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“That’s what I love about accessibility. It’s better design for all.” – Saffy O’Brien, Training Manager at Omniplex Learning, explains why we should all be thinking about accessibility in L&D.
Global Accessibility Awareness Day (21st May) is a good reminder to make a change. Even a small one.
Because in 2026, there are still web pages that aren’t keyboard friendly. There are still adverts with the wrong colour contrast. I went to the cinema a couple of weeks ago and there was an ad playing with white subtitles. I struggled to read it, and I’ve got good vision. Sadly, sometimes things like that don’t get fixed as those of us without accessibility needs don’t feel the frustration firsthand. We’re not affected, so it’s not important to us. And it should be, because good learning design should be for everybody.
In L&D, accessibility still gets treated as a bolt-on. An afterthought that gets squeezed in as a checkpoint at the end, rather than something that’s considered from the very beginning. And that needs to change.
Who needs accessible learning?
A lot of people look around their organisation and think: we don’t have anyone with accessibility needs. And I’d challenge that.
Think about hidden disabilities. You may have a lot of people in your workforce who have accessibility needs but don’t necessarily disclose them. According to Parliament, one in four people in the UK live with a disability, so if you’re not designing accessibly, you risk isolating a large part of your audience.
Temporary impairments and situational difficulties need to be considered too. What would happen if you went out mountain biking tomorrow and hurt your wrist? Suddenly you can’t use a mouse. You’re relying on keyboard navigation, and if the course hasn’t been built with that in mind, you’re stuck. Or consider someone in a loud room without a headset. If there are no subtitles, they’re excluded too.
And then there are the people who simply prefer certain features. I love watching video with subtitles; if I find something on a streaming platform and the subtitles don’t appear, I’m frustrated, and I’m not even in a position where I need them.
The things we do to make learning design more accessible will appeal to a greater audience anyway, because they tap into everybody else too. That’s what I love about accessibility. It’s better design for all.
👉 Read next: Common accessibility mistakes (including how to fix them)
When learning doesn’t work for everyone
If you were a learner who couldn’t access the training, you would feel frustrated. You would feel that the company doesn’t recognise your needs. You wouldn’t feel valued. You’d feel isolated, like you’re not good enough. And that’s an awful situation for an employee to feel, that they’re not being heard, they’re not being looked after. Employees should feel valued and supported with what they need to do their job. We should be empowering our learners to have the best experience for any training.
Accessibility is not just about wanting to be a better employer either. If your course isn’t accessible and you’re working with delegates in EU member states, it can be reported and there is legal recourse. Beyond the legal risk, there is an operational one too: if essential learning doesn’t work for someone, that person simply cannot do their job.
Common accessibility myths in L&D
The biggest misconception about accessible eLearning is that it takes too much time to create. And, yes, if you think about adding it on after, then this may be a problem. But if you bake it in from the start, that’s time well spent at the planning stage.
Another misconception is that it’s just too hard. That you couldn’t possibly make your courses more accessible. That’s just not true, not anymore. In L&D, we’re not creating web pages from scratch; that’s what the WCAG guidelines were originally designed for. We’re now relying on our authoring software to give us the features we need.
I’d recommend you learn the guidelines, of course, because most checkers only cover a certain portion and some author knowledge is still required. But there is a lot of help available now, for example, Articulate 360’s in-built accessibility checker is a good place to start.
Quick tips for designing accessible learning
1.Plan across these four key areas
When planning any piece of digital learning, think across four areas and ask what you have done to help in each: visual impairments, motor impairments, audio impairments and cognitive differences, including neurodiversity, ADHD and autism.
2. Give learners control
A settings screen at the start of a course, where learners can decide whether audio auto plays, whether subtitles are always on, or what background colour they prefer, can make a significant difference. Dyslexic learners, for example, can find a white background and black text quite jarring, so a pastel alternative is much easier on the eye. Tailored features like this help the people who need them, while also improving the experience for everyone else too.
3. Don’t strip out interactions, redesign them
A lot of people think that designing accessibly means taking all the interactions out and simplifying everything. You can be quite creative if you want to be, though. Drag and drops, for example, are notoriously difficult for keyboard users, yet in Storyline you could turn a drag and drop into a motion path that is fully keyboard accessible. You have to be a little more considered, but there are loads of examples out there that can help.
4. Test in the LMS, not just your authoring tool
After the build, test it properly. Not just in your authoring tool, but in the LMS where learners will use it. Audit reports will test the LMS as well as the content, and this can sometimes lead to failures. The learner’s experience starts from the moment they log in, so you need to consider accessibility as a whole.
Start somewhere
Accessibility is a journey, and we’re all in it together. I wouldn’t expect everyone to have it all figured out at once. I would just want people to be empowered to make changes, big or small, and to have accessibility at their forefront.
Even if you make one change, it will have a ripple effect. Add captions and transcripts on audio and video. Book onto an accessibility course. Hold an accessibility workshop in your company and find out what your workforce really needs.
If we all start small and make those changes, we are quite powerful altogether. After all, learning should be for everybody. We should be as inclusive and accessible as we can be.
About the author
Saffy O’Brien has spent over 20 years in the L&D industry, and as Training Manager at Omniplex Learning, she leads a range of expert-backed courses. Accessibility is where her passion truly lies. It’s a subject she knows inside out and one she’s channelled into our Articulate 360 eLearning course focussing on inclusive design. Outside of work she loves open water swimming, especially in the winter.
Find out more about our Articulate 360: eLearning accessibility training course