The “Introduction to Web Accessibility” online course provides the foundation you need to make your digital technology accessible, so that it:

• works well for people with disabilities
• meets international standards
• enhances the user experience for everyone
• achieves goals

Accessibility is essential to create high-quality apps, websites, and other digital content — and to not exclude people from using your products and services.

The course is designed for technical and non-technical learners including: developers, designers, content authors, project managers, students, instructors, professionals, and people with disabilities.

The course is structured so that you can focus on the topics that you are most interested in. Optional activities and additional materials provide more learning on specific topics.

For example, you can choose to focus on:

• Coding web applications to meet international W3C standards.
• Designing interfaces to meet the needs of people with disabilities, including older users.
• Writing a business case to present to management.
• Advocating for accessibility by understanding real-life experiences of how accessibility is essential for some, and useful for all.
• Managing accessibility in projects and in organizations.
• Checking web pages for basic accessibility issues and improving accessibility.

We encourage you to go through the whole course, even if you focus more on some topics.

The course covers principles from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative’s (WAI) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and much more:

• What is Web Accessibility (2 sections) — challenges the way you may approach accessibility.
• People and Digital Technology (5 sections) — gives you the “why” behind the what you need to do for accessibility.
• Business Case and Benefits (2 sections) — explains how accessibility can expand market reach, demonstrate social responsibility, drive innovation, and minimize legal risk.
• Principles, Standards, and Checks (5 sections) — guides you through understanding accessibility requirements and checking for accessibility barriers (also called evaluating or testing for errors or bugs) — with non-technical and technical guidance; provides optional material for learning more about coding accessibly.
• Getting Started with Accessibility (2 sections) — explains approaches for integrating accessibility into your design and development processes; provides tips for getting started with accessibility right away.

More “What you’ll learn” and syllabus is in the edX course page.

This self-paced course is designed to take 16-20 hours to complete for most people. It is listed as 4 weeks or 4-5 hours effort per week.

Course will be available only though December 2025.