Making course materials accessible with AI

Some of your learners cannot see your diagrams. Some cannot hear your videos. Some read slowly because of dyslexia, some are learning in their second language, and some are studying on a phone during a lunch break with patchy signal. A course that works only for people who can watch, listen and read long paragraphs quietly shuts all of them out, often without you ever knowing.

Making materials accessible used to mean hours of manual work per lesson. AI now handles much of the first draft: simplifying text, describing images, producing transcripts and summaries. It does not handle the judgment. You still need to check accuracy, and ideally ask the people who rely on these formats whether they actually help. For the broader principles, see AI and accessibility: helping, not excluding.

Start with an audit of one lesson

Before fixing anything, find out where the barriers are. An AI assistant can review a lesson against common accessibility problems quickly, which gives you a to-do list rather than a vague worry.

Review this course lesson for accessibility barriers. The learners are [describe your learners]. The lesson includes [list the parts: text, video, images, diagrams, downloads]. [paste lesson text, transcript and a description of each image]

List specific problems under these headings: long or complex sentences, jargon used without explanation, instructions that rely on color, position or seeing an image, images or diagrams without a text alternative, audio or video without a transcript or captions, and downloads that may be hard to use with a screen reader. For each problem, quote the passage and suggest a fix. Put the most serious barriers first.

Moira runs a family history society course on reading old parish records. Her audit flagged instructions such as “look at the highlighted entry on the right,” which mean nothing to a learner using a screen reader, and a key image of a handwritten record with no description. Neither problem had occurred to her.

Lower the reading level without losing accuracy

Plain language helps almost everyone, not just learners with reading difficulties. The risk with AI rewrites is that simplifying can quietly change meaning, drop a caveat or swap a precise term for a vague one.

Rewrite this lesson section in plain language for [describe learners]. Use short sentences and common words. Keep every technical term the learner needs to know, but explain each one in simple words the first time it appears. Do not remove any steps, warnings or exceptions. After the rewrite, list every change in meaning you made, however small. [paste section]

Compare the rewrite with the original line by line. The list of changes helps, but do not rely on it alone. Offer the plain version alongside the original or replace the original if you prefer it, but check it first.

Write alt text that does a job

Alt text is a short written description of an image, read aloud by screen readers. Assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini can describe an uploaded image, which makes a good first draft. But course images have a teaching purpose, and a generic description often misses it.

Tell the AI what the image is for. “A handwritten page from an old register” is accurate and useless. “A baptism entry showing the child's name first, then the parents' names, then the father's occupation, which is the order you will see in most entries from this period” teaches the point. For complex diagrams, add a fuller description in the lesson text itself, not only in the alt text. Check every description against the image before publishing; AI can misread handwriting, labels and small details.

Offer the same learning in more than one format

Different learners need different routes to the same material. AI makes several formats practical:

• Transcripts for every video and audio lesson, drafted with a transcription tool such as Otter.ai or Descript.
• Captions on videos, covered in detail in captions and subtitles for member videos with AI.
• Key-point summaries for learners who want to review quickly or who find long text tiring.
• Audio versions of text lessons, using text-to-speech or narration tools, for learners who prefer listening.
• Printable versions with simple layouts, for learners who find screens difficult.

Every one of these needs a review. Transcription tools regularly mishear names and specialist terms, and a summary can leave out the step that matters most. Read or listen to each version before it goes live.

Ask the people who use it

The only reliable test of accessibility is whether learners can use it. Invite members to tell you what format helps them, and make it easy and private to ask for alternatives. If a member who uses a screen reader is willing to try a lesson and give feedback, their comments will be worth more than any automated check. Thank them, act on what they say and tell them what changed.

Accessibility requirements vary by country and sector, and some organizations have specific legal duties. Check what applies to you with a qualified professional. For the non-AI foundations, see accessibility basics every site owner should know.

A starting checklist

1. Choose your most-used lesson and run the audit prompt on it.
2. Fix any instructions that rely on seeing color, position or an image.
3. Draft purpose-driven alt text for every teaching image and check it yourself.
4. Create a plain-language version of the hardest section and compare it line by line.
5. Add a reviewed transcript and a key-point summary for any video.
6. Ask members how they prefer to learn, and offer alternatives on request.