[Athen] D2L Upgrade to version 10 - screen reader usability issues

Hunziker, Dawn A - (hunziker) hunziker at email.arizona.edu
Mon Aug 19 15:30:36 PDT 2013


Hi all,

I just worked with a faculty member who is trying to get her course set up and ready to go on the University of Arizona's D2L site. We just upgraded to version 10.1 over the summer and there are quite a few changes for navigation. I'm going to list my questions and if it's not clear, please let me know and I'll elaborate or send screen shots if that is appropriate:


1. Discussion area: User has her discussion area set to "Reading view" so that she can have all messages displayed about a topic. As such, the name of the student is listed as a link, then there is date/time information, how many unread messages with a total number of messages on one line. Then the next line shows a link for mark unread, reply and more actions. The following line is the actual text of the message. QUESTION: Is there a way to navigate directly from the linked name to the text of the message, thereby skipping all of the "in-between" links?



2. Content Area: Instructor has imported materials from a previous semester course. In the past, she would go to "Manage Content" and select any files that she wanted to delete, then select the delete button/action. With the new configuration, it looks like you have to select "delete topic" in the "actions" link. This means that she has to select this option for each file she wants to delete rather than a mass delete action. Is there a setting to modify this?



3. Content Area: Reordering of topics/files is done by clicking the object and dragging where I want it placed. How is this completed with a keyboard? The only option I see is in the action menu with a "move up/move down" and when I select one of those options, the file moves one space. Therefore, if I want to move a file located as file number 15 to file number 1, I have to complete this action 14 times? Also, the focus of the keyboard moves so this means I have to navigate back to the file I'm moving all the way from the top of the document. Is there a shortcut or an alternative way to managing files? While this is really nice for most individuals, we just added a whole lot of keystrokes and navigation time to keyboard /screen reader users....


On a separate note: the user was pleasantly surprised and pleased with the work that has been done to create a more accessible discussion feature.

I'm meeting with the user again on Friday to work with her on the new configuration. If any of you have any tips/tricks for the new version, I'd appreciate any/all suggestions.

Thanks!

Dawn

~~
Dawn Hunziker
Coordinator, Technology Access

Disability Resource Center
520-626-9409
hunziker at email.arizona.edu<mailto:hunziker at email.arizona.edu>

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