accessibility

Educational publishers are important stakeholders in the educational landscape, but you don’t hear much about them, and rarely do you hear what they are doing right. One area where publishers are doing a lot right is accessibility. Accessibility is usually considered within the context of assistive technology, but it’s actually way more than that. Accessibility is a broad term that carries a lot of meaning—ranging from technical requirements for web content to less physical functions such as developing or producing content in a way that enables the purpose of the material to transfer to all learners. Making content accessible to all learners goes hand in hand with assistive technology since the material must be written in a way that the technology can make sense of the content. It’s very confusing to hear a caption for a photo read as part of a story, instead of listening to a description of what the image is.  Sound familiar? As I learned years ago in publishing, content is king or queen! Like Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup, Accessible content and assistive technology go great together. Both have the same educational goals: to ensure that all students have access to the same material, and can work with the content the way they need to learn. Who wants to spend time guessing at what’s in a… | Read More »Publishers Keep an Eye on Content so All Learners Can Succeed: Accessibility