Alternative Text, Color Contrast, and Heading Structure

Online Learning & Educational Technology (OLET)
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Welcome to our weekly BLOG: The Moodle Newdle. We’ll introduce you to some new Moodle features, as well as explore some of those you might have missed or forgotten.

• Alternative text (also known as alt text) allows screen readers to describe images to students who are blind or low-vision (see Authoring Meaningful Alternative Text). Alt text also ensures the content remains available when images fail to load due to slow internet connections. Finally, it helps students with cognitive disabilities understand the purpose of the image—not just what it looks like.
• Color contrast refers to the difference in brightness between foreground and background colors (see Making Color Usage Accessible). Sufficient color contrast ensures text and images are readable for students with low vision, color blindness, or aging eyes, as well as for users viewing content in high-glare environments.
• Heading structure creates a machine-readable outline that allows screen readers and other assistive technology to navigate, scan, and understand content—much like a table of contents (see Why Heading Tags and Content Structure Matter). Proper heading structure enables users to jump between sections, supports comprehension for users with cognitive disabilities, and improves visual scanning for all readers.

Pro Tip: You don’t need to memorize every course accessibility requirement. Instead, use the YuJa Panorama Accessibility Report—and other built-in accessibility checkers—to identify issues and guide improvements to your course materials and resources.

Written by: DW Wood | Posted on: April 17, 2026 | View all