How Do I Make Course Materials Accessible in Australia?

Australian course accessibility sits within the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005. The Standards address access to education on the same basis and reasonable adjustments, including consultation. They do not themselves prescribe WCAG 2.1 AA or adopt the US Title II dates.

Inventory the learning tasks

Include readings, lecture slides, assessments, laboratory material, LMS pages, media, spreadsheets and assigned external resources. Identify the information and interactions students need, rather than checking file format alone. Involve disability services, learning designers and the student where consultation is required.

Create usable source material

Use semantic headings and lists, simple meaningful tables, informative link text and sufficient contrast. Add meaningful alternatives for informative figures and avoid color-only instructions. Mark purely decorative elements appropriately. Check the resulting file and intended assistive-technology environment; an export option does not guarantee preserved structure.

Review media and assessment access

Provide accurate synchronized captions where needed and transcripts for audio-only information. Describe essential visual information not conveyed in narration. W3C's caption guidance explains quality and authoring considerations; assess the applicable legal, policy and student requirements rather than treating unreviewed automatic captions as sufficient.

Test the complete assessment task for keyboard and assistive-technology use, clear instructions and permitted adjustments. Check the actual LMS tools enabled by the institution; Ally is an additional service, not a universal built-in Canvas feature.

Use institutional support

Library teams can obtain better sources and publisher alternatives. Learning designers and accessibility specialists can help with complex structure and interactions. IT and procurement can evaluate platforms and contracts. Provide a clear reporting route and timely support for barriers.

Aelira Core is beta software. Supported workflows can apply eligible partial fixes and record outcomes, but some inputs need manual work or cannot produce a downloadable remediated file. Review the actual saved output, unresolved findings and content preservation before publication. Automated scores describe implemented checks rather than accessibility conformance. Inspect the public source and release documentation and evaluate a representative authorized sample before planning a rollout.

Evaluate the actual saved material against the institution's technical target and necessary manual checks. Australian obligations require their own assessment; this guide does not guarantee that a tool purchase or scanner result satisfies them.