Development of an online digital resource accessible for students with visual impairment or blindness: challenges and strategies

Abstract

Background: People with visual impairment or blindness face a wide range of daily barriers, both at school and at work. Objective: This article describes the development process of an online resource, addressing Occupational Safety and Health (OSH), accessible for students with visual impairment or blindness. Methods: This study was framed in a Design-Based Research methodology involving the analysis, design, development and implementation of a digital resource. In the analysis stage, a first list of accessibility challenges was created allowing the design of strategies and specific technical solutions to approach them. Results: The development process has shown that online digital resources can be accessible for users with visual impairment or blindness and even the most visual contents and activities (based on images and videos) can be easily adjusted. Conclusions: Online accessible resources should be based on the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) guidelines, allowing the proper description of all contents by screen readers, using audio description, accessible features and providing keyboard navigation. Further research must be conducted to deepen knowledge on the role of educational digital resources for students with visual impairment or blindness, namely regarding OSH barriers that workers with visual impairment or blindness face at the workplace (as visual safety signs and pictogram labels).