Referring to technical accessibility it is important to clarify that it does not mean “usability”. ISO defines usability as "The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use."

According to W3 Consortium, "Accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web”.

The intersection of accessibility and OERs implies to make some choices during the design and implementation, or the selection of an OER.

Keep in mind some useful suggestions:

  • videos - choose a video that includes closed captioning. Closed captions provide a text version of the spoken audio and other critical sounds, displayed in sync with the video;
  • images – at least the images that are fundamental to understand the content should include short text descriptions for individuals who are sight-impaired. These short descriptions are typically referred to as “alternate text” or “alt text”;
  • texts - if you use a PDF file it must be tagged. A tagged PDF is a type of PDF that includes an underlying tagged structure that enables headings to be identified as headings, lists as lists, images as images with alt text, etc.

Since it is quite a rich and complex set of suggestions, if you want to go deeper, follow some of the suggested links available in the additional resources.