IMS Global Learning Consortium
- Accessibility Specifications: homepage of the IMS Accessibility group. Some of their specifications are listed below.
- IMS
Guidelines for Developing Accessible Learning Applications (2002).
(This specification is rather old; the links to related IMS specifications are often outdated.) - IMS Access For All Digital Resource Description Information Model (version 2, 2009)
- IMS
Global's Accessibility Metadata Project:
project
to define a set of accessibility metadata for inclusion in schema.org
.
Projects and Initiatives
-
Accessible Online Learning Community Group
at the W3C.
From the group's description:
The activities of the Accessible Online Learning W3C Community Group take place at the intersection of accessibility and online learning. We focus on reviewing current W3C resources and technologies to ensure the requirements for accessible online learning experiences are considered. We also identify areas where additional resources and technologies are needed to ensure full participation of people with disabilities in online learning experiences.
"The ALDO Project: ALDO stands for “Adults with a Learning Disability, Observatory of Best Practise”. The projectMay 2020: The ALDO project's website is no longer online.aims to support improvements in the quality and accessibility of education and training for adults with a learning disability by identifying and validating best practice approaches; to promote increased use of the best practice resources identified by raising awareness of the resources and presenting them in one central online portal or observatory.
- AEMA:
Adult Education Made Easy.
Accessibility Criteria for Providers of Adult Education in European Countries (PDF).
Accessibility Checkers and Other Tools
- DSLab,
EPFL:
Moodle accessibility checker plugin:
This moodle plugin encourages teachers to make accessible course material by checking, each time they upload a PDF file, if it is accessible.
Licence: GNU GPL version 3.
Note that this plugin was originally developed for Moodle 2.6.2, which reached end of life in 2015. -
Universal Design Online content Inspection Tool (UDOIT):
source code of a tool that
enables faculty to identify accessibility issues in Canvas by Instructure. It will scan a course, generate a report, and provide resources on how to address common accessibility issues.
The tool is being developed by the Center for Distributed Learning at the University of Central Florida.
Articles on Accessibility and Online Learning
- Infos zur Barrierefreiheit von Lernplattformen. Eine Handreichung der BFIT-Bund AG12, Überwachungsstelle des Bundes für Barrierefreiheit von Informationstechnik, October 2022.
- Digital Accessibility in Higher and Further Education Conference 2016, 07.04.2016. This was a conference hosted by the Chartered Institute for IT / British Computer Society (BCS); the presentations can be downloaded from the website.
- Raths, David: Your Course Accessibility Checklist, Campus Technology, 30.03.2016.
- Sadecki, Mark: edX Joins Teaching Accessibility Initiative, edX blog, 23 July 2015. See also Teach Access.
- Flynn, Nicole: The Power of Course Captioning Beyond Accessibility, Cielo24, 23 April 2015. (Announcement of a seminar.)
- Devaney, Laura: 9 accessibility steps for MOOC platforms, eCampus News, 13 April 2015.
- United States Deparment of Justice: Justice Department Reaches Settlement with edX Inc., Provider of Massive Open Online Courses, to Make its Website, Online Platform and Mobile Applications Accessible Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, 2 April 2015. (The announcement contains a link to the edX Settlement Agreement (PDF).)
- Hamraie, Aimi: Accessible Teaching in the Time of COVID-19, Mapping Access, 10.03.2020.
- How digital accessibility can support an inclusive and engaging learning experience (Blackboard Inc. on YouTube, 61 minutes, 22.05.2017).
- Enders, Mike: What Is Accessible E-Learning?, E-Learning Heroes (no date; oldest comments date from January 2014).
Accessibility of Online Learning Platforms and Learning Management Systems
- Steenhout, Nicolas:
An Introduction to LMS Accessibility
(Tagoras on Vimeo, 17 minutes, 26.10.2020; see also the
transcript of An Introduction to LMS Accessibility).
