Accessibility and Sakai

Accessibility and SakaiCurrent Status and 2.x

--Mike Elledge, University of Michigan

Future Directions/TILE Demonstration--Jutta Treviranus, University of Toronto

--Anastasia Cheetham, University of Toronto

June 9, 2005 Accessibility: Current Status and 2.xMichael Elledge, University of Michigan 2

Accessibility and Sakai

• Acknowledgements– Tim Altom, Indiana University– Gonzalo Silverio, University of Michigan– Chuck Severance, University of Michigan– Glenn Golden, University of Michigan– Sakai Tools Team– Sakai Accessibility Team


Topics

• Where We Want To Be

• Where We Are

• How to Get There


Where We Want to Be

• Achieve Sakai’s Accessibility Mission– The Sakai Accessibility Team is responsible for

ensuring that the Sakai framework and its tools are accessible to persons with disabilities…

– “…access to and use of information and data that is comparable to…members of the public who are not individuals with disabilities.”1

1Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973


Where We Want To Be

• Full implementation of Sakai’s Accessibility Style Guide– Compiled Core and SEPP requirements– Conducted analysis of Sakai 1.0– Built on WCAG 1.0

• A, AA, and selected AAA compliance• “Section 508 Plus”


Sakai Accessibility Documents

• Documents related to Sakai Accessibility:– Core/SEPP Requirements– Sakai Accessibility Mission Statement– Sakai Accessibility Style Guide– Indiana University Sakai 1.5 Accessibility Testing– Accessibility Team Analysis of CTNG (Sakai 1.0)

• All can be found in the Accessibility section in Confluence:

http://bugs.sakaiproject.org/confluence/display/2ACC/Home

http://bugs.sakaiproject.org/confluence/display/2ACC/Home


Where We Want To Be

• Provide a tool that enables:– Heading-based scanning of content and

functional areas– Link-based navigation among tools– Intrasite navigation via accesskeys– Extended descriptions– Tips for Adaptive Technology (AT) users


Where We Are

• The iFrame Challenge– iFrames in Sakai don’t have self-awareness

• Don’t know about the content they contain• Makes unique page and frame titling difficult

– Can be confusing to AT users• Adds another level of complexity


Where We Are

• The Portal Challenge– Does not include access elements:

• Skip links, accesskeys• Headings, link titles• Tabindexes

– Result: Navigation not integrated with tools


Where We Are

• Refactored Sakai Tools– Completed:

• Announcements, assignments, chat, email archive, discussions, home, membership, news, preferences, schedule, web content, page wrapper

– Informed by Accessibility Style Guide:• Alt tags, table headers, headings, form labels, title tags • Tools linearalize, are CSS-based

– Reviewed by JAWS user for usability


Where We Are

• Minimized the Refresh Problem– Continuous refresh precluded AT user access by

sending AT users to the top of the page– Visible page refreshing has been turned off by default

and coded so that it won’t trip browsers or screen readers

– Will be event based in future, alerting user to new content


Bottom Line

• Where we are:– Not Section 508 Compliant

• Where we want to be:– Meet Section 508 requirements by next major

release– Exceed Section 508 in future


How To Get There

• Short Term Goal: Become Section 508 compliant by fall

• Plan:– Resolve portal problems– Finish tool refactoring– Screen tools for Section 508 compliance– Test and tweak tools for usability*

*May be outside of 2005 scope


How To Get There

• Resources– Indiana University AT Lab– University of Michigan Usability Lab– University of Toronto – AT units at other core institutions

• MIT• Stanford• UC Berkeley• Foothill-DeAnza


How To Get There

• Resolve Portal Problems– Immediate: Revise existing portal– Fall release: Develop new, non-frame portal


Where We Want To Be

• Wireframe example– Containing skips, accesskeys, frame titling,

and headings– Demonstrate with JAWS

• JAWS rendering follows


Where We ArePage has three frames, one heading and fifteen links localhost colon Administration Workspace colon Home dash Mozilla Firefox This page link Content skip alt plus c vertical bar This page link Tools skip alt plus l vertical bar Heading level one Worksites begin here Heading level two Worksite number one Worksite number two Heading level one Tools begin here List of twelve items bullet This page link Home bullet Link Users bullet Link Aliases bullet Link Sites bullet Link Realms bullet Link Worksite Setup bullet Link MOTD bullet Link Resources bullet Link On dash Line bullet Link Memory bullet Link Site Archive bullet Link Help List end Heading level one Content begins here Heading level two Tool Title Heading level three Tool Content Footer goes here Link Graphic Powered by Sakai left paren c right paren two thousand three two thousand four two thousand five sakaiproject.org.


How To Get There

• Finish Tool Refactoring– Extend refactoring across all tools– Heuristic review for Section 508 compliance

for all tools, including Gradebook and Samigo (Testing and Quizzes)


How To Get There

• Formal Tool Evaluation– Usability Testing

• AT user subjects• Test all tools and revised portal• Renovate tools based on results

– May not (realistically speaking) be completed by end of 2005


How To Get There

• Beyond 20051. Learner Preference-based content delivery

• TILE approach• Mitigates accessibility issues• Addresses multiple device requirements

2. Promote and facilitate accessible course materials

3. Support accessible tool development by SEPP


How To Get There

• Presentation and Demo of TILE by Jutta Treviranus and Anastasia Cheetham of University of Toronto


Questions For Attendees

• What is your reaction to the plan?

• What issues do you see?

• Have you had any similar experiences that you’d like to share?

• Have we overlooked anything?

• Should we have a BOF?


Questions for Sakai?


Contact Information

Mike Elledge

Software Accessibility/Usability Specialist

2281 Bonisteel Blvd.

University of Michigan

Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Phone: 734-764-3593

Email: [email protected]