Brightspace Accessibility Tip: Headings

This is the first in a series of blog posts that is a follow-up to my recent Why Accessibility is Important post where I wrote,

Making accessible content doesn’t have to be complicated... Even small efforts make a big difference. Not only will your materials support students with disabilities, but you’ll also improve the learning experience for everyone. Plus, if you reuse your course content each semester, accessibility updates you make now will continue to pay off in the future.

Brightspace, our Learning Management System (LMS), is designed with accessibility in mind. However, it is the responsibility of the instructor and/or course designer to ensure their course content is formatted using best practices for accessibility; including the use of good heading structure, text formatting, contrast and color, descriptive links, alternative text, tables, lists, etc.

This first post focuses on headings. A good heading structure is an important accessibility consideration. Headings should be used to indicate main points and sub-points on a page. Like an outline, heading levels should appear in logical and consistent order.

Headings allow screen reader users to easily navigate through the page and can make the page more usable for everyone.

When creating documents, many people do not use true "heading styles." For example, when creating a heading, they simply change the font type, enlarge the font size, change the color, make it bold, etc. When this is done, the document has no real structure that can be detected by a screen reader program. While visual learners can scan the page for text that stands out from the rest, users who rely on a screen reader are not able to "see" these elements.

IMPORTANT: When creating heading styles always use the proper heading level. Create uniform headings so that a screen reader can navigate the content and can understand how it is structured. Watch this short video for an explanation of heading structures and reading order.

The correct way to provide structure for accessibility purposes is to use heading styles. Listed below are instructions for applying heading styles in MS Word, PowerPoint, Google Docs, Google Slides, and the Brightspace Editor.

Add heading styles in MS Word document:

1. Click on the Home tab.
2. Highlight the text.
3. Click on the appropriate heading selector in the styles panel (e.g. Heading 1 for top-level heading; Heading 2 for a subheading of the top-level heading, etc.).

Add heading styles in PowerPoint:

Using slide layouts will ensure that files have correctly structured headings and lists, and proper reading order. To assign a Slide Layout:

1. Click on the Home tab.
2. Click on New Slide.
3. Choose the desired layout from the slide options menu.

Add heading styles in Google Docs:

1. Highlight the text.
2. Click on the appropriate heading selector in the styles panel (e.g. Heading 1 for top-level heading; Heading 2 for a subheading of the top-level heading, etc.).

Add heading styles in Google Slides:

Use predefined layouts instead of manually created text boxes, because the layouts are specially coded to work well with adaptive technologies like screen readers. To assign a Slide Layout:

1. Click on Slide --> Apply layout button.
2. Choose the desired layout from the slide options menu.

Add heading styles in the Brightspace Editor:

1. Highlight the text.
2. Select the proper heading level from the Format dropdown menu (e.g. Heading 1 for top-level heading; Heading 2 for a subheading of the top-level heading, etc.).

Heading structures are essential for organizing documents into logical, hierarchical outlines, which improve readability for all users and ensure accessibility for those using screen readers.

Image credit: "Digital Literacy for visually impaired" by IAPB/VISION 2020 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0