This is an introductory video that, among other things, demonstrates what sort of barriers a blind user may run into, briefly introduces American and Canadian legislation that is relevant to accessibility and gives a few tips for finding out whether an LMS is reasonably accessible (for example, is there a VPAT for it.) - LMS Selection Resources, Live Review (no date; probably 2020).
- Brito, Elisabeth; Paiva Dias, Gonçalo: LMS accessibility for students with disabilities: The experts’ opinions, 2020 15th Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (CISTI), Sevilla, Spain, 24-27 June 2020; IEEE Explore, 15 July 2020.
- Calle-Jiménez, Tania; Sanchez-Gordon, Sandra; Luján-Mora, Sergio: Web Accessibility Evaluation of Massive Open Online Courses on Geographical Information Systems, Proceedings of IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON 2014), p. 680-686, Istanbul (Turkey), April 3-5 2014. ISBN: 978-1-4799-3190-3.
- Iniesto, Francisco; McAndrew, Patrick; Minocha, Shailey; Coughlan, Tim: The current state of accessibility of MOOCs: What are the next steps?, Open Education Global Conference, 12-14 April 2016, Kraków, Poland.
- Canvas Accessibility Testing & Evaluation (CATE) (Hadi Rangin's Blog, 02.04.2016): evaluation presented at the CSUN conference in March 2016.
- Rangin,Hadi, et al: A Comparison of Learning Management System Accessibility, paper presented at CSUN 2013. The paper presents the accessibility of Blackboard 9.1, Desire2Learn 10, Moodle 2.3 and Sakai 2.8.0.
- Rangin,Hadi, et al: A Comparison of Learning Management System Accessibility, paper presented at CSUN 2011. The paper presents the accessibility of Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Moodle and Sakai.
- Gay, Greg:
ATutor LMS: a case study,
OSSWatch, 06.10.2009, updated on 12.11.2012 (accessed on 14.09.2021).
Article about ATutor, which was developed with accessibility in mind from the start. - Altinier, Armony: Comment rendre les MOOC plus accessibles ?, Koena blog, 03.10.2017.
- Cooch, Mary: Moodle, MOOCs and Accessibility, Moodle Blog, 05.07.2017.
- We test out a new Accessibility MOOC: Inclusive Online Course Design, Moodle, 06.07.2017.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
Universal Design for Learning is based on neuroscience and how people learn. Learners have different preferences for how they learn.
- The UDL Guidelines, Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), 28.11.2017, updated on 06.10.2020.
- UDL on Campus, Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) (no date). This is a course licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
- Tissot, Leonardo: Everyone Can Learn Better with Universal Design for Learning, Open LMS, 14.09.2020.
- Tobin, Thomas J.; Beling, Kirsten T.: Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education. West Virginia University Press, 2018. (312 pages) ISBN 978-1-946684-60-8.
- Burgstahler, Sheryl E.: Universal Design in Higher Education. Second edition. Harvard Education Press, 2015. (384 pages) ISBN 978-1-61250-816-0.
- Burgstahler, Sheryl E.:
Creating Inclusive Learning Opportunities in Higher Education: A Universal Design Toolkit. Harvard Education Press, 2020. (248 pages)
ISBN 978-1-68253-540-0.
From the publisher's book description:In Creating Inclusive Learning Opportunities in Higher Education, Sheryl Burgstahler provides a practical, step-by-step guide for putting the principles of universal design into action. The book offers multiple ways to access, engage with, and transform the higher education environment: making physical spaces welcoming to students of all abilities; creating digital learning and assistive technology programs that meet the needs of all users; developing universal design in higher education (UDHE) syllabi, assessments and teaching practices that minimize the need for academic accommodations; and institutionalizing universal design supports and services. (…)
- Gronseth, Susie L.; Dalton, Elizabeth M. (editors): Universal Access Through Inclusive Instructional Design: International Perspectives on UDL. Routledge, 2019. (404 pages) ISBN 9781138351080.
