Section 3 of four
Every resource, in full
Sources are written out in full here as well as numbered, so that following a reference is never necessary to understand an entry.
Standards and technical practice
Conformance, assistive technology, and the gap between the two. What a standard requires, and why meeting it does not always mean a person can use the thing.
Accessibility Triage for Existing Course Inventories
A defensible order of work when everything cannot be fixed at once
Practised · resource in development
Most institutions hold thousands of documents, modules, videos, and pages built before anyone was checking, with no realistic path to full conformance. This resource offers a tiered protocol — what is remediated now, what is rebuilt at next revision, what is retired, and which standard applies to each tier — using high-volume required and compliance training as the worked example.
Group. Standards and technical practice
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. WCAG 2.2; EN 301 549; remediation prioritisation
Practised in. Mandatory-training audits and redesign in a provincial public-sector organisation
Themes. Standards, Access, Scale
Sources
- Reference 15: W3C (2023). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. W3C Recommendation.
- Reference 25: ETSI/CEN/CENELEC (2021). EN 301 549 V3.2.1: Accessibility Requirements for ICT Products and Services. Harmonised European Standard.
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Designing for the Assistive Technology People Actually Use
Why conformant content can still fail in practice
Practised · resource in development
Conformance and assistive-technology fluency are not the same thing, and the difference shows quickly in real use. This resource covers testing with actual assistive technology rather than automated checking alone, and the reasons technically conformant material can still obstruct — while leaving assessment, tool matching, and training to the assistive technology specialists and advisors whose professional work that is.
Group. Standards and technical practice
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. SETT framework (Zabala); HAAT model (Cook & Polgar); WCAG 2.2
Practised in. Screen-reader and keyboard testing in a provincial public-sector organisation; adaptive technology stations at an art and design university; AAC support in private home care
Themes. Standards, Access, Disability studies
Sources
- Reference 17: Zabala, J. S. (2005). Ready, SETT, Go! Getting Started with the SETT Framework — the Student, Environments, Tasks, Tools framework for assistive technology decision-making.
- Reference 16: Cook, A. M., & Polgar, J. M. (2015). Assistive Technologies: Principles and Practice (4th ed.). Elsevier — the source of the Human Activity Assistive Technology (HAAT) model.
- Reference 15: W3C (2023). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. W3C Recommendation.
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Accessible Physical and Hybrid Learning Environments
The part of universal design most often handed to facilities
Practised · resource in development
The seven principles of universal design as they were originally written — for buildings, spaces, and products — and what they require of a classroom, a laboratory, a placement site, and the hybrid arrangements that now carry a large share of teaching. It is the part of universal design that learning designers most often hand to facilities management, and the part that determines whether a person can be present in the room at all.
Group. Standards and technical practice
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. Principles of Universal Design (Connell et al., 1997); CSA B651; Accessible Canada Act
Practised in. Studio layouts and wayfinding at an art and design university; classroom residencies for an arts education non-profit
Themes. Access, Variability, Standards
Sources
- Reference 35: Connell, B. R., Jones, M., Mace, R., Mueller, J., Mullick, A., Ostroff, E., Sanford, J., Steinfeld, E., Story, M., & Vanderheiden, G. (1997). The Principles of Universal Design, Version 2.0. Center for Universal Design, North Carolina State University.
- Reference 54: CSA Group. CSA B651: Accessible Design for the Built Environment. Canadian Standards Association.
- Reference 29: Accessible Canada Act, S.C. 2019, c. 10.
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Accessible Documents as Everyday Practice
Structure at the point of authoring, not repair
Practised · resource in development
Headings, reading order, tables, alternative text and contrast across word processing files, presentations, spreadsheets and PDF, treated as authoring practice. Remediation costs more than creation, which places institutional templates among the highest-leverage points of intervention. It also covers what an automated checker establishes and what it leaves untested.
