When I have to use a website or application for school, I often have to spend time researching whether it will meet my accessibility needs or preferences as a student with low vision. Although many tools have accessibility pages or proclaim that they make learning more accessible for all, I have noticed that this doesn’t always translate into being accessible for me. Every student with a visual impairment has their own definition of accessibility; some focus on the use of screen readers and keyboard access, some focus on compatibility with a braille display, some focus on specific contrast settings or the ability to use screen magnification, and some focus on display customizations, display scaling, or large print.
As an umbrella term, accessibility for visual impairment involves ensuring users can access applications and websites with their choice of assistive technology in a seamless way, but most of my teachers and professors are specifically interested in whether something is accessible for the student sitting in their classroom, not whether it is accessible to everyone. For this reason, I have found it helpful to create a personal accessibility checklist that I can share with my teachers and professors as needed.
To help students serve as their own experts on their visual impairment and accessibility needs, I have developed this free guide to developing a personal accessibility checklist that can help them determine if a particular app or website will be accessible for them, and that can be shared with teachers, professors, or other stakeholders who want to know what makes an app accessible to them. This is especially helpful for students who are still building self-advocacy and self-determination skills that might not have the resources or time to conduct accessibility research on their own.
Background information: Creating a “vision statement”
Before explaining technology access needs and preferences, I find it helpful to explain usable vision and what makes something easy to see. These types of questions are easier to answer than explaining what someone can’t see, or why certain types of items are hard to see. Some students create a “vision statement” that they share with their teachers or professors that explains how they access information with a visual impairment; I find it helpful to write subject-specific vision statements that explain my usable vision in the context of a particular class, since the way I access information in math is different than a history class.
Besides describing how someone uses their vision in the context of the class environment, this can also be an opportunity to introduce any assistive technology devices or accessibility settings that students use, like large print font sizes, high contrast displays, or screen readers/text-to-speech.
Does writing a vision statement and sharing it with someone help them better understand access needs and preferences, and is it helpful to have something that they can refer to? Absolutely. But accessibility and the process of implementing disability accommodations is rarely a one-time conversation. That said, this can help establish a two-way line of communication, where students and instructors alike can ask questions or share feedback about the accessibility of course materials or activities.
Related links
- Learning To Explain Usable Vision
- Make Online Learning Accessible For VI Students: Quick Start Guide
- Learning to Self-Advocate With Low Vision
- How I Take Math Tests With Double Vision
Create an informal personal accessibility checklist for evaluating apps and websites
While there are many instructional technology websites and applications that share a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) or Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR), these documents often emphasize screen reader compliance and other accessibility settings that a student with low vision might not use. These are still fantastic resources to have, but teachers and professors might not know what to do with this information or how it applies to the student in their classroom. For this reason, students may find it helpful to create their own informal personal accessibility checklist that they can share with others, which can help determine if a specific application or website will work for their needs. This checklist can include:
- Device(s) used to access class materials, including type of device and operating system (e.g., Windows 11 laptop, iPad with iOS 18)
- Essential accessibility features or assistive technology software; device cannot be used otherwise. This can include (but is not limited t0):
- Large print sizes (specify size used, preferably in both pt and px)
- High contrast display
- Screen reader
- Screen magnification software or similar
- Nice-to-have accessibility features that are sometimes enabled or that make tools easier to use. This can also include secondary access preferences (e.g., text-to-speech)
- “Avoid at all costs” features that prevent user from accessing content, including but not limited to:
- Unlabeled buttons
- Mouse-only options
- Strobe or flashing lights
- Specific color schemes
- Preferred file formats for course materials, and any file types to avoid (i.e., PDFs with fixed layouts)
It is worth noting that this is not a detailed accessibility checklist that would be used by a professional accessibility tester, assistive technology specialist, or by another type of accessibility professional. This is a list that is specifically created for an individual student, so that they can determine if an application or website will work for them, in their specific environment, and in this educational context.
