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Committed to Accessibility in Learning

Deliver a learning experience that meets the needs of all people, regardless of age or ability.

Inclusive Learning with D2L Brightspace video thumbnail

Crafting Learning That Meets Everyone’s Needs

We believe that every mind matters and access to high-quality learning should be universal.

Our inclusive UX research and product design process means we consider accessibility and engage people with diverse abilities at every stage. It’s more than a rubber stamp. We go beyond compliance and the letter of the law in our commitment to accessibility by nurturing an organization-wide culture of accessibility and inclusion.

Accessible features of Brightspace shown in multiple devices

Conforming to Accessibility Standards

We constantly strive to ensure that our learning platforms work seamlessly with various assistive technologies to provide a great learning experience to people with diverse needs. We integrate the latest global accessibility standards into our product process and openly report conformance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level AAA standards and compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, 1973. Our latest accessibility reports are posted on the Accessibility Standards page. Our accessibility plan for 2022-27 is posted on our Multi-year Accessibility Plan page.

Supporting Clients Through Full Stack Accessibility

Technology

Enable independent and effective teaching and learning.

Content

Support the creation and consumption of accessible learning content.

Pedagogy

Facilitate universal design for learning as a practice of inclusive pedagogy.

I’ve spent my career being an ally and an advocate for students with disabilities. And one of the things that I learned really quickly and pretty early on is that when you talk about accessibility, the way that you need to situate it is that it is a journey, it is not a destination. You’re never done.

– Kelly Herman, VP, Accessibility, Equity & Inclusion, University of Phoenix

Accessibility is a huge part of Brightspace that has really enhanced my instruction.

– Morgan Thompson, LMS Teacher Specialist, Anne Arundel County Public Schools

Collaborating With Our Community

D2L is the only educational technology company that has been a member of the National Federation of the Blind’s (NFB) Strategic Nonvisual Access Partnership  program since 2016. NFB provides advisory services where needed through this program and conducts accessibility audits of Brightspace and websites.

We have nurtured an active Accessibility Interest Group for over ten years. This open forum of accessibility enthusiasts and persons with disabilities in organizations that use D2L software meets every month to discuss topics of collective interest and connects via a mailing list at other times. 

Our customers who support people with disabilities—including the International Disability Alliance, Vision Australia, Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Canadian Hearing Services and more—help us ensure that our learning platforms remains usable to all learners, instructors, admins and other staff. 

At the executive level, we run a quarterly meeting of our Accessibility Advisory Board drawn from customers who care deeply about accessibility to explore emerging educational practices and technologies that help remove barriers to access in education.

Person helping another read using Braille

Expanding Our Ecosystem

We partner with accessibility-focused companies such as ReadSpeaker, TextHelp, Bongo, SensusAccess, Kaltura, etc. to expand our inclusive education ecosystem for serving the needs of users with diverse abilities.

We partner with Aira to offer free help to all users with vision loss. Aira’s call center agents assist them in completing visual tasks on D2L Brightspace through the Aira app.

We are an organizational member of the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) and an Advisory Council member of the Canadian Accessibility Network. We are also a member of the 1EdTech TrustEd Apps Accessibility Taskforce and the Global Leadership Council of IAAP.