Group. Standards and technical practice
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. PDF/UA (ISO 14289-1); WCAG 2.2; CAN/ASC-EN 301 549:2024
Practised in. Accessible templates (PDFs, forms) in a provincial public-sector organisation; alt text and simplified layouts at a national research laboratory
Themes. Standards, Access, Evaluation
Sources
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Captions, Transcripts and Audio Description
Three artefacts, three sets of users
Practised · resource in development
Captions, transcripts and audio description serve different users and do not substitute for one another. This resource covers caption accuracy and the degradation of automatic captioning on the specialist vocabulary that carries the most meaning, the transcript as an independently useful artefact, standard and extended audio description, and where each belongs in a production workflow and a budget.
Group. Standards and technical practice
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. W3C Media Accessibility User Requirements; WCAG 2.2; multimedia learning research
Practised in. Captioning and multimodal STEM modules with transcripts at a national research laboratory
Themes. Standards, Access
Sources
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Selecting Materials, Textbooks and Platforms
Reading a conformance claim against what a person meets
Practised · resource in development
Publisher platforms, courseware, library resources and open educational resources, and the accessibility settled at the point of selection. It covers reading an Accessibility Conformance Report against what a person using the product encounters, what to ask a vendor, what to ask a colleague already using the tool, and the options remaining when an inaccessible product is already in service.
Group. Standards and technical practice
Home branch. Accessibility · Emerging
Grounding. VPAT and Accessibility Conformance Reports; EN 301 549; CAN/ASC-EN 301 549:2024
Themes. Standards, Policy, Access
Sources
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Making Accessibility More Than Compliance
Access as design quality, not a checklist
Practised · resource in development
Treating accessibility as a dimension of good design rather than a minimum legal standard met at the end. It is the conceptual bridge from inclusive learning design to the accessibility, disability and accommodation branch, and to the engagements offered alongside it.
Group. Standards and technical practice
Home branch. Universal Design for Learning · Emerging
Grounding. WCAG; UDL; inclusive design
Themes. Access
Sources
- Reference 15: W3C (2023). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. W3C Recommendation.
- Reference 2: CAST (2024). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines, version 3.0.
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Evaluating Whether Design Reduced Barriers
Closing the UDL cycle with evidence
Practised · resource in development
Measuring whether an inclusive design actually lowered barriers, rather than assuming that it did — ending on rigor rather than aspiration. It belongs to the shared evaluation family that runs across the practice.
Group. Standards and technical practice
Home branch. Universal Design for Learning · Well established
Grounding. Evaluation design; Universal Design for Learning
Practised in. Accessibility KPIs in a provincial public-sector organisation; accessibility-first evaluation at a national technology education provider; iterative program evaluation at a national research laboratory; equity evaluation of placements at a research university
Themes. Evaluation, Access
Sources
- Reference 55: Kirkpatrick, D. L., & Kirkpatrick, J. D. (2006). Evaluating Training Programs: The Four Levels (3rd ed.). Berrett-Koehler.
- Reference 2: CAST (2024). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines, version 3.0.
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Accessibility Remediation of Mandatory Training at Organisational Scale
The compliance training everyone must take, made usable by everyone
Practised · resource in development
Required training is the one learning experience every employee meets, and it is usually the least accessible thing the organisation owns. This resource covers auditing high-volume mandatory modules against screen-reader and keyboard use, redesigning them, building the templates that keep the next version accessible, and advising the departments that own the content on what conformance actually requires of them. It is the worked example behind the triage protocol.
Group. Standards and technical practice
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. WCAG 2.1/2.2; EN 301 549 and CAN/ASC-EN 301 549; remediation prioritisation
Practised in. A provincial public-sector organisation during a province-wide service transition: audits and redesign of mandatory safety and privacy training for screen-reader and keyboard compatibility; accessible templates and facilitation toolkits; cross-departmental WCAG 2.1 compliance advising
Themes. Standards, Access, Scale
Sources
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Accessible Live and Virtual Facilitation
Access in the room, and in the room that is a screen
Practised · resource in development
Facilitation is where accessibility standards meet a person in real time: captions that lag, a chat that a screen reader cannot follow, a breakout that leaves someone behind, a slide that only works in colour. This resource covers accessible design of live and virtual sessions — platform settings, materials, pacing, participation modes, and in-session audits — so that facilitation is accessible by default rather than repaired on request.
