A presentation made on Aug 6 at Simon Fraser University to a Master's of Education program class focused on selecting an LMS. My presentation focused on how people with disabilities use technology, and may encounter barriers, and techniques administrators and course designers can use to increase inclusion and access for all learners.

1. LMS and Accessibility

2. Poll Everywhere
• https://www.polleverywhere.com/my/polls

10. Disability and Access Technology

12. Types of Accessibility / Disability
• Vision
• Auditory
• Cognitive
• Mobility
Graphic from Deque Systems
http://www.deque.com

13. Moodle Demo with Jaws
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDGDnLh5QV
A&t=01m39s

14. ZoomText
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqLo_Om
pFmU#t=90

15. Video with Accessible Controls
• http://learn.neilsquire.ca/mod/page/view.php
?id=21778

16. Video with Captions
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj-
NG778mkY#t=93

17. Literacy
• http://learn.neilsquire.ca/mod/page/view.php
?id=21779

18. Dragon Naturally Speaking
• Dragon Naturally Speaking Demo (C2)
• https://www.atomiclearning.com/k12/dragon
-naturally-speaking-13-training

19. LMS and Accessibility

20. Common LMS issues
• Sheer complexity (less is more)
• Navigation (lack of headings, simple links vs
unordered lists)
• Alternate Text to pictures (alt=“”)
• Multiple images/icons/buttons/links with
same text description
• VPAT – Voluntary Product Accessibility
Template

21. Simple Accessibility Tests
• Clean HTML
– <h1>
– <alt="">
– Click here?
• “Skip To” links
• Tab through Page
• Highlight Page
• Captcha
• Firefox plugins – Fangs, Wave

22. Firefox plugins – Fangs, Wave
• Washington Accessibility Examples
• http://www.washington.edu/accesscomputing
/AU/
• Wave Toolbar (Firefox)
• Fangs

23. What can you do: Open Source
• Hack locally
• Contribute fixes
• Submit Bug Reports
• Collaborate with Working Groups

24. Creating Accessible Content

25. Present content in multiple ways
All non-text content should be paired with a text
alternative. In practice, this means:
• ‘Alt tags’ for images written to clearly describe
what the image depicts
• Videos with captions describing the audio
track
• Audio with a text transcript
• Form inputs labeled

26. Videos and other visual multimedia content
such as infographics, GIFs, and animations
should be paired with a description. For
example:
• A text description of the content, for screen
readers
• An audio description
Present content in multiple ways

27. Organize, structure, & make content clear
Screen readers read the markup, not the page
presented visually in the web browser.
• Don’t just bold titles and headers—use ‘styles’ for
headings: H1, H2, H3, H4.
• Don’t use hyphens for lists—use the bulleted or
numbered list styles.
• Don’t use tables to style content—but do use them
if you are presenting an actual table of data.
• Don’t use colored or highlighted text to make
passages stand out—use bold for importance, italic
for emphasis, and blockquote for call-outs or quotes.

28. Organize, structure, & make content clear
• Avoid using color on its own to distinguish or
organize content, as color-blind users might
have difficulty discerning differences.
• Ensure sufficient contrast—dark and light—
between visual elements.

29. Make content and navigation consistent
• Consistent Navigation / menus
• Create a “first visit” tour or “Welcome Course”

30. Case Studies

31. Google
• https://prezi.com/-smyfoyvagiz/accessibility-
and-google/

32. University of Guelph
• Common LMS Accessibility Issues and Tips
• https://www.uoguelph.ca/tss/projects/LMSac
cessibilitytips.pdf

33. BC Open Textbook Accessibility Toolkit
• http://opentextbc.ca/accessibilitytoolkit/

35. Moodle Screen Reader
• http://learn.neilsquire.ca/mod/page/view.php
?id=21881

36. LMS and Accessibility