Related links
- File Formats For Low Vision and Print Disabilities
- Learning to Self-Advocate With Low Vision
- Must-Have Tech Skills For Online Classes
- A to Z of Assistive Technology For Low Vision
- Using A Laptop In High School With Low Vision
When possible, explore websites or applications in advance
Even if a student is awesome at finding accessibility information or developing workarounds for accessibility issues, it is much easier to take a proactive approach and explore a website/application before it is used for class than it is to take a reactive approach , where students and/or teachers have to figure out if something is accessible after it has already been assigned. This is especially true for adaptive learning systems, textbooks, or websites/applications that are used for homework or for submitting class assignments. Being proactive and researching information in advance can also give students additional time to connect with an assistive technology specialist or other accessibility professional that can help with finding workarounds or helping the student access the material.
As a student, I appreciate it when my teachers or professors would let me know about websites or applications that would be used in their class as soon as possible, either by including this information in a pre-class announcement, on the syllabus, or a few weeks before we would be using it in class. This gives students time to meet with a teacher of students with visual impairments (TSVI/TBVI/TSVI), an assistive technology specialist, or other accessibility professional to figure out if they can access this tool.
Another helpful strategy is to meet with the teacher or professor before the application/website is used in class and explore it together, which provides a valuable pre-teaching opportunity and ensures that the student can access information as expected. In one of these meetings, my professor and I discovered that graphs did not display correctly when I zoomed in on the screen, and finding out this information in advance gave us time to come up with a workaround for reading graphs with large print.
Related links
- Pre-Teaching Programming Languages To Visually Impaired Students
- How I Use Canvas With Low Vision
- What To Know About College Assistive Technology Specialists
- Ten Questions To Ask When Buying Digital Textbooks
Navigating the personal accessibility checklist
Depending on the student’s age and their technology skills, the student may go through their informal personal accessibility checklist alongside their teacher/professor, teacher of students with visual impairments, an assistive technology specialist, or a family member to determine if an application or website will work for their needs. Sometimes, the student may participate in creating the personal accessibility checklist, but someone else will be the one to evaluate the application or website using the checklist provided.
I strongly recommend using the student’s device(s) to evaluate websites or applications whenever possible, as these devices are already configured for their access needs. If this is not practical or possible, have a list of accessibility features that the student uses and enable them on another device.
Again, this is not a comprehensive accessibility audit, and the goal is not to determine if this tool will work for all students that have visual impairments. It is designed for the individual student to align with their personal definition of accessibility, and some of the sections listed below may not be applicable.
Verify that content can be displayed in student’s preferred font size, and that all content is visible
For students that use large print sizes or display scaling, verify that the content of the application or website can be displayed in the student’s preferred font size, and that the text is not cut off or distorted on the screen. This also includes ensuring all buttons are visible and that students can independently navigate from one page to another.
Some applications and websites can be rendered with the system font size/settings, while others may require users to manually change the font size on the page by going to the settings menu or setting display preferences. This may not be something the student can do independently, especially if the icon for the settings or preferences menu is small and the student is having trouble with screen magnification.
Sometimes, I run into issues with enlarging text in mobile applications that are downloaded to my iPad or Android phone, but I can zoom in on text when using the web version of the same application (known as a web application). This is another strategy to consider if the mobile application does not work as intended. Alternatively, I might discover that an app is easier for me to access on my phone than the iPad, or vice versa.
Try reading text with text-to-speech, or identify built-in tools
For students that benefit from having the option to listen to text, try enabling text-to-speech to read on-screen content; text-to-speech may also be labeled as select-to-speak, read aloud, speak screen, speak text, listen, or something similar. This is especially helpful for reading too-small buttons or for long passages of text, and the student may already have a built-in text-to-speech tool enabled on their device. If the website or application has its own text-to-speech feature for reading content out loud, note the name of the feature and how to enable it (e.g., selecting the speaker icon). This can be a helpful fallback option for reading small amounts of too-small text, or locating buttons.
View content in dark mode, with a high contrast display, or with invert colors
Many students with low vision use dark mode or high contrast displays when interacting with visual content, or will enable invert colors to make it easier to recognize content. Invert colors can present challenges with applications or websites that use color to convey information, so this is helpful to be aware of when pointing to visual elements on the screen; the “blue button” in light mode may be a different color in dark mode or when a high contrast color scheme/invert colors filter is enabled. Some applications and websites also offer a high contrast mode or dark mode that can be manually enabled in settings or preferences.
