Content Accessibility in Moodle 4.5 and the Use of the Built-in Accessibility Checker

Dear teachers!

To ensure accessibility and compliance with international standards (WCAG 2.1), we suggest you familiarize yourself with a brief instruction for designing educational content.

How to make your online course accessible to everyone

Accessibility isn't just about people with special educational needs. It's about making it easier for a student who is taking a lecture on their phone in bright sunlight, has slow internet, or is temporarily unable to listen to audio.

Please check your study materials for these 5 points:

1. Text Structure and Headings

Screen readers (programs that read the screen aloud) navigate by headings, just as we navigate by the contents of a book.

❌ DON'T: Don't just use bold or ALL CAPS to create headlines.

✅ DO: Use the editor's built-in styles: "Heading - large", "Heading - medium" (Heading 1, Heading 2). This creates the correct page hierarchy.

2. Images should "speak"

If the image does not load or the student cannot see it, they must understand what is depicted there.

❌ DON'T: Leave the "Image Description" field blank and don't write the file name there (for example, image_001.jpg).

✅ DO: When uploading an image, fill in the "Describe this image for those who cannot see it" field .

• Example: Instead of "Graph", write: "GDP growth graph of Ukraine for 2023, the curve is going up."
• Exception: If the image is simply for beauty (decor), check the box "This image is purely decorative."

3. Correct links

The link text should explain where it leads.

❌ DON'T: "Click here to download."

✅ DO: “Download the Occupational Safety and Health Manual (PDF) .” The student should know what will happen after clicking.

4. Color and Contrast

Not all monitors display colors the same way, and not all people can distinguish between shades.

❌ DON'T: Use color as the only way to convey information (for example: "Study the words highlighted in red").

✅ DO: Duplicate the color with a shape or text (e.g., “Learn the words highlighted in red and bold ”).
Tip: Avoid light gray text on a white background. Black text on white is the best choice.

5. Files (PDF and Word)

A book scan is simply a picture from which it is impossible to copy text or read it with a screen reader.

❌ DON'T: Upload photos of textbook pages or scanned PDFs without text recognition.

✅ DO: Save Word documents as PDFs using the "Save As" feature. If you're scanning a book, use optical character recognition (OCR) software.

Your "Magic Button" in Moodle 

In the text editor (where you create lectures and assignments) there is a "Check Accessibility" button .

Click it before saving!

The system will tell you if you forgot to include a description for the image or used a font that was too pale.

**This guide will help you** if you want to make your courses as accessible as possible for all students. It will help you use headings correctly, describe images, and work effectively with the new built-in **Accessibility Checker** tool in the Moodle editor.