Beyond Compliance: Creating Exceptional Screen Reader Experiences in Learning Design

What Does Your Content Sound Like?

Have you ever wondered what your learning content sounds like to someone using a screen reader? As experienced learning designers, you know accessibility matters. But the gap between technical compliance and truly effective screen reader experiences can be substantial.

Screen readers process your content differently than visual readers do. Without proper structure, even WCAG-compliant learning can become frustrating or confusing to navigate.

In this session, you'll experience how a screen reader "sees" your content. You'll listen to a screen reader navigate through an e-learning course. This reveals both successful accessibility and hidden barriers that compliance checklists often miss.

We'll tackle the challenge of alt text together. You'll move beyond basic descriptions to learn strategic approaches for different image types. You'll learn which details create clarity and which ones create cognitive overload. You'll understand why seemingly helpful practices like mentioning colors or providing exhaustive descriptions can actually reduce accessibility.

You'll also discover how to properly label interactive elements and hide decorative content. This creates a cleaner experience for screen reader users without sacrificing visual design. Your visuals will remain intact for sighted users while becoming more navigable for everyone.

By the end of this session, you'll be able to:

• Structure your content using techniques that work for screen readers, including how to think critically about headings, groups of links or buttons, and other elements that affect navigation.
• Make strategic decisions about which elements need labels or alt text and which should be marked decorative—should that background image be mentioned if it contains interesting activities, but doesn’t add to your message?
• Write contextually appropriate alt text for different types of instructional images—when is a picture worth 1,000 words, and when does less equal more?
• Balance visual design needs with screen reader accessibility—does your visual design have to suffer in the name of compliance?

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