5.1. What Is The edX Accessibility Best Practices Guidance Based On?#

edX measures and evaluates accessibility primarily using the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 (05 June 2018). All features that are merged into edX repositories are expected to conform to Level AA of this specification and satisfy the requirements outlined in the edX Website Accessibility Policy.

As the edX platform is strongly based on well-accepted HTML5 markup standards and WAI-ARIA, we expect that learners who require additional accessibility tools such as screen readers and screen magnifiers will ejoy strong compatibility. We test regularly with the most popular accessibility tools.

In addition, our guidance is based on principles of universal design (usable by all, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Course teams who build courses based on these principles create an inclusive experience that considers the diverse set of learning styles and needs of all learners, including learners with disabilities, learners whose native language is not English, and learners with technical issues such as low bandwidth internet or no access to audio.

To supplement the accessibility of the materials you can create within our platform, we recommend that you engage the resources available at your institution to support learners with disabilities. Most institutions offer disability support services and information technology resources that provide accessibility advice and support. These trained professionals typically provide the following services, which may be equally applicable to courses that are taught online:

For more information, see the following topics.