Designing for diverse learners

Simple guidelines to support best practice design of learning materials.

What to do

Always use left-aligned text and 1.5 line spacing for body text.
Always use a readable font, sentence case and a suitable font size. At least 12pt for web and 1em for print.
Make important information clear and easy to find. Break up information with meaningful headings, sub-headings and one-level bullet lists.
Always use built-in heading styles for headings and sub-headings.
Always write descriptive and meaningful hyperlinks.
Always combine colour with text and/or patterns to convey meaning.
Always ensure sufficient colour contrast between foreground and background elements.
Add meaningful, concise text alternatives to images, diagrams and tables.
Always provide transcripts and/or captions for audio and video.
Always allow user control for media.

Avoid centre or right text alignment. Avoid full justification.
Avoid difficult-to-read fonts, small font sizes and cursive or script fonts.
Avoid complex and cluttered layouts. Avoid multi-layered menus or lists.
Avoid manual formatting such as italics or underline to convey headings or structure.
Avoid using URLs as hyperlinks/ Avoid using 'click here'.
Avoid using colour as the only way to convey meaning.
Avoid low colour contrast, and avoid image or patterned backgrounds for text.
Avoid uploading images without text alternatives. Avoid using captions as alt text or writing lengthy alt texts.
Avoid providing audio or video without an alternative representation.
Avoid GIFs, spinning icons, and autoplay media content.

Using accessibility checkers where available can simplify this process for you.

This poster was adapted from Designing for Diverse Learners by the University of Hull (CC-BY-NC-SA). To find out more about creating accessible learning materials, visit creating accessible subjects in the LMS.

This guide was last updated 01 Oct 2024.
Please report any errors or omissions in this guide by submitting an LMS support request.