FLO MicroCourse: Designing for Accessibility Using POUR Principles

Fizza Haider, Learning Designer at the Teaching and Learning Centre collaborated with Gena Hamilton, Academic Advisor for UFV’s School of Education to design and co-facilitate a week-long microcourse on digital accessibility. The FLO MicroCourse: Designing for Accessibility using POUR Principles was delivered asynchronously online through the BCcampus from January 20 – 26, 2025. 45 individuals originally registered for the course, and 30 actively participated over the week, reviewing materials, completing activities and interacting with each other over Zoom and through discussion forums.

The course aimed to build digital accessibility skills of participants by orienting them to the four overarching principles in the POUR framework. Namely Perceivability, Operability, Understandability, and Robustness. The principles are foundational to the international Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Participants in the course learned to apply them to design accessible eLearning experiences through hands-on activities and formative feedback that they received from both the facilitators and their colleagues. The course brought together a group of accessibility champions from across Canada. Together, they engaged in constructive dialogue, grappled with big questions, and synergized to identify actions that they would take to further the cause of accessibility.

Participants also really valued their course facilitation. During the wrap-up session, here were some of the comments:

“I wanted to pop in and wave ‘hi’ and share so much gratitude to the facilitators for this wonderful course. Your feedback has been the most informative, encouraging and kind I’ve received, and it’s been really appreciated.”

“The only constructive feedback I can give is that I recommend the course be offered over two weeks rather than just one. Otherwise, it’s great! I’ve been taking webinars and courses with BCcampus for years, and this is my favourite one! Thanks for being suck rockstars!”

“Yes thank you so much! I’ve gotten so much out of this course, and really appreciate it.”

Click here to learn more about Accessibility from TLC, or email askTLC@ufv.ca.