Towards Full Accessibility in LMS
Afternoon Session – Day 1
OpenACS/.LRN Fall Confenrece 2006
http://adenu.ia.uned.es/
Objectives of the Session
1. On-going developments and research works on
accessibility compliance in LMS
2. Analyze the accessibility status of
.LRN/OpenACS and discuss the existing main
problems and the way to solve them.
3. Educate .LRN community in the importance of
developing with accessibility requirements in mind
4. Define some guidelines to help .LRN
developments reach the accessibility requirements
OpenACS/.LRN Fall Conference – Nov. 1-4, 2006 – Boston
Accessibility Requirements in dotLRN
Day 1 - Afternoon Session
Towards Full Accessibility in LMS
Olga C. Santos
R&D Technical Manager of aDeNu Research Group
UNED (Spain)
OpenACS/.LRN Fall Conference 2006
Artificial Intelligence Dpt.
http://adenu.ia.uned.es/
Overview
 Introduction to Accessiblity
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Objectives
WAI guidelines: WCAG 1.0 & 2.0
 Accessibility in .LRN
• Previous efforts
• Current status
• Reported bugs
 Practical Guidelines
 AJAX and accessibility
 Validation
OpenACS/.LRN Fall Conference – Nov. 1-4, 2006 – Boston
Introduction to
Accessibility
http://adenu.ia.uned.es/
Objectives
To allow different strategies for web access
To facilitate the integration of technical aids
Remove accessibility barriers
and
Guarantee access for all
OpenACS/.LRN Fall Conference – Nov. 1-4, 2006 – Boston
http://adenu.ia.uned.es/
Checkpoints for WCAG 1.0
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/full-checklist.html
OpenACS/.LRN Fall Conference – Nov. 1-4, 2006 – Boston
http://adenu.ia.uned.es/
WCAG 2.0
Still a DRAFT version!!!
http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag20
WCAG 2.0 Quick Reference
http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/quickref/
Several changes
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/conformance.html
Success Criteria and Conformance Levels
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Instead of Checkpoints and Priorities
Baseline concept: technologies with accessibility support
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Does not prohibit the use of any specific technology
As long as they are supported by accessible user agents, including assistive
technologies.
Comparison: WCAG 1.0 checkpoints to WCAG 2.0 Success Criteria
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http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/appendixD.html
OpenACS/.LRN Fall Conference – Nov. 1-4, 2006 – Boston
Accessibility in .LRN
http://adenu.ia.uned.es/
Accessibility Status in .LRN
http://openacs.org/xowiki/en/Accessibility
Previous efforts:
Tristan Kalnins-Cole's under Dorian Peter's supervision
• 2.1.3 was ‘unofficially’ WCAG 1.0 level A compliant
Selva theme:
• Designed to improve navigation and usability and based on CSS
Current version: .LRN 2.2.0
Tried to comply with WCAG 1.0 level A
Analysis based on the checkpoints from WCAG 1.0
• http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/full-checklist.html
Problems reported to the Bug tracker
OpenACS/.LRN Fall Conference – Nov. 1-4, 2006 – Boston
http://adenu.ia.uned.es/
Requirements for accessibility in .LRN 2.2.0
Selva Theme
Accessible forms (instead of standard.adp)
• openacs-4/packages/acs-templating/resources/forms/accessibleforms.adp
Minor changes in some files (some already in CVS)
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openacs-4/www/blank-master.adp
openacs-4/packages/acs-subsite/lib/login.tcl
openacs-4/packages/acs-templating/tcl/widget-procs.tcl
openacs-4/packages/dotlrn/www/admin/term-new.tcl
OpenACS/.LRN Fall Conference – Nov. 1-4, 2006 – Boston
http://adenu.ia.uned.es/
Bug Tracker: open accessibility bugs
WCAG 1.0 level A: 6 open bugs
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#3024: WCAG - Checkpoint 5.2
#2940: LORS frames need a title
#2939: LORS requires Javascript
#2931: Specify language with lang attribute
#2822: alt and title description in Calendar images
#2816: alt description in dotLRN logo is not sufficient
WCAG 1.0 level AA: 9 open bugs
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#2841: WCAG - Checkpoint 3.6
#2840: WCAG - Checkpoint 3.5
#2839: WCAG - Checkpoint 3.2
#2837: WCAG - Checkpoint 13.3
#2836: WCAG - Checkpoint 13.2
#2835: WCAG - Checkpoint 13.1
#2834: WCAG - Checkpoint 12.4
#2833: WCAG - Checkpoint 5.3
#2832: WCAG - Checkpoint 3.3
WCAG 1.0 level AAA: 2 open bugs
• #3022: WCAG - Checkpoint 2.2
• #3021: WCAG - Checkpoint 13.5
OpenACS/.LRN Fall Conference – Nov. 1-4, 2006 – Boston
http://adenu.ia.uned.es/
Main reported problems (1/3)
Skip menu missing (select where to go from top of the page)
Site map or table of contents missing
Colour combinations used are not optimal
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Foreground and background of top menus (white vs. greenish/bluish)
Critical problems in Calendar, Forums
Default size of the text used in some pages is too small
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Folder names, learning material, assessment, learning units, …
Specify language with lang attribute
Proper descriptions in ALT and TITLE tags
Explicitly associate the form controls and their labels with the LABEL
element
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Forums, Assessment
OpenACS/.LRN Fall Conference – Nov. 1-4, 2006 – Boston
http://adenu.ia.uned.es/
Main reported problems (2/3)
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Forums
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Table should have a table header (TH), summary and caption for the
table, while layout should be controlled by css
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Need to be avoided, or properly commented
TITLE attributes for the frames are empty
Reconsidering the way LORS and IMS-LD packages are displayed
Applets
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E.g. table under "members” does not
Frames
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An iframe is used and does not have a title
Alt text for expanding the thread (upside down orange triangle) is "+“
Used in LORS
Metadata to give semantics
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keywords, author, date, ...
