ePortfolios for EveryoneAccessibility in Mahara

Presented by Catalyst IT // 20th March 2014

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Why accessibility?(and what is it anyway?)

• It’s about allowing as many people as possible to use your website• It affects a lot of people• It’s not hard• You write better code• You won’t get sued

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Who's it for?Example personas

HanakoJapanese student

Blind

MartinLecturer

Low motor skills

DougMature student

Low motor skills

JuliaIndependent

Low vision

How is it done?

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How is it done?Following standards

• Descriptive text for images and labels for form elements• Semantic elements for headings, lists, buttons, etc.

Benefits Hanako and Julia

“Overdue”

“Completed” “Search”

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How is it done?Keyboard accessibility

• Drag and drop• Dropdown menus

Benefits Hanako, Julia and Doug

↑

Enter

↓

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How is it done?Use of colour

• Contrast between text and background• Contrasting links

Benefits Mike and Julia

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How is it done?Logical ordering

• HTML is in a logical order• The default tab order isn’t modified

Benefits Hanako, Julia and Doug

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What about the rest of us?Do we get any benefits?

• Simplicity• Usability• Maintainability• SEO

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LinksBug reports - http://bit.do/mahara-accessibility-launchpad

Patches - http://bit.do/mahara-accessibility-gerrit

Developers' checklist - http://bit.do/mahara-checklist