- Structured, online content, is easy to navigate,
and accessible to everyone.
In this video, we'll take a look at two methods
that you can use to add structure to your content.
The first method is to add headings.
Generally, it's good practice to divide longer documents
or content into sections, and then label each section
with a subheading. For example,
here's a lecture I've typed that has several sections,
and I've given each section a subheading.
Visually, it's easy to see that there's subheadings,
and students without visual impairments might be able
to quickly scan the document to find a particular section.
However, students who use screen reading technology
are unable to see these visual elements,
so they rely on a feature called Headings.
Robust word processors, such as Microsoft Word,
have a built in style feature called Headings,
that allows you to use your existing subheadings
to create structure, much like an outline to your document.
This outline allows all students to scan the document
to locate relevant sections.
Generally, a document's title will be assigned Heading 1,
and this will be the only Heading 1 in the document.
It serves as the document's main topic.
Subheadings will be assigned Heading 2, and when needed,
a subheading assigned Heading 3 can be nested
under the content of a Heading 2. It's important
that the outline remains logical. It would be challenging
to understand the structure if a sequence of subheadings
were labeled, for example, Heading 2 and then
Heading 4 and then Heading 3.
If using Microsoft Word, the navigation pane displays
the document's outline. And if I click
on one of the headings, I'll quickly jump
to that subheading. That's pretty handy, and it's a part
of what makes using heading styles so accessible.
The second method of creating document structure
is to use list commands to form structured lists.
Structured lists are accessible, not only because they allow
screen reading software to announce the number of items
in the list, but they appear tidy, and are easy to navigate.
When available, list commands are generally located
above a text editor, and depending upon your needs
and the capability of your word processor,
you can use list commands to create either bulleted
or numbered lists. Both are accessible, and allow you
to create sub-levels within the list, if needed.
Using headings and list commands to create structure
helps ensure your learning content is easy
for all of your students to navigate and locate information.