Blog Post Content

By Sara Spangenberg
Editor, MindEdge Learning

The other day, I heard a statistic that I thought was so ridiculous that it must be fake.

But a quick search proved it to me: according to the book Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Adult Outcome and Its Predictors, by Lily Hechtman, only 5% of college learners with ADHD will graduate.

As an instructional designer, this shocked me. If I learned that a course I’d designed was failing 95% of learners, I would consider it a disaster. And things don’t get better if you compare that number to its neurotypical counterpart: according to the National Center for Education Statistics, the graduation rate for full-time learners who do not have ADHD have is approximately 64%.

These numbers raise an important question: What can instructional designers do to make their courses more accessible and successful for every learner, not just those with ADHD?

Universal Design is a process for designing products that are accessible to all users, regardless of age, disability, or other factors. Architect and designer Ronald Mace coined the term in 1997, and Universal Design remains in wide use today.

Many instructional designers think of accessibility as an issue that can be addressed at the end of a project, after they have already created a course that meets the needs of “average” learners—that is, those with no disabilities. But this mindset ultimately fails all learners.

Thinking about accessibility from the start and applying Universal Design principles throughout the design process, rather than just at the end, will benefit all users. To cite an example from outside the realm of instructional design: If you’ve ever seen a bright red-and-green color scheme on a website, you know how unpleasant it is to look at. Designing a website that does not include such a color scheme would be helpful to everyone—not just those with red-green color blindness.

To benefit all users, Mace’s Seven Principles of Universal Design detail the seven key accessibility issues that every designer needs to address. While many of them may sound obvious, applying these seven principles to digital spaces can be tricky. Let’s take a closer look:

• Equitable Use

  In a physical space, equitable use might look like an automatic door. Regardless of a person’s mobility, strength, or age, an automatic sliding door will open to them and allow them to access a new space.

  In online learning, equitable instructional design means thinking about how learners with different abilities will perceive your content. Navigate a page you just designed using a screenreader, or with a color filter turned on, to see how well the information comes across outside your typical visual medium. Strive to create an equal experience for every learner—but when the experiences can’t be perfectly equal, try to make them at least comparable, even if they are presented in different forms.

• Flexibility in Use

  On this score, most online learning excels by its very nature. Asynchronous online learning is inherently flexible, available whenever and wherever a learner wants it to be.
  But you can encourage even more flexibility by providing material in multiple formats—for instance, if you include a video, provide a transcript. Make it easy for learners to access information.

• Simple and Intuitive Use

  When designing a webpage, balancing aesthetics with ease of use can be a struggle. In online learning, I would argue that ease of use should always be the number-one priority, with aesthetics only considered at the end of the project.

  Here’s where many of the online design principles we’re all familiar with come into play: avoid big blocks of text, use clear language, and always provide objectives and relevant instructions. Consider how often and how precisely your learners need to click on different parts of the screen to see the material, and don’t let visual appeal get in the way of accessing knowledge.

• Perceptible Information

  Even if your LMS is a commonly used one, don’t assume that your learners know where to go to get the information they need. Always provide clear instructions, describe the areas in which information will be kept, and provide contact information in case learners have questions.

• Tolerance for Error

  Including a tolerance for error in online learning might seem counterintuitive. After all, at some point learners must be assessed, and errors cannot be tolerated when a passing grade is on the line. Still, we should avoid penalizing learners for accidental actions or for learning by trial-and-error. Before the final assessment, make sure that learners can practice and make as many mistakes as they want or need to. Allow games and exercises to be reset and tried again and allow learners to edit their responses to open-ended questions.

• Low Physical Effort and Size and Space for Approach in Use. These two issues are perhaps the least relevant in a digital space, but they can still be applied to online learning. Use text that is large enough that anyone can read it and optimize web pages for mobile devices. Make accessing information simpler by limiting the amount of navigation needed to reach it. In general, don’t force your learners to fight through pages by clicking on random boxes to find their material.

Is my newfound determination to make my courses friendlier for learners with ADHD going to have an effect on their low college graduation rate? Well, I’m just one person, so probably not. But it might make my future content just a bit more digestible for every single learner who accesses it.

At the end of the day, universal design is better for everyone. When we design for the extremes, we make content that every single person can easily access.

For a complete listing of MindEdge’s courses about online learning, click here.

Copyright © 2024 MindEdge, Inc.