OpenACS/.LRN Fall Conference – Nov. 1-4, 2006 – Boston
http://adenu.ia.uned.es/
Main reported problems (3/3)
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Mark up lists and list items properly.
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Use header elements to convey document structure
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UL elements can only include LI elements, but not P, BR or B, which are
format elements and should be applied from the CSS.
h1 and h2 tags are used to give format to the titles!!!
Documents have to validate to published formal grammars
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The same ID attribute is used several times in many pages
ABSMIDDLE or BASELINE are not valid values for the attribute align.
Attributes that do not exist are used: e.g. REMEMBER
Deprecated attributes are used: e.g. BORDER
Style element can only be used in the head, not in the body.
in the forums: div style="clear: both;“
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Use style sheets to control layout and presentation
OpenACS/.LRN Fall Conference – Nov. 1-4, 2006 – Boston
Practical Guidelines
http://adenu.ia.uned.es/
Guidelines
Guidelines for accessible and usable web sites:
“Observing Users Who Work With Screen Readers” Theofanos and Redish (2003)
• http://redish.net/content/papers/interactions.html
Usability testing with people with disabilities
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Understand the relationship between accessibility and usability
Understand how blind and low-vision users work with Web sites
Develop research-based guidelines for accessibility and usability
Assess the usability of specific Web sites for blind and low-vision
users
32 guidelines grouped by:
• Using a Screen Reader
• Navigating through Web Sites
• Filling Out Forms
OpenACS/.LRN Fall Conference – Nov. 1-4, 2006 – Boston
http://adenu.ia.uned.es/
Other references
Books, Sites, and Guidelines on Accessible Web Design
http://www.wac.ohio-state.edu/resources/sites.html
• Books aimed at developers who already have some experience
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coding web pages and project managers and administrators who
need to be informed about accessibility, solid usability principles, and
web standards.
Web Accessibility Center at Ohio State University
OpenACS/.LRN Fall Conference – Nov. 1-4, 2006 – Boston
AJAX
http://adenu.ia.uned.es/
Ajax
Asynchronous Javascript and XML
mix of old technologies and new ideas
incremental update of portions of a Web page without reloading the entire
page.
On the fly reloading of pages
speeds up the Web, avoiding the need to reload the page
how users and assisstive technologies identify slight page changes?
• Screen readers have to read the page from the beginning
• Partially sighted work on subpges
If javascript is off, do it in ‘the old way’
OpenACS/.LRN Fall Conference – Nov. 1-4, 2006 – Boston
http://adenu.ia.uned.es/
10 "Must Read" articles on AJAX,
Accessibility and Web 2 technology
http://soap.stanford.edu/show.php?contentid=65
1.
2.
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6.
AJAX Accessibility Overview
• http://www-306.ibm.com/able/resources/ajaxaccessibility.html
Accessibility of AJAX Applications
• http://webaim.org/techniques/ajax/
AJAX and Screenreaders: When Can it Work?
• http://www.sitepoint.com/article/ajax-screenreaders-work
Accessible Javascript guidelines
• http://cookiecrook.com/AIR/2003/train/jsguidelines.php
Why Ajax Sucks (Most of the Time)
• http://www.usabilityviews.com/ajaxsucks.html
Making AJAX work with screen readers
• http://juicystudio.com/article/making-ajax-work-with-screen-readers.php
OpenACS/.LRN Fall Conference – Nov. 1-4, 2006 – Boston
Some recommendations from
standards-schmandards.com
http://adenu.ia.uned.es/
 http://www.standards-schmandards.com/2005/ajax-andaccessibility
 Inform the user that the page is updated dynamically
• screen reader users can decide when to trigger a re-read of the
page
 Send alerts when information is updated
• alert boxes are read by screen readers and usually displayed with a
sound
 Highlight recently updated areas for a short period of time
 Don’t let the user fill in forms that cannot submit
• Inform the user at the top or detect javascript automatically and
warn
OpenACS/.LRN Fall Conference – Nov. 1-4, 2006 – Boston
Validation
http://adenu.ia.uned.es/
Validation
Technical guidelines can be automatically managed and
validated
But others require the manual (human) involvement
The ALT and TITLE tags are filled, but the content is good?
Accessibility content guidelines
• Structuring the contents: key idea paragraphs, main point at the
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beginning, …
Terminology: standard names, pronunciation by screen readers,
Additional information about the contents: descriptions,
acronyms, headings, …
OpenACS/.LRN Fall Conference – Nov. 1-4, 2006 – Boston
http://adenu.ia.uned.es/
Validation
Meeting just the accessibility guidelines defined
by the WAI standards
(or the national implementations such as the
American Section 508, the UK SENDA, the Italian
Stanca, or the German BITV)
does not necessarily mean that the contents are
accessible for all
But it is a BIG step forward
OpenACS/.LRN Fall Conference – Nov. 1-4, 2006 – Boston
http://adenu.ia.uned.es/
Validation
End-user evaluations are needed
User evaluation (real users using assitive devices)
Expert evaluation
Important feedback for .LRN will be gathered by aDeNu
Group from the following projects:
FAA (Open and Flexible Training)
EU4ALL (European Unified Approach for Accessible Life Long Learning)
ALPE (Accessible Learning Platform for Europe)
OpenACS/.LRN Fall Conference – Nov. 1-4, 2006 – Boston
Thanks for your attention
Any Questions?