[Using Sakai] Sakai unusable by blind student

[Jeff Davidson]

Diego:

We have recently requested and a community Jira has been created for
requiring alt text for images using the Sakai editor to help with
accessibility compliance.

We are focusing on our course accessibility to ensure all PDFs, videos and
images are accessible (those things over which we have control beyond Sakai
itself).

The issue of accessibility will likely become more and more prominent and a
priority for all universities in the future.

Jeff


On Fri, Mar 20, 2015 at 9:25 AM, Diego del Blanco Orobitg <
diego.delblanco.sakai at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Marilyn:
>
> I'm not expert at all in accessibility, but this that you are commenting
> is very important.
> I don't know what images, the user is finding with the alphanumeric code
> becuase most of the images in Sakai Skin have a normal name... maybe these
> images has been uploaded by the instructors that created the content. Or
> maybe they are Sakai images.
>
> Anyway, some time ago, for one customer I had, we designed a patch to
> allow select the skin by user, so a user can have a different skin and view
> the platform in other way. We did some skins with high contrast and bigger
> size of the letters. Maybe this idea can go beyond that, and if we were
> able to to create a skin with a very simplified interface without any
> images that worked better for the screen readers, and assign it to people
> that needs that, it would make things easier for all.
>
> Review all the sakai images and change the name for something more
> descritptive and add an "alt" on them surely is something that can be done
> too and I think it won't need a lot of work.
>
> In the other hand, again, one thing is Sakai interface and other is the
> content that the teacher uploads. Maybe a way to make mandatory the "alt"
> field when a teacher uploads an image, or/and, some education for the
> instructors when they create the contents or questions, can help too.
>
> About the first solution I proposed some time ago to change skin when you
> enter with a parameter in the URL,...
> https://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/KNL-860  but this was not introduced
> in the main code. It's an option. I'd like more another option to allow to
> you, as a user, to select your own skin in preferences. So we can have
> skins for screen readers, high contrast skins, big fonts skins... or any
> other thing that helps the people with accessibility problems.
>
> I propose the accessibility group to think about this. I think that Sakai,
> with the new Morpheus skin, has an opportunity to improve this question.
>
> Diego
>
>
>
>
> 2015-03-20 6:35 GMT-07:00 Marilyn Dispensa <mdispensa at ithaca.edu>:
>
>>  Hi everyone,
>>
>>
>>  A blind student on campus has been sharing his experiences with various
>> technologies.  He says Sakai is extremely difficult to use and has the
>> disability office take content from Sakai site and deliver to him
>> separately.  I didn't get much specifics but when using JAWS he says there
>> are many images that have a long alphanumeric file name and unless he
>> memorizes those numbers, he can't navigate. He said it took 3 hours to take
>> a 12 question quiz.
>>
>>
>>  I've noticed that Sakai Project has accessibility efforts
>> https://sakaiproject.org/accessibility
>>
>> And the wiki actually talked a bout
>>
>>
>>  T
>> <https://confluence.sakaiproject.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=82250209>here
>> also seems to be an accessibility working group.
>>
>>
>> https://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/2ACC/Accessibility+Working+Group
>> ​
>>
>> It seems like there is some testing done, but it is unclear about the
>> completeness of that effort.
>>
>>
>>  I'm curious if anyone has any experience with Sakai and actual visually
>> impaired students. If he agrees, I might try to record his experience and
>> share it  with the community.
>>
>> Maybe there is a user issue or maybe there's a way to go on this.
>>
>> Marilyn
>>
>>
>>   --------------------------------------
>> Marilyn Dispensa
>> Instructional Technology Coordinator
>> Information Technology Services
>> Ithaca College
>> 953 Danby Road
>> Ithaca, NY
>> 607-274-3647
>> mdispensa at ithaca.edu
>> http://www.ithaca.edu/its/iss
>> @indispenzable
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> *Diego del Blanco Orobitg*
> Spain & LATAM Regional Manager (*ANI Sakai <http://www.anisakai.es/>*)
> Apereo LATAM Representative (*Apereo Foundation <http://www.apereo.org/>*)
>
> Ph: +1-480-521-8527
> Em: ddelblanco at anisakai.com
> Sk: ddelblanco.ani
>
>
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-- 
Jeff Davidson
Manager, Learning Mgt Syst Srvs
USAonline
University of South Alabama
(251) 380-2845
(251) 380-2713 (fax)
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