Accessibility

At Nature Masterclasses, we’re passionate about creating elearning experiences that everyone can enjoy and benefit from. Over the past few years, we’ve been on a journey to improve accessibility — and whilst we’re proud of how far we’ve come, we know there’s always room to grow.   

Accessibility isn’t a one-off task; it’s an ongoing commitment. Following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), we’ve worked hard to make our courses more inclusive for all. You may have noticed some of the improvements we’ve already made, such as adding thoughtful alt-text to images, making sure graphics meet colour contrast standards, or enabling keyboard navigation. We’ve also introduced an accessibility statement which gives more detailed information about what a user can expect from our courses.  

Expert guidance to build accessible elearning

To achieve all this, we’ve worked closely with our brilliant internal accessibility team at Springer Nature and benefited from the expertise of ElaHub, who has been an invaluable guide when creating our courses. These collaborations have been pivotal in helping us embed accessibility at the heart of our elearning design.  

Latest update to enhance learning activities

Recently, we’ve made some further updates to a number of our courses. We’ve been focussing on improving some learning activities. Here’s an example:  

• Before the upgrade: Here is a ‘drag-and-drop’ activity that some users may have difficulty accessing using their keyboard.
  
  
• After the upgrade: We’ve completely redesigned this activity. Instead of a drag and drop, we’re asking users to choose the correct answers. This makes it more accessible for those who cannot use a mouse and simply clearer for everyone.
  
  

These updates are just one small step on our journey, but they do reflect our commitment to making steady progress. We’ve learned that accessibility is about taking manageable steps, staying open to feedback, and focusing on improvement rather than perfection. 

Looking ahead, we’re planning to involve more users with diverse accessibility needs in our testing process. We’re also continuing our training efforts to ensure accessibility remains at the core of everything we do. 

We’re delighted to share these updates with you and would love to hear your thoughts. Accessibility is something we are deeply committed to, and your feedback helps us make our learning experiences even better for everyone.