In the digital age, eLearning has become an essential tool for non-profit organizations. Whether it’s training volunteers, educating stakeholders, or sharing vital information with communities, eLearning offers cost-effective and scalable solutions. However, for non-profits serving diverse and often underserved populations, accessibility is paramount. Creating accessible eLearning ensures inclusivity, enhances learning outcomes, and aligns with the mission-driven goals of most non-profits.
This article explores how non-profits can create eLearning programs that cater to diverse audiences, focusing on accessibility, usability, and cultural inclusivity.
Understanding Accessibility in eLearning
Accessibility in eLearning means designing courses and content that can be used by everyone, including individuals with disabilities. Disabilities can be visual, auditory, cognitive, or physical, and effective eLearning must address these varied needs. Accessibility also extends to other barriers such as language, digital literacy, and technological limitations.
For non-profits, accessible eLearning supports equity by enabling marginalized groups to participate fully in educational opportunities. This is particularly crucial for organizations serving people with disabilities, older adults, low-income populations, or non-native speakers.
Legal and Ethical Imperatives
Many countries have laws mandating accessibility in digital content, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the United States and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) internationally. Beyond legal compliance, creating accessible eLearning aligns with the values of social justice and inclusion that are core to non-profit missions.
Key Principles of Accessible eLearning
To make eLearning accessible, non-profits should incorporate these core principles:
Perceivable
Ensure that information is presented in ways that users can perceive, regardless of their abilities. Examples include providing text alternatives for images and captions for videos.
Operable
Design interfaces that all users can navigate, including those relying on keyboards or assistive technologies.
Understandable
Use clear language, logical navigation, and consistent design to make content comprehensible to a broad audience.
Robust
Create content that works across various devices, platforms, and assistive technologies.
These principles, derived from WCAG, provide a roadmap for accessible eLearning development.
Steps to Develop Accessible eLearning
1. Understand Your Audience
Start by analyzing the needs of your target audience. For non-profits, this often includes individuals with diverse abilities, limited access to technology, and varying levels of education. Conduct surveys, focus groups, or interviews to identify specific barriers your learners face.
Key questions include:
What devices and internet access do your learners have?
Are there language or literacy considerations?
Do learners require assistive technologies like screen readers or braille displays?
Understanding these factors allows you to design content that meets learners where they are.
2. Adopt Accessibility Standards
Follow established guidelines like WCAG 2.1, which detail how to make digital content accessible. These standards cover everything from color contrast ratios to keyboard navigation, ensuring content is inclusive for all users.
For example:
Use a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for text to ensure readability for people with visual impairments.
Provide keyboard-only navigation to accommodate users who cannot use a mouse.
3. Use Accessible Authoring Tools
Choose eLearning authoring tools that support accessibility. Popular platforms like Articulate 360, Adobe Captivate, and Gomo offer features such as screen reader compatibility, alt-text support, and customizable navigation.
4. Design for Assistive Technologies
Many users rely on assistive technologies like screen readers, magnifiers, or voice recognition software. To ensure compatibility:
Use semantic HTML to create meaningful page structures.
Provide text descriptions for non-text elements like images, graphs, and animations.
Label form fields clearly for ease of input.
5. Test Accessibility
Testing is crucial to identify and resolve accessibility issues. Use tools like:
WAVE: Checks for WCAG compliance and highlights potential barriers.
NVDA or JAWS: Screen readers for testing how visually impaired users experience your content.
Keyboard Testing: Ensures all functionality is operable without a mouse.
Involve users with disabilities in testing whenever possible to gain valuable insights into real-world usability.
Making eLearning Culturally Inclusive
Non-profit audiences are often diverse, spanning different cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Beyond accessibility, it’s essential to ensure that eLearning is culturally inclusive.
1. Language and Translation
Provide multilingual options to reach non-native speakers. Use plain, straightforward language to make content easier to understand, even after translation. Avoid idioms or culturally specific references that may confuse international audiences.
2. Visual Representation
Ensure imagery reflects the diversity of your audience. Avoid stereotypes and use inclusive visuals that resonate with different cultural identities. For example, when depicting volunteers, include individuals of various ethnicities, ages, and abilities.
3. Localized Examples
Use case studies, scenarios, and examples that align with the cultural contexts of your learners. A rural farming community in East Africa may not relate to examples rooted in urban Western settings.
4. Accessibility in Translation
When translating content, maintain accessibility features. For instance, ensure captions in translated videos remain synchronized and accurate.
Overcoming Technological Barriers
Non-profits often serve communities with limited technological infrastructure. To ensure accessibility:
Optimize for Low Bandwidth: Use lightweight formats like HTML5 instead of bandwidth-heavy files.
Mobile-Friendly Design: Many learners rely on mobile devices. Design content that adapts seamlessly to smaller screens.
Offline Options: Offer downloadable PDFs or offline modules for learners with intermittent internet access.
Case Studies of Accessible eLearning in Non-Profits
1. Global Health Training Program
A non-profit working in global health developed an eLearning program to train community health workers. By using mobile-friendly design and translating courses into multiple languages, the organization reached remote regions with limited internet access. Key accessibility features included audio narration and text alternatives for visuals, enabling low-literacy participants to benefit.
2. Disability Advocacy Organization
A disability rights non-profit created an online advocacy training course using WCAG-compliant design. Features included screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation, and high-contrast visuals. Additionally, live training sessions were offered with sign language interpretation and real-time captioning.
The Role of Partnerships
Non-profits often lack the resources to develop robust eLearning programs independently. Partnerships with tech companies, instructional designers, and accessibility experts can bridge this gap. Collaborations can provide access to tools, funding, and expertise to create high-quality, accessible content.
Evaluating Success
To ensure your eLearning efforts are effective and inclusive:
Collect Feedback: Regularly solicit input from learners to identify and address gaps.
Monitor Metrics: Track participation rates, course completion, and user satisfaction.
Iterate and Improve: Use feedback and data to refine content continuously.
Summary
Creating accessible eLearning for diverse non-profit audiences is not just a technical challenge—it’s a moral imperative. By prioritizing accessibility and inclusivity, non-profits can extend the reach and impact of their educational efforts, ensuring that no one is left behind. Through thoughtful design, adherence to standards, and a commitment to equity, non-profits can empower learners of all abilities and backgrounds.
Accessibility in eLearning is more than a best practice; it’s a reflection of the values that drive non-profits to serve communities and create meaningful change.
About LMS Portals
At LMS Portals, we provide our clients and partners with a mobile-responsive, SaaS-based, multi-tenant learning management system that allows you to launch a dedicated training environment (a portal) for each of your unique audiences.
The system includes built-in, SCORM-compliant rapid course development software that provides a drag and drop engine to enable most anyone to build engaging courses quickly and easily.
We also offer a complete library of ready-made courses, covering most every aspect of corporate training and employee development.
If you choose to, you can create Learning Paths to deliver courses in a logical progression and add structure to your training program. The system also supports Virtual Instructor-Led Training (VILT) and provides tools for social learning.
Together, these features make LMS Portals the ideal SaaS-based eLearning platform for our clients and our Reseller partners.
Contact us today to get started or visit our Partner Program pages