Evaluate an online course by completing the learner's whole journey: sign in, find a lesson, understand its content, answer an activity and submit the result. A usable opening screen tells you little about an inaccessible quiz at the end.
This guide helps educators, buyers and course owners find and document practical barriers. Use a test account and representative lessons. Record the course version, browser, operating system and assistive technology. A short walkthrough supports investigation; a conformance claim requires a defined standard, scope and fuller evaluation.
Choose a representative learning journey
Select a lesson with the interactions people must actually complete. Include account creation or institutional sign-in, a video, a downloadable file, a scored question and the completion record. If the course offers different activity types, test each type rather than assuming one accessible lesson represents them all.
Write the intended learning outcome in plain language. Then ask whether the interface adds an unrelated obstacle. If the goal is understanding a concept, requiring precise dragging with a mouse may test motor control instead. Discuss an equivalent interaction with the course owner while preserving the intended assessment.
Follow the route with a keyboard
- Put the pointer aside. Use Tab and Shift+Tab to move between controls; use the controls' standard keyboard actions to activate them.
- Check whether you can see the focused item and whether the order follows a sensible route through the screen.
- Open menus, dialogs and media controls. Confirm you can leave them and return to the lesson without a pointer.
- Answer an activity, correct an answer and continue. Record any control that is skipped, traps focus or loses your place after the page changes.
W3C's Easy Checks provides an initial review method and explains its limits. Follow with testing by people experienced with the assistive technologies the learners use. A keyboard pass and a screen-reader pass reveal different parts of the experience.
Check whether the lesson's meaning survives
- Structure: meaningful headings and reading order should help a learner move between sections and return to a particular explanation.
- Images and diagrams: the relevant information needs an appropriate text explanation or other equivalent representation. “Chart” alone leaves the trend unexplained.
- Video and audio: review captions for accuracy and timing, identify meaningful visual information absent from the soundtrack, and check the transcript and player controls.
- Documents: open the actual download. Check selectable text, headings, tables and reading order; a PDF icon says nothing about the file's accessibility.
- Magnification: enlarge text and reduce the window width. Verify that instructions and controls remain available without being clipped.
Use W3C's audio and video accessibility guidance to plan captions, descriptions and transcripts around the media's content. A transcript supports review and search; timing and visual information may require additional treatment for the video experience.
Test errors, timing and completion
Submit a deliberately incomplete practice form. Check whether the error identifies the problem and lets the learner correct it while retaining valid answers. Confirm required fields and question groups have understandable labels. W3C's forms tutorial explains labels, instructions, validation and notifications.
Inspect time limits and the available extension or accommodation process with the course owner. Then complete a sample assessment and verify the result in the learner record. The final confirmation, score, certificate and any feedback must also be accessible. If support is needed, test the contact route itself.
Use the course barrier log to record expected behavior, observed behavior, learner impact, owner and retest result. Keep account passwords and private learner records out of reports.
Ask the vendor for scoped evidence
Request an accessibility report for the exact product version and delivery configuration. Ask which course content, embedded tools, media players and third-party assessments were evaluated; which browser/assistive-technology combinations were used; and what remains unresolved. Agree on remediation owners and dates, then retest the affected learner journey after changes.
Section 508 concerns information and communication technology developed, procured, maintained or used by U.S. federal agencies, subject to its applicable provisions. Other organizations may have different obligations. The Section508.gov laws and policies overview is a starting point for the federal scope. Keep a vendor's technical claim, a usability result and a legal determination distinct.
For a concrete account of evaluating course content with assistive technology, see GSA's accessible e-learning development and testing example. Make accessibility part of content changes and future releases so a passed lesson remains usable as it evolves.
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Assistive Technology: Practical Guides for Everyday Access
Source links appear beside the topics they support. Product instructions and service arrangements were reviewed on October 4, 2026. Check the linked documentation for your exact version, device and location.