Digital Course Content Checklist
Quick Checklist for Digital Course Content
File Setup
- Does the document file name not contain spaces and/or special characters?
- Is the document file name concise, generally limited to 20-30 characters, and does it make the contents of the file clear?
- Have the document properties for Title, Author, Subject (AKA Description), Keywords, Language, and Copyright Status been completed in your PDFs and/or Office files?
- Have you set your document language to English in your PDFs and/or Office files?
- Have track changes been accepted or rejected and turned off in your PDFs and/or Office files??
- Have comments been removed in your PDF files and/ or Office files and have formatting marks been turned off?
Text
- Does the document utilize recommended fonts (i.e., Times New Roman, Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, or Calibri)?
- Are heading styles organized in a hierarchal and logical fashion, with consecutive headings (i.e., no missing heading levels)?
- Is the list style being used, as opposed to manually typed characters (e.g. Hyphens, numbers, or graphics)?
- Is content clear and concise?
- Is all document text logical in Outline View?
- Do all URLs contain descriptive hyperlinks (i.e., avoid generic phrases like "click here"; instead, use phrases that let users know about the content of the linked page prior to selecting it)?
- Is the color contrast ratio between foreground text and background color sufficient?
- Is a table of contents (TOC) present in documents and/or course pages, are the links correct, and do they function correctly?
Images
- Do all images, grouped images, and non-text elements that convey information have meaningful alternative-text descriptions?
- Do complex images (i.e., charts and graphs) have descriptive text near the image (perhaps as a caption or long description)?
- Is the document free of scanned text-heavy images (i.e., avoid text content contained in images that disappear when images are not available)?
- If color is used to emphasize important text, is there is an alternate, compliant method used as well?
- Have you provided alternatives for or avoided use of sensory information (e.g., shape, size, color, visual location, orientation, sound, etc.)?
Tables
- Do all data tables in the document have designated row and/or column headers in table properties?
- Does the table have a summary or description?
Multimedia
- If a video—Does the video or animation contain synchronized captioning?
- If a sound file—Does the sound file have a matching transcript file?
- If an animation—Does the animation have a text equivalent?
Accessibility Check
- Has a separate accessible version of the document been provided when there is no other way to make the content accessible?
- Did you use the built-in MS Office Accessibility Checker, has that been run and does it pass?
- Did you visit the Accessibility for eLearning Materials KB article for more information?
- Did you contact the Accessibility Network if you are having trouble?