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Accessibility is a hot topic in online education these days. Despite the increased focus on accessibility, most discussions of creating "accessible" online courses and elearning simply focus on adding alternative text to images and captions to video. In this article, we argue that online educators and workplace learning professionals (including instructors, instructional designers, managers, and administrators) should be thinking beyond compliance and instead thinking about how they can support all learners. We begin by providing an overview of some laws focused on accessibility, we then describe how people struggle learning online at all levels (i.e., compulsory, postsecondary, and workplaces), and then conclude with evidence-based practices on how online educators and workplace learning professionals can support all learners.
INTRODUCTION
Accessibility has become a hot topic in online learning and elearning during the past few years (Burgstahler, 2015; Lederman, 2017; Lee, 2017; Moorefield-Lang et al., 2016). The increased focus on accessibility is due to a host of factors, some of which include the continued growth of online courses and programs, some high-profile lawsuits, and updates in laws focused on accessibility (e.g., the 2017 update of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act in the U.S.). However, despite the increased focus on accessibility, discussions on creating "accessible" online courses and elearning we contend focus too much on the basics of accessibility, such as the need to add alternative text to images and captions for videos (cf. Ableser & Moore, 2018; Silver, 2016). Equally problematic, we contend, is that while research has shown that making online content accessible- such as through the use of captions-is beneficial for all learners (see Dell et al., 2015; Linder, 2016; van Rooij & Zirkle, 2016; Varonis, 2015), most of the focus on creating accessible online courses and elearning is framed around "compliance" and avoiding legal trouble. We, however, like many others, believe that making learning opportunities accessible to all is not just a legal issue but ultimately an ethical issue (see Burgstahler, 2001; Case & Davidson, 2011; Lin, 2007). But to make learning opportunities-and specifically online learning and elearning-accessible to all learners, online educators and workplace learning professionals need to recognize how diverse learners are and the specific needs different learners might have, and, in turn, the support these learners might need to...