Machine Learning Foundations - Accessibility Equivalents

Status: Draft standard Applies to: lessons, notebooks, tables, charts, downloadable files, future diagrams, and future videos

Purpose

Every learner should be able to understand the course without relying on colour, fine visual detail, audio, or mouse-only interaction.

Text lessons

Lessons should use:

• one clear heading order;
• short paragraphs;
• descriptive link text;
• tables only when the relationship is clearer as a table;
• plain-language definitions before technical terms; and
• no instruction that depends only on position such as "look at the red part on the right".

Tables

Every table needs:

• a clear title or sentence before it;
• column headers;
• short cell text where possible;
• a plain-language takeaway after the table; and
• a narrow-screen alternative if the table becomes hard to read on mobile.

Charts

Every chart needs:

• a title that says what is plotted;
• labelled axes;
• units where relevant;
• a nearby numeric summary;
• a written interpretation; and
• no meaning carried by colour alone.

If a chart compares groups, use labels, patterns, or adjacent tables so the comparison is still readable without colour.

Code and outputs

Notebook code should:

• be keyboard runnable;
• avoid very long lines;
• use readable variable names;
• print small summaries before large outputs;
• include expected shapes or output ranges; and
• explain errors as learning evidence, not as failure.

Long outputs should be trimmed or summarised.

Images and diagrams

Do not create an image unless it teaches something that text, code, a table, or a simple plot cannot teach well.

Every instructional image or diagram needs:

• purpose;
• alt text;
• long description if the diagram carries relationships;
• source or generation note;
• display size requirement; and
• text equivalent in the lesson.

Video

Future video demos need:

• captions;
• transcript;
• downloadable or text-only equivalent;
• no required information shown only in audio;
• no required information shown only through cursor movement; and
• the same practice task available without video.

Interactive controls

Interactive course controls must:

• work by keyboard;
• have visible focus;
• use labels that describe the action;
• preserve content when zoomed;
• avoid hover-only instructions; and
• provide a non-interactive fallback where needed.

Acceptance rule

A lesson is not complete if its main idea can only be understood by seeing an image, hearing a video, distinguishing colours, using a mouse, or reading a very wide table.