Best Practices for
AI-Enabled Inclusive EdTech Design

As a product leader, you often ask yourself: Is the user experience intuitive? Does the UX keep learners engaged or distract them?  Can the UX contribute to maximizing the adoption of your products?

While product leaders mainly focus on answering these questions to make their products stand out, one area often overlooked is accessibility. Even though edtech has revolutionized learning methods and has grown significantly over the years, edtech products struggle with accessibility challenges. Inadequate text alternatives, poor keyboard navigation, and limited customizable interfaces can hinder usability and inclusiveness. Additionally, implementing features like screen reader compatibility or adaptable interfaces, and conducting audits require significant time, resources, and rethinking of product design.

But we’re not in the old days anymore. AI is a significant reducer of time and effort required to bridge accessibility gaps.  It can enhance keyboard navigation, automate the generation of text alternatives, and personalize the user interface to an extent. This reduces some of the manual effort required to meet accessibility standards.

Accessibility in edtech products has evolved from a nice-to-have to a necessity. With regulatory requirements tightening, institutions and buyers are increasingly vigilant about the products they integrate into their edtech ecosystems. Product leaders must adapt by reshaping and enhancing their offerings to meet rigorous accessibility standards. This blog aims to guide edtech product leaders on staying compliant with evolving regulations, leveraging AI-powered solutions to streamline efforts, save time, and effectively redesign products for improved accessibility.

In edtech, accessibility is key to ensuring no student is left behind, making it essential for creating an inclusive learning environment. Hence, creating AI-enabled inclusive design will allow product leaders to not only streamline the development process but also create and develop more inclusive and user-friendly educational tools. But that’s not it, there’s more to consider when it comes to accessibility.

 

The POUR Principles of Accessibility

The core principles of accessibility revolve around creating inclusive environments that enable all individuals, to access and engage with information and services effectively, regardless of disabilities and the accommodations which they may require. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) consist of four main principles to help developers create content with accessibility in mind. These principles are stated as follows:

1. Perceivable

The first principle emphasizes the importance of presenting content in ways that all users can perceive i.e. understand, regardless of their sensory abilities. When it comes to edtech products, this means ensuring that audio information is also accessible to users with hearing disabilities, by providing transcripts or subtitles. Adhering to the Perceivable design component will ensure that your content is presented with appropriate accommodations for people with disabilities – without compromising the integrity of information or structure.

2. Operable

The Operable principle states that the user interface components and navigation must be operable i.e. all users should be able to navigate and interact with the interface without facing any challenges. Here, operability could mean many things, including but not limited to ensuring that users can navigate using a keyboard alone if they cannot use a mouse, and using speech recognition to find files, folders, and features.

It also involves managing focus control so that the users can navigate through the content logically. Navigation buttons, accessible forms, and interactive elements serve as crucial factors as they must be easy to operate without confusion. EdTech products that can give control over timing elements, such as extending time limits, ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to engage with the educational content.

3. Understandable

The “U” in the POUR principle stands for understandable, i.e. it ensures that the information and operations of the user interface must be clear and easy to follow. For EdTech product leaders, this means ensuring that educational tools use simplistic language and can provide instructions to the user in multiple modalities (Eg – text, visuals, and audio).

This approach accommodates diverse learning styles and user needs. To implement this, product leaders should prioritize integrating clear instructional design elements and offering real-time feedback in ways that are accessible to all learners.

4. Robust

Within the context of EdTech, specifically the POUR principle, robust means ensuring that educational tools are fully compatible with assistive technologies and can easily adapt to new advancements. EdTech product leaders must focus on maintaining strict coding standards, using semantic markup, and ensuring cross-browser and device compatibility.

This requires regular testing and updates to ensure that content and platforms remain accessible and functional over time. Building a robust system allows the product to support users with disabilities and ensures the long-term viability of the EdTech solution as technology evolves.

Understanding these core principles helps us all to create more effective and usable tools for all learners. Yet, the true challenge lies in incorporating these principles into practice. Implementing best practices to incorporate these principles is crucial for achieving true accessibility!

 

5 Best Practices To Incorporate Accessibility into Digital Products

For EdTech leaders, ensuring accessibility is more imperative now than ever given the new updates to Title II of the ADA Here are five key practices to streamline your product development process and meet accessibility standards efficiently.

Accessible AI-Generated Content

AI-generated content breaks down barriers for learners with disabilities by creating accessible solutions including but not limited to alt text for images, closed captions for videos, and transcripts for videos and audio Using AI can mean content creation that is more efficient, cost-effective, and accessible than ever.

However, edtech companies should also remain cautious when using AI human review is always necessary to ensure accuracy and accessibility.

Regular Usability Testing with Diverse Groups

Regular usability testing is essential to identify usability barriers that can affect learners with disabilities and build a more inclusive learning environment. Previously, usability testing often lacked diversity and focused on a narrow base that could not fully represent the broader range of potential users.

Conducting regular testing with native testers, particularly those with disabilities, is a must to ensure products work seamlessly in real-world conditions. Product teams should continually learn from real user feedback, adapt to evolving accessibility standards, and refine their approach to meet the needs of all users.

Integration with Assistive Technology

Historically, assistive technologies were standalone features rather than core design elements. It is vital to integrate your technology from the start.

Since the time AI has entered the picture, it can continuously learn from user interactions and enhance the effectiveness of many features including speech-to-text and text-to-speech over time. This speeds up the development process and ensures that the assistive technologies evolve to meet the needs of a diverse user base.

Automated and Manual Accessibility Testing Tools

Automated and manual accessibility testing tools offer a comprehensive approach to identifying and addressing potential barriers. Automated testing tools can quickly scan for common issues, such as missing alt text or improper keyboard navigation, providing immediate feedback and allowing for rapid adjustments. On the other hand, manual testing offers a more detailed evaluation, focusing on the user experience and capturing subtleties that automated tools might miss.

Using AI-powered automated tools and along with manual testing ensures that accessibility is thoroughly assessed from both a technical and a human perspective. This way edtech products can maintain accessibility standards that accommodate the needs of all students.

Adherence to Established Accessibility Guidelines

Guidelines like WCAG are crucial as they provide a standardized framework for digital products to be accessible to all.

With AI, this process can quickly identify areas where a product may fall short of achieving WCAG success criteria, offering real-time suggestions for improvement, helping speed up the compliance process, and staying updated with the latest standards.

 

As AI evolves, it opens the doors for edtech providers to craft more personalized, adaptive, and accessible learning experiences that can better meet the diverse requirements of a broader audience. If you are looking to partner with a good brand that can help you reshape the way people look at education, you’re on the right page. Contact us today, we are here to help!