Zoom in on the page
For students that use browser zoom or display scaling, verify that text content, buttons, and other application features can still be accessed when zooming in on the screen. Sometimes, application menus may collapse or appear as icons, which can be easier to access visually. However, it is important to make sure that text does not become hidden or masked by interface elements, or disappear entirely.
Some students may prefer to use screen magnification software such as ZoomText, Mac/iOS Zoom, Magnifier, or similar to access content with large print. If these tools are used, check that content does not become blurry, pixelated, or difficult/impossible to read with magnification.
Complete sample tasks with a screen reader
When testing applications for screen reader compatibility, I find it useful to complete sample tasks using a screen reader to observe if the application/website works as expected. This could include the following:
- Log in to the website/application
- Open an activity, assignment, or reading
- Complete sample questions with multiple question types; multiple choice, true or false, free response, etc.
- Read on-screen text
- Locate and activate on-screen buttons, and identify what they do
- Submit a sample activity and view the score
As mentioned earlier in the post, a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) or Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) can be helpful for finding information about screen reader accessibility, but these documents may not be up-to-date. Similar to issues with using mobile applications with large print, some students may find that the web application or web version of an app is easier to use with a screen reader compared to the mobile application.
Activate animations and note potential triggers
If a student is sensitive to strobe, flickering, spinning, flashing, or rapidly moving animations, it is important to check websites or applications in advance to determine if there are any animations that will trigger an adverse reaction for the student. Some applications allow users to turn off animations, reduce motion, or dim flashing lights as part of the settings menu within the application or website.
It is also helpful to note if there is a particular action that triggers the animation, such as getting a question correct or earning a badge. This can help students plan for how they will interact with the content, such as learning to look away from the screen briefly or playing in a well-lit room faced away from other screens, or the student may participate in an alternative activity that does not have flashing effects.
To share an example from one of my classes, I discovered that one of the review games that we would be playing had several flashing effects when students got a question right; thankfully, my teacher had figured this out in advance. Instead of playing that review game, my teacher and I found an alternative review activity on the same website that did not use flashing lights, and the classroom was arranged so that I couldn’t see other student’s screens.
Check out keyboard shortcuts
Many web applications and websites offer options for keyboard access, which is essential for screen reader users and helpful for students with low vision who have trouble locating icons. Information about keyboard shortcuts, hotkeys, or keyboard access can often be found by searching support documentation or enabled as an accessibility setting. Some programs also allow students to set their own custom keyboard shortcuts or enable screen reader keyboard shortcuts.
Prioritize independent access
While most instructional technology applications and websites have a slight learning curve, pay attention to barriers or features that the student cannot use without assistance, or that are inaccessible with their assistive technology. If the student needs additional assistance to use the application, if they are straining their eyes or making themselves physically uncomfortable, or if they are taking an extremely long time to do something, chances are that the app or website is not accessible for them.
Sometimes, students may prefer to work with a partner to navigate a website or application, but this can be frustrating if they are the only student working with someone else. In these situations, consider allowing all students to work with a partner, or allow the student to choose a partner that they feel comfortable working with.
When possible, another option is to choose a different application or website that is more accessible for the student, preferably one that can be used by the entire class. If this is not practical, work with the student and/or accessibility professionals to identify another website or application that the student can use that will provide them with identical access to information.
More tips on creating an informal personal accessibility checklist for low vision
- Want to learn more about assistive technology for low vision? Read A to Z of Assistive Technology For Low Vision
- Wondering how to discuss disability accommodations with professors? Read How To Explain Disability Accommodations To Professors and How I Talk To Professors About Photosensitivity
- Looking for examples of accessible apps or websites that have been used by a student with low vision? I share several examples from my own classes in Websites And Apps Archives | Veronica With Four Eyes, including posts about popular math tools like How I Use WebAssign With Low Vision
Published June 20, 2017. Updated March 2026