Group. Standards and technical practice
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. WCAG for live content; Media Accessibility User Requirements; adult learning practice
Practised in. A provincial public-sector organisation: province-wide e-facilitation rollout supporting remote learners through accessible technology; a national research laboratory: inclusive facilitation workshops with accessibility audits during live sessions
Themes. Access, Standards, Capacity
Sources
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Sensory Access in Learning Environments
Noise, light, crowding, and the right to leave
Practised · resource in development
Physical accessibility standards address doors, ramps, and reach ranges; they say little about sound, light, density, and the availability of a place to withdraw. This resource covers sensory-informed design of learning spaces and events — quiet hours, noise indicators, lighting options, rest areas, tactile and non-speaking modes — and the piloting that shows which measures the people concerned actually use.
Group. Standards and technical practice
Home branch. Accessibility · Emerging
Grounding. Relational approaches to access and autism (Davidson); universal design of space; co-design
Practised in. A science centre: sensory-friendly exhibit prototypes and quiet-hours programming; an arts education non-profit working in schools: sensory-informed classroom planning (noise-level indicators, soft lighting, rest areas), tactile art kits, sensory avatars and non-speaking arts co-designed with children and teachers
Themes. Access, Standards, Disability studies
Sources
- Reference 54: CSA Group. CSA B651: Accessible Design for the Built Environment. Canadian Standards Association.
- Reference 35: Connell, B. R., Jones, M., Mace, R., Mueller, J., Mullick, A., Ostroff, E., Sanford, J., Steinfeld, E., Story, M., & Vanderheiden, G. (1997). The Principles of Universal Design, Version 2.0. Center for Universal Design, North Carolina State University.
- Reference 71: Davidson, J. (2010). “‘It cuts both ways’: A relational approach to access and accommodation for autism.” Social Science & Medicine, 70(2), 305–312.
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Accessibility Review
Four bodies of knowledge held in view at once
Published resource
How to review a learning environment while holding four bodies of knowledge in view at once: conformance standards, Universal Design for Learning, disability studies, and the systems that decide what gets built. It sets out the stages of a review, the decisions it turns on, and why its findings reach further than a surface-level compliance check.
Group. Standards and technical practice
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. WCAG; UDL; disability studies; systems knowledge
Practised in. Mandatory-training audits in a provincial public-sector organisation; live-session audits at a national research laboratory; an accessibility-first evaluation framework at a national technology education provider
Themes. Access, Evaluation
Sources
- Reference 15: W3C (2023). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. W3C Recommendation.
- Reference 2: CAST (2024). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines, version 3.0.
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Interpreting, Live Captioning, Note-Taking and Alternate Formats
Access services as service design
Practised · resource in development
Sign language interpreting, real-time captioning, note-taking and alternate-format production each depend on providers, lead times and preparation. The challenge is that a service arranged late, or without the course materials, may not provide the access it was approved to provide. This resource sets out what each service does and for whom, what has to be requested and how far ahead, the legal basis for producing alternate formats in Canada, and what an instructor contributes to making each service effective.
Group. Standards and technical practice
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. W3C Media Accessibility User Requirements; Marrakesh Treaty; Copyright Act (Canada), s. 32; Eldridge (SCC, 1997); PDF/UA
Themes. Standards, Access, Accommodation
Sources
- Reference 59: W3C (2015). Media Accessibility User Requirements. W3C Working Group Note.
W3C (2015). Media Accessibility User Requirements. W3C Working Group Notehttps://www.w3.org/TR/media-accessibility-reqs/
- Reference 45: World Intellectual Property Organization (2013). Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled.
