[Athen] Online homework systems

[Hackett, Connie]

You might want to look into the Pearson. They have a MyChemistryLab and
MyMathLab. They have made incredible progress creating accessible programs
(not all are completely accessible yet but they continually working to make
it happen). We have a student who is deaf-blind that will be taking
Accounting and Finance courses in the fall semester. I have been working
with Pearson for a couple of years regarding accessibility. Our student did
a some testing recently with JAWS and a braille display and was
successfully able to navigate MyAccountingLab.

On Wed, Jun 1, 2016 at 3:29 PM, Randa Roland <randaro at ucsc.edu> wrote:


> Thank you! That helps immensely.

>

> Randa

>

> On Jun 1, 2016, at 12:19 PM, Karen Sorensen <karen.sorensen at pcc.edu>

> wrote:

>

> Hi Randa,

> Not a dumb question at all! Very astute in my opinion. You will not get

> straightforward answers from publishers who want to sell you their product.

> Publishers online homework systems are notoriously inaccessible. And

> chemistry and math are some of the more challenging subjects to make

> accessible.

> We did a quick screen reader test with OWLv2 and found that the Try

> another version button wasn't accessible. It also was difficult for our

> screen reader user/tester to get from the question link to the content part

> of the page, but that's more of a usability issue.

> We tried testing WebAssign but never could get the screen reader set up in

> the way they claimed would make it read the equations and notations

> correctly. And what it could read, couldn't be read one character at a

> time, making it very difficult for a student who is blind to study the

> equation.

> I'm not familiar enough with the other products specifically, but I am

> familiar with other products from the same companies and would guess that

> they aren't any further along accessibility wise.

> I would also urge you to ask about the accessibility of the textbook

> content as that is what the homework system will use. The images should

> have sufficient alt text and equations and scientific notation should be in

> MathML.

> Our Chemistry instructor who teaches online likes Cengage Owlv2, so she is

> working with the Cengage folks to make the areas we found to be

> inaccessible, accessible or to develop accessible alternatives. The course

> is supposed to be ready for fall. I'll try to write you and let you know

> how successful they were or you can write me in August.

> Hope that helps!

> Best,

> Karen

> Karen M. Sorensen

> Accessibility Advocate for Online Courses

> www.pcc.edu/access

> Portland Community College

> 971-722-4720

> Twitter: @ksorensun

>

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-- 
Connie Hackett
Assistive Technology Technician
Springfield Technical Community College
413.755.4082
cmhackett at stcc.edu

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