[WG: Accessibility] FW: Sakai is being recognized as "taking accessibility seriously" on the WebAIM e-mail list

[Richwine, Brian L]

Mary found this encouraging take on the Sakai Community on a WebAIM e-mail list:

-----Original Message-----
From: Stores, Mary A. 
Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2010 11:55 AM
To: Richwine, Brian L; Londergan, M D; Humbert, Joseph A
Subject: Sakai is being recognized as "taking accessibility seriously" on the WebAIM e-mail list

Is there anything I should say to them? I'm happy to do something.

Mary


----- Forwarded message from deborah.kaplan at suberic.net -----
    Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2010 11:47:14 -0500 (EST)
    From: deborah.kaplan at suberic.net
Reply-To: WebAIM Discussion List <webaim-forum at list.webaim.org>
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Accessible SCORM Compliant E-Learning Software
      To: WebAIM Discussion List <webaim-forum at list.webaim.org>

Sam asked:

"I am looking for a SCORM compliant e-learning software and authoring tool that is accessible. Ideally, both the authoring tools and the courses they produce should be accessible. "

And Michael Langum responded:

"Don't forget that an accessible course is only half the issue.
You (or you client) will also need to ensure that your Learning Management System (LMS) is also accessible."

I will also add, the classes are only accessible as the course designers make them. No matter how much accessibility is built into the learning management system, if the professor/course designer puts up videos without captions, flash without accessibility, and images without alternative text. Training your faculty/course designers is a huge part of making sure your classes are accessible.

(Also, kudos for making sure that both the authoring tools and the courses be accessible -- many course designers have accessibility needs as well! As do the LMS administrators, so make sure that the administration tools are also accessible.)

In any case, I've been very impressed with both Moodle and Sakai, fairly unimpressed with Blackboard, and exceedingly unimpressed with Angel. The latter two obfuscate what they mean by accessibility and what their accessibility efforts are. Moodle and Sakai, on the other hand, both take accessibility very seriously and are very open about what they mean by accessibility and what their efforts are:

http://docs.moodle.org/en/Moodle_Accessibility_Specification
http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/2ACC/Sakai's+Current+Accessibility

My favorite part of the Moodle accessibility specification is at
<http://docs.moodle.org/en/Moodle_Accessibility_Specification#Rationale_for_Moodle_accessibility>:
the legal, moral, and market argument for taking accessibility seriously.

-Deborah
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----- End forwarded message -----