Create accessible worksheets for your students in 4 steps 📝

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In a class of 25 students, about 4 of them are most likely experiencing a disability in their everyday life. This might include your classroom.

One way to make your class more equitable for all of your students is by making sure that you create worksheets with accessibility in mind. Something seemingly small, like changing the font, can make a huge difference.

Learn to build accessible worksheets to help all of your students succeed. 🙂

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Many teachers have students who use a variety of assistive supports and technologies at school or at home which may include:

• eye glasses, magnifiers, and screen reading software

• hearing aids, closed-captioning, and transcript copies

• mobility controllers and fidget devices

• large-print or braille display books

You can start small and make a high impact:

• Think about class activities that need worksheets for next month

• Explore Open Educational Resources that have pre-made worksheets

• Pick one worksheet and make it more accessible for your students as you learn the basics

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For all worksheets:

• Select accessible typefaces, such as Times New Roman or Arial fonts

• Apply 16-point font size for more comfortable reading

• Select high-contrast colors between background and text

• Use bullet points or small paragraphs to chunk information

For your digital worksheets:

• Replace entire website links with meaningful text to avoid confusion

• Write detailed image descriptions or alternative text descriptions

• Create descriptive file names with lowercase and hyphens to name files

• Consider checking for accessibility for Word or PDF files

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Run quick and basic accessibility tests on your worksheets with:

• Built-in Accessibility Check tools you can find in programs like Word or Adobe Acrobat

• Comprehensive PDF tools such as the PDF Accessibility Checker (PAC)

• Color contrast tools like Web Accessibility in Mind (WebAIM) Contrast Checker

After you run tests on your worksheets, you can:

• Apply the easy suggestions first in the Built-in Accessibility Check tools

• Consult with an accessibility specialist at your work if possible

• Consider exploring how to meetWeb Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

• Read more from the United States Department of Education's guides

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For your learners, consider making your accessible worksheets available to everyone. Avoid anyone feeling different by giving all students:

• The same physical worksheet for solo or group activities

• The same digital worksheet on your course website

• Class laptops or tablets with assistive technology, if available

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Celebrate your accomplishments and grow your foundations with accessibility: