Accessible Syllabus

Include a personalized accessibility statement on your syllabus. The syllabus itself should be formatted for accessibility in the same manner as any other digital document.

Formatting Your Syllabus for Accessibility

How you format and structure your document can make your syllabus easier to scan (a usability factor) and make the information accessible for adaptive technology users (an accessibility factor). Format your syllabus using these six techniques:

  • Structure the document logically using headings
  • Embed descriptive, discrete hyperlinks rather than cutting and pasting the full URL into the document
  • Use the bullets or numbered lists (rather than manually creating lists or enclosing lists in long paragraphs) wherever doing so makes sense,
  • Ensure a strong color contrast between foreground and background anywhere you use color, and ensure that color is never the sole means of providing emphasis on important material: always use boldface type + color to denote important information
  • Provide a caption or alt text for any images you include on your syllabus
  • Since screen readers cannot tell when important text is bolded, place a statement in front of the bolded text. "This is important: ...." to provide two emphasis cues


Below is a video tutorial on using the Accessible Syllabus Template (linked below the video for download).