-
The Bare Bones Basics of UDL – Universal Design for Learning
(eschoolnews on YouTube, 61 minutes, 15.10.2018).
This is a recording of a live webinar. The Thomas Tobin's actual talk begins at 5 minutes into the video. -
Universal Design for Learning in Higher Ed What How Who
(WV Statewide Technology Conference on YouTube, 54 minutes, 04.08.2021).
Recording of an online introduction to Universal Design for Learning the West Virginia Statewide Technology Conference. - Reimagining Disability & Inclusive Education | Jan Wilson | TEDxUniversityofTulsa (TEDx Talks on YouTube, 16 minutes, 21.05.2015).
- UDL: learning by doing - European examples of Universal Design for Learning (AHEAD on YouTube, 36 minutes, 18.04.2017).
Judith Jansen (the Netherlands) and Elinor Olausen (Norway) present examples of UDL that they have encountered in Europe. (They use TodaysMeet to create interaction with the audience.)
The examples include creating national guidelines for developing UDL in higher education (such as VUU.no in Norway); developing courses; and organising national, regional or local workshops for academic staff and management.
They present a case from the Netherlands about a “flexible and digital IT portfolio”: the teachers allowed students to create portfolios of IT skills, which allowed the students to decide when they were ready to take the test; this gave them flexibility in time and place.
The second case is about a teacher who was tired of being the only one who talked in the classroom and moved to a flipped-classroom approach. He used more multimedia and increased feedback using the game-based feedback tool Kahoot and Padlet. (For reasons of accessibility, these tools should be used as supplements, not alternatives, to other communications channels.) Students activity increased.
The third case is about two teachers in the Netherlands who created their own UDL classroom.
A visually impaired student (20% vision) from the second case explains how she benefited from the flipped-classromm approach. First, she had access to more sources of information. In class, the had only the handbook and the blackboard, which she could not see very well. In a flipped classroom, she had access to videos of the lectures, forums, and access to other students for help. Second, there was more time for the teacher to give feedback, whereas students had not received much feedback in the lecture approach to teaching. There were also more feedback opportunities among students. Finally, information is mmore “stored”. When the teacher erases what was on the blackboard, you need to rely on the quality of your notes. But if you did a number of (group) exercises that are still stored, you can go back to them later.
The fourth case is about a disability officer who organised an induction course for students. - UDL Stories from the field (CAST on YouTube, 50 minutes, 03.10.2018).
- UDL for Language Learners (CAST on YouTube, 60 minutes, 03.06.2019).
Presentation by Caroline Torres and Kavita Rao. See also the book UDL for Language Learners by Caroline Torres & Kavita Rao (ISBN 978-1-930583-29-0). - Teaching Online with UDL (Taking a Byte Out of Ed Tech on YouTube, 25 minutes, 07.04.2020).
- Roth, Amanda; Singh, Gayatri; Turnbow, Dominique:
Equitable but Not Diverse: Universal Design for Learning is Not Enough,
In the Library with the Lead Pipe, 26.05.2021.
This is mainly about Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) representations rather than accessibility for people with disabilities. - The UDL Project.
- The UDL Approach: website by Loui Lord Nelson. See for example the UDL Approach podcasts.
- Using UDL and Technology to enhance Learning for All, CIDDL, 16.06.2021.
- Viji Sathy; Kelly A. Hogan: How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive, Chronicle of Higher Education, 22.07.2019 (requires registration).
- UDL in the next 20 minutes- Overview and example case study (Analisa McMillan, 4 minutes, 24.09.2021).
VPATs and Accessibility Conformance Claims
-
VPAT / Moodle accessibility conformance report,
MoodleDocs (no date; accessed on 14.09.2021).
This is an accessibility conformance report for version 3.10 based on VPAT® Version 2.4. -
VPAT / Moodle accessibility conformance report,
MoodleDocs (no date; accessed on 09.06.2022).
