What you will review
A website, online form, file, message, video, app screen or digital service pathway.
Queensland Digital Inclusion Festival — Celebrating inclusive communication & digital access for all
Learn more → Learn more →Future Ready · Module 3
Digital Access and Practical Accessibility Checks
Digital tools are part of everyday services, learning, work and community life. This module helps you check one website, form, file, message or online process and choose one practical improvement.
At a glance
What you will look for
Reading, navigation, form, media, file-format, mobile, cognitive-load or support/contact barriers.
What you will create
One digital touchpoint review and one realistic improvement that could make participation easier.
Learning outcomes
- Explain how digital tools can create or remove accessibility barriers.
- Identify at least three types of digital barriers.
- Review one digital touchpoint using a simple accessibility checklist.
- Choose one realistic digital accessibility improvement.
- Explain how the improvement supports participation.
Digital access is participation access
Digital access means people can find information, understand information, complete a task, ask for help, use assistive technology and choose another format when needed.
Digital access is not only technical compliance. It also includes clear headings, predictable navigation, plain language, reduced steps, captions, transcripts, readable files and clear error messages.
Common digital barriers
Reading barriers
Text may be too small, dense, complex or poorly spaced.
Navigation barriers
People may not be able to find what they need or move through a page in a predictable way.
Form barriers
Forms may be too long, confusing, poorly labelled or hard to complete with assistive technology.
File barriers
PDFs, Word documents, slides or images may not have headings, reading order, alt text or accessible structure.
Media barriers
Videos or audio may not have captions, transcripts or accessible summaries.
Cognitive-load barriers
There may be too many steps, unclear instructions, time pressure or too much information at once.
Quick digital accessibility check
- Is the purpose clear?
- Can people find the main action?
- Are headings used properly?
- Is the language plain?
- Can the page or file be used with a keyboard?
- Do images have useful alt text?
- Do videos have captions or transcripts?
- Are forms clearly labelled?
- Is there a contact option for access support?
- Is another format available?
Learn in different ways
Choose the format that works best for you.
Watch: W3C Web Accessibility Perspectives
Short videos showing how digital accessibility affects everyday tasks.
Read: W3C Introduction to Web Accessibility
A recognised guide to web accessibility concepts and why they matter.
Use: WebAIM Alternative Text
A practical guide for writing image descriptions and alt text.
External resources are hosted by external providers. If you cannot access them, contact EduLinked for the information in another format: founder@edulinked.com.au.
Easy Read version
Digital tools can be barriers
Digital tools can help people.
Digital tools can also make things hard.
A website, form, file or video can be hard if the words are unclear, the steps are confusing, the text is too small, there are no captions, images have no description, or there is no way to ask for help.
You do not need to fix everything at once. Start with one thing.