[Athen] Online homework systems

[Kara Zirkle]

Here is the Pearson accessibility POC:  Thurston, Jonathan <jonathan.thurston at pearson.com<mailto:jonathan.thurston at pearson.com>>


He has been great to work with and has even gotten me in touch with specific SME folks per academic topic such as MyMath Labs, etc.

Kara Zirkle
IT Accessibility Coordinator
Direct Phone: 703-993-9815
Main Line: 703-993-4329
Web: ati.gmu.edu
Twitter: @AccessibleMason

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Randa Roland
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2016 4:02 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Online homework systems

Thank you!

On Wed, Jun 1, 2016 at 12:53 PM, Hackett, Connie <cmhackett at stcc.edu<mailto:cmhackett at stcc.edu>> wrote:
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<mailto: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<mailto: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<http://www.pcc.edu/access>
Portland Community College
971-722-4720<tel:971-722-4720>
Twitter: @ksorensun

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--
Connie Hackett
Assistive Technology Technician
Springfield Technical Community College
413.755.4082<tel:413.755.4082>
cmhackett at stcc.edu<mailto:cmhackett at stcc.edu>

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