[Athen] ‘Glacial Progress’ on Digital Accessibility

[Nicolaas Matthijs]

Hi David,

In case it helps, Ally is a tool that integrates with multiple Learning Management Systems. Because of that, this data study contains data that goes beyond just the Bb Learn LMS and should therefore be a fairer representation of the state of things.

It might also be worth noting that the data study only evaluated the instructor-generated course content and did not look at the accessibility of the LMS itself.

Hope that helps,
Nicolaas



> On 19 May 2017, at 09:54, David Wisniewski <davew at brandeis.edu> wrote:

> 

> 

>> On May 19, 2017, at 11:30 AM, Jennifer Sutton <jsuttondc at gmail.com> wrote:

>> 

>> In case you've not seen this from Inside Higher Ed. It seems to be based on research