[Athen] JAWS and Canvas

[Erin Lauridsen]

Hi Robert,
I've recently done some testing of Canvas with JAWS, NVDA, and
VoiceOver. Do you know what screen reader the student is using?
Canvas employs ARIA landmarks and regions to provide semantic
structure to page content for screen reader users, sometimes to the
exclusion of heading structure. I found Jaws and NVDA were better able
to detect the ARIA markup than VoiceOver.
Additionally, when replying to discussion threads, one uses a WYSIWYG
text editor. It has some nice accessibility features, but again,
support varied across the screen readers.
If you have additional information on what the student is
experiencing, I might be able to provide some specific tips.

Best,
Erin


On 6/5/14, John Paul Harris <harris_jp at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Robert,

>

>

>

> I have tested Canvas primarily with NVDA.  It falls in the category of

> accessible, but not fully 'simple and intuitive' for a screenreader user.

> In Canvas most everything is structured as a list.  I can navigate with the

> "l" key to move from list to list.  On the Canvas landing page, this is the

> best way to get to the link for Discussions.  The actual discussion page

> includes a large list to contain the discussion items.  The discussion

> items

> are links within a list.  The list is usually very large, because every

> discussion item has 3 associated links.  At this point I use the Tab key to

> move to discussion items.

>

>

>

> Our Canvas setup includes a nice "skip to content" link on every page that

> will take you directly to the main list for the page.  Using the "skip to

> content" link navigating to the discussion list is one-click.  I thought

> the

> "skip to content" link was a feature in all Canvas installations.  We did

> work with IT to modify our Canvas installation.  So, the student's

> experience might be different.  However, hopefully the suggestions work.

>

>

>

> JP

>

>

>

> From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On

> Behalf Of Robert Beach

> Sent: Thursday, June 5, 2014 11:07 AM

> To: Access Technology Higher Education Network

> (athen-list at u.washington.edu)

> Subject: [Athen] JAWS and Canvas

>

>

>

> Hi all,

>

>

>

> I don't have access to Canvas to test, but I received a question from

> another list.  A student is having difficulties with the discussion boards.

> Any tips?

>

>

>

>

>

> Robert Lee Beach

>

> Assistive Technology Specialist

>

> Kansas City Kansas Community College

>

> 7250 State Avenue

>

> Kansas City, KS  66112

>

> 913-288-7671

>

> rbeach at kckcc.edu <mailto:rbeach at kckcc.edu>

>

>

>

>



-- 
Erin Lauridsen
Screen Reader Specialist
University of Michigan
erinlau at umich.edu
(734) 764-7825