course across mouse/touch, keyboard, screen reader, while zooming, and across different screen sizes. Learn about their experiences, preferences, and perspective on your course. And further confirm how accessible your course is to everyday users.

Share what you know with an accessibility statement

When you’ve reviewed and confirmed the above yourself, or with the support of an experience technologist, developing an accessibility statement will help guide course participants who will interact with your course in different ways.

Let them know what works, how, and what you may know is missing, difficult, or could be improved. Give those users an option to contact you for support or to answer any other questions.

This accessibility statement is a great course resource that can be included as part of a course introduction, and can be provided ahead of starting the course and in course promotional material to signal your efforts to ensure your course works well for everyone.

Accessibility is a shared responsibility

It is essential to choose the right technologist that embeds accessibility from the onset of online learning planning and all throughout the course development process. The role of this technologist is to support the collaborative, proactive, and solution-focused approach this guide helps you deliver. With this approach, you can be part of revolutionizing the education industry by providing accessible and equitable access to online learning with every course you work on.

Collaboration among these three stakeholders: technologists, SMEs, and educators/instructional designers is key to achieving learning outcomes in online learning. Ultimately, leveraging the strengths of each of these experts to ensure no learner is prevented from engaging with course content and all are set up for a more equitable learning experience.

Looking to collaborate with online learning and accessibility specialists for your next course?

At Say Yeah, we have developed a comprehensive process for bridging educational and technology best practices that improve learning outcomes.

Get in touch if you’d like to improve collaboration, insights, and outcomes across your course development processes, ultimately delivering more effective, accessible, and equitable online courses.

Get in touch

Acknowledgement of Provincial Funding

This project is made possible with funding by the Government of Ontario and through eCampusOntario’s support of the Virtual Learning Strategy (VLS) and Ontario Exchange (OEX).

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