- Reference 81: Copyright Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-42, s. 32 — reproduction in alternate format for persons with perceptual disabilities.
- Reference 89: Eldridge v. British Columbia (Attorney General), [1997] 3 S.C.R. 624 — sign language interpretation as a condition of equal access to a public service.
- Reference 58: ISO 14289-1:2014. Document Management Applications — Electronic Document File Format Enhancement for Accessibility — Part 1: Use of ISO 32000-1 (PDF/UA-1). International Organization for Standardization.
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Delivering Accommodated Exams in a Learning Platform
Timing, attempts and assistive technology
Practised · resource in development
When an exam is delivered in a learning platform, the accommodation has to be configured there as well. The challenge is that platform settings, lockdown browsers and remote proctoring can conflict with the assistive technology a student uses. This resource covers individual time and attempt adjustments, question formats and their compatibility with screen readers, magnification and dictation, and what to verify before an exam opens. It includes a test routine that an instructor or exam team can run in advance with the student’s own set-up.
Group. Standards and technical practice
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. WCAG 2.2; CAN/ASC-EN 301 549:2024; construct validity (Messick); research on extended time (Lovett)
Themes. Standards, Assessment, Access
Sources
- Reference 15: W3C (2023). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. W3C Recommendation.
W3C (2023). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. W3C Recommendationhttps://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/
- Reference 61: CAN/ASC-EN 301 549:2024. Accessibility Requirements for ICT Products and Services (EN 301 549:2021, IDT). Accessibility Standards Canada, published 31 May 2024, available free of charge.
CAN/ASC-EN 301 549:2024. Accessibility Requirements for ICT Products and Services (EN 301 549:2021, IDT).…https://accessible.canada.ca/creating-accessibility-standards/canasc-en-301-5492024-accessibility-requirements-ict-products-and-services
- Reference 37: Messick, S. (1995). “Validity of Psychological Assessment: Validation of Inferences from Persons’ Responses and Performances as Scientific Inquiry into Score Meaning.” American Psychologist, 50(9), 741–749.
- Reference 79: Lovett, B. J. (2010). “Extended Time Testing Accommodations for Students With Disabilities: Answers to Five Fundamental Questions.” Review of Educational Research, 80(4), 611–638.
Lovett, B. J. (2010). “Extended Time Testing Accommodations for Students With Disabilities: Answers…https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654310364063
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Adapting Test Papers to Alternate Formats
A secure, time-critical document in an accessible format
Practised · resource in development
A test paper has to be converted to an accessible format quickly and without being disclosed. The challenge is to do that while keeping it the same assessment. This resource covers preparing a paper for a screen reader such as JAWS, for text-to-speech such as Kurzweil, for dictation such as Dragon, and for large print and braille; describing a figure without supplying the answer; keeping the paper secure during conversion; and checking that the converted paper measures what the original measures.
Group. Standards and technical practice
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. PDF/UA (ISO 14289-1); WCAG 2.2; Copyright Act (Canada), s. 32; HAAT model (Cook & Polgar); construct validity (Messick)
Themes. Standards, Access, Accommodation
Sources
- Reference 58: ISO 14289-1:2014. Document Management Applications — Electronic Document File Format Enhancement for Accessibility — Part 1: Use of ISO 32000-1 (PDF/UA-1). International Organization for Standardization.
- Reference 15: W3C (2023). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. W3C Recommendation.
W3C (2023). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. W3C Recommendationhttps://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/
- Reference 81: Copyright Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-42, s. 32 — reproduction in alternate format for persons with perceptual disabilities.
- Reference 16: Cook, A. M., & Polgar, J. M. (2015). Assistive Technologies: Principles and Practice (4th ed.). Elsevier — the source of the Human Activity Assistive Technology (HAAT) model.
- Reference 37: Messick, S. (1995). “Validity of Psychological Assessment: Validation of Inferences from Persons’ Responses and Performances as Scientific Inquiry into Score Meaning.” American Psychologist, 50(9), 741–749.
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