Accessibility Testing and Checklists

Creating documents, presentations, and e-learning courses is a process that requires those materials to be fully accessible to all users per WCAG and Section 504 standards.

To better understand WCAG standards, see the WCAG in Plain English Website run by AAArdvark Accessibility.

CPM keeps an Accessibility Specialist on staff to review any materials, from PDFs to website pages to online courses before they are published. Accessibility Reviews can be requested using the E-Business Accessibility Review form or at cpmrequests@ou.edu.

For those with format-specific accessibility questions, some teams and contracts around CPM have put together documentation on checking certain products for accessibility. Other authoring platforms, such as Articulate 360, have created accessibility checklists for those using their products. Finally, the federal government has a collection of courses, videos, and documents that can be references when checking materials for accessibility. Several of those resources have been collected here for reference.

Basic Checklist

Here are some basics to keep in mind when designing Online Courses. All courses should have the following:

• Full Keyboard Navigation: Ensure all menus, interactive elements, tabs, and quiz questions can be accessed and operated using only Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter, and Space.
• Logical Focus & Reading Order: Set the slide focus order so screen readers read content in a clear, natural sequence (top-to-bottom, left-to-right) rather than jumping around.
• Color Contrast & Independence: Maintain a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for regular text, and never rely on color alone to convey key information or status.
• Descriptive Alt Text & Decorative Tagging: Provide concise alt text for images that convey context, and mark decorative graphics or visual flourishes as background artifacts.
• Non-Positional Instructions: Write clear directional copy that does not rely on visual placement (e.g., use “Select the Next button in the menu” instead of “Click the button on the right”).
• Captions & Audio Controls: Include accurate closed captions for videos, downloadable transcripts for audio clips, and ensure media never plays automatically without visual controls.
• Proper Heading Structure: Organize screen text using structured hierarchical headings (H1  H2  H3) to allow easy screen reader navigation.
• Screen Reader Verification: Test the entire module with an active screen reader (NVDA, JAWS, or VoiceOver) to confirm interactive states and feedback alerts read correctly.

For a more extensive checklist, download the full Online Course Accessibility Checklist.

From the Instructional Design Team:

The Instructional Design team has provided their checklist for Accessibility Testing, which can be viewed or downloaded here:

Checking Articulate 360 (Rise and Storyline) courses for accessibility:

From The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Office of Government-wide Policy (OGP):

Section508.gov is a website that is replete with accessibility resources. They provide a series of self-guided courses to learn more about various aspects of accessibility. For the purposes of this page, they have a collection of checklists and tutorials based around creating accessible documents in various formats:

The Accessibility Training Overview contains a list of available courses and a video training library. The site also contains collected guides to creating accessible documents, such as:

• Microsoft Word Authoring Guides and Training Videos
• Create Accessible PDFs – Authoring Guides and Training Videos
• Accessible Presentations – PowerPoint Authoring Guides and Training Videos
• Accessible Spreadsheets – Excel Authoring Guides and Training Videos

The left-hand columns on these pages also contain additional resources that can be used to find more information about other aspects of accessibility.

Have a resource you’d like to add to this page, or have a request for a guide to be placed here? Please use the E-Business Accessibility Review form or email cpmrequests@ou.edu.