Accessible educational resources – what does it mean in face of the European Accessibility Act?
Nowadays more and more areas of life are adapted to the needs of people with impairments – so that they can use transport, services and entertainment on an equal footing. It is no different when it comes to education.
In a few words – all the educational materials created since 2025 will have to cover 4 main principles of accessibility according to the WCAG rules, as EAA (European Accessibility Act) complies with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 level AA. It makes the implementation of the WCAG 2.1 to a newly created product inevitable.
It also means that educational publishers should prepare for 2025 and be ready to implement solutions that will allow them to create accessible educational materials, thus helping everyone to be able to use the resources equally.
An example is the extensive ELT platform – Pearson English Connect. The course content was prepared using our authoring tool – mAuthor, equipped with a powerful engine for creating content compliant with WCAG 2.1.
It means that EAA compliant materials must be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.
Perceivable
Information and user interface components must be presented to users to perceive the information being presented.
Operable
User interface components and navigation must be operable. The interface cannot require interaction that a user cannot perform.
Understandable
The information and operation of the web and mobile user interface must be understandable to people of differing abilities.
Robust
The content must have the ability to be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies, and have the ability to adapt to new user agents.
What specific rules will publishers have to meet in light of the new regulations?
What should look like EEA and WCAG compliant resources?
What solutions are available on the market to help to create such materials effectively?
Find all the answers in our comprehensive (and free) guide prepared directly for educational publishers.