This is an accessibility conformance report for version 3.11 based on VPAT® Version 2.4, published on 12.11.2021. -
Sakai LMS Current Accessibility,
Sakai Project, last updated on 30.07.2021 (accessed on 14.09.2021).
Resource maintained by the Sakai Projecte's Accessibility Working Group. -
Sakai Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT),
Sakai Project, 08.12.2019.
This is an accessibility conformance report for Sakai version 19 based on VPAT® Version 2.3 (Revised) - April 2019. -
Accessibility in Blackboard Learn with the Ultra Experience,
Blackboard Help (no date; accessed on 15.09.2021).
This page contains a link to Blackboard Ultra LMS Accessibility Conformance Report (Word document) (based on VPAT® Version 2.4 (Revised), dated 27 May 2020). The accessibility audit was performed by a third party, namely TPGi. -
Accessibility in Blackboard Collaborate with the Original Experience,
Blackboard Help (no date; accessed on 15.09.2021).
This page contains a link to VPAT for Blackboard Collaborate Web Conferencing (PDF) from 2013. -
Canvas Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT),
Instructure, September 2020 (accessed on 15.09.2021).
This conformance report is based on VPAT® Version 2.4. The report documents the level fo conformance to WCAG 2.1 and Section 508. The accessibility audit was performed by a third party, namely WebAIM. -
VPAT - Oracle iLearning (Update 2) 6.3,
Oracle, 20.10.2020.
This report covers the degree of conformance to WCAG 2.1 and Section 508. - BigBlueButton Accessibility Conformance Report, VPAT® Version 2.2 (version of VPAT standard published by ITI July 2018) (PDF),
BigBlueButton, July 2019 (accessed on 15.09.2021).
This accessibility conformance report was created by David Berman using the WCAG-EM evaluation method. It documents the degree of conformance to WCAG 2.0 and Section 508.
Other Links
-
Accessibility of Remote Meetings,
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C. A working draft was published on 17.05.2022.
This document is not specifically about onlie teaching but is relevant to it. - Adding Text Transcripts to YouTube Videos in Moodle
(Cambrian College Teaching and Learning Innovation Hub on YouTube, 3 minutes, 06.10.2020).
The process described in the video includes steps such as downloading the transcript from YouTube, removing timestamps and empty lines in Microsoft Excel, making additional edits in Microsoft Word and uploading this transcript in Moodle. (Displaying subtitles in YouTube videos inside Moodle is not discussed here.) -
Accessibility toolkit in Moodle 3 11
(Moodle on YouTube, 3 minutes, 17.05.2021; Creative Commons Attribution licence).
This video is about the Brickfield Accessibility Toolkit developed by Brickfield Education Labs. This toolkit is available since Moodle version 3.11 and needs to be activated by a Moodle administrator before it can be used by teachers. -
Accessibility for teachers | Gavin Henrick | MoodleMoot Global 2020
(Moodle on YouTube, 63 minutes, 27.08.2020; Creative Commons Attribution licence).
Presentation by Gavin Henrick, CEO and co-founder of Brickfield Education Labs. -
Accessibility Toolkit,
MoodleDocs, last updated on 22.06.2021.
German version: Tools zur Barrierefreiheit. -
Accessibility review block,
MoodleDocs, last updated on 18.06.2021.
German version: Barrierefreiheit prüfen. -
Website Accessibility Policy,
edX, 11.08.2020.
edX has no VPAT but has Accessibility Best Practices Guidance for Content Providers. - Armano, Tiziana; Borsero, Massimo; Capietto, Anna; Murru, Nadir; Panzarea, Angelo; Ruighi, Alice: On the accessibility of Moodle 2 by visually impaired users, with a focus on mathematical content, Universal Access in the Information Society, volume 17, pages 865–874 (2018) (short paper).
Note: the section on (online) courses has been moved to a separate page.
Note: the section on document accessibility has been moved to a separate page.