[Athen] Canvas Accessibility

Joshua Hori jhori at ucdavis.edu
Wed Jan 20 16:49:39 PST 2016


Hello Liz!


We just switched to Canvas last week! We did a lot of evaluations over the last 2 years of 5 different LMS's with both the mobile apps and web, finding the Canvas team extremely responsive, issuing accessibility fixes within 2 weeks of reports. We were floored. (we were looking at Canvas, D2L, Sakai, +2 more which were not considered after their RFP submission)


D2L, while accessible, wasn't as intuitive as Canvas to our instructors. We're currently using Sakai, so no testing was done on that.


So, what are the things that I'm going to have to watch out for?

- Captioned videos (create a library of responses to minimize future costs)

- Accessible LTI (Piazza, BlueCanary, McGraw Hill Smartbooks, Pearson Smartbooks, etc.)

- Grading papers: Was very mouse orientated during our demo's, which we requested to have keyboard/touch support as well.

- Math accessibility

- 3D files

- other STEM content


What are some bonuses?

- Easy setting extended times for quizzes and tests!

- Testing within LMS soon? Respondus<https://www.respondus.com/products/lockdown-browser/> looks VERY promising.

- Need additional services for your LMS? Look into different types of LTI<https://www.imsglobal.org/cc/alltools.cfm> to implement. Just remember to consider privacy, security, AND accessibility before purchasing.


Mostly, we'll have to be interacting with content creators for the next decade to get these issues worked out. The developers have created an accessible LMS, but it's the content creators who can make it inaccessible. This is where Universal Design is really going to take off. That UDOIT site Jiatyan pointed out is really going to help, the problem will be getting people to use it.


You can also join one of the LMS ATHENPro listservs to find out more: http://collaborate.athenpro.org/group/


Best,


Joshua Hori

Accessible Technology Analyst

Student Disability Center

University of California, Davis


________________________________
From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu> on behalf of Jiatyan Chen <jiatyan at stanford.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2016 3:41 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Cc: altmedia at htclistserv.htctu.fhda.edu
Subject: Re: [Athen] Canvas Accessibility

Hello Liz,

I've used both systems, and I have been on the LMS evaluation team. They are both active in making their LMS accessible. D2L had a 5-year accessibility roadmap last I heard (2 years ago?). Canvas is a new LMS and their CEO is a usability person. Both have active user groups for focussing on accessibility.

As LMSes, D2L has more features than Canvas, but that comes at the price of usability (complexity). Canvas has a cleaner interface and simpler workflows. Both the UI are designed for pedagogy (vs file folder hierarchy). Part of your decision should be the maturity of your faculty with online learning - if they are advanced uses, they are probably not going to be satisfied with the features in Canvas).

As for content accessibility, UCF wrote UDOIT, an accessibility content scanner for Canvas. <http://online.ucf.edu/teach-online/resources/udoit/>
[http://online.ucf.edu/files/2015/04/udoit_logo-300x105.png]<http://online.ucf.edu/teach-online/resources/udoit/>

UDOIT: Universal Design Online content Inspection Tool ...<http://online.ucf.edu/teach-online/resources/udoit/>
online.ucf.edu
What is UDOIT? The Universal Design Online content Inspection Tool, or UDOIT (pronounced, “You Do It”) enables faculty to identify accessibility issues in ...


MSU has a similar scanner for D2L. Let me know if you need the contact.

--
Jiatyan Chen
Online Accessibility Program Manager
Office of Public Affairs
Stanford University

On 2016 Jan 19, at 13:55, Prickett, Elizabeth <Elizabeth.Prickett at victoriacollege.edu<mailto:Elizabeth.Prickett at victoriacollege.edu>> wrote:

Good afternoon!

Our college currently uses Blackboard, but our Distance Education unit is looking into a new LMS. They are currently considering and demoing Canvas. I’ve found this summer’s version of their VPAT online and some other materials, but I’m curious about actual user experience with accessibility. Are any of your schools using Canvas? Have you or your students (or staff/faculty) with disabilities encountered any accessibility or usability challenges? It sounds like they may be checking out D2L as well, so if anyone has any experience with D2L pros and cons, that would be great, too. I’ve used Blackboard as an instructor, and I’ve used D2L for a short MOOC as a student, so I have some experience with those interfaces.

Does anyone know of any recent LMS accessibility comparison studies? I’ve only been able to locate ones which are several years old.

Thanks so much for your insight!

Liz Prickett
Alternative Media Specialist
Center for Academic & Professional Excellence (CAPE)
Victoria College
2200 E. Red River Street
Victoria, TX 77901
Elizabeth.Prickett at VictoriaCollege.edu<mailto:Elizabeth.Prickett at VictoriaCollege.edu>
(361) 573-3291, ext. 3243


_______________________________________________
athen-list mailing list
athen-list at mailman13.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at mailman13.u.washington.edu>
http://mailman13.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/athen-list

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman12.u.washington.edu/pipermail/athen-list/attachments/20160121/4a255b3f/attachment.html>


More information about the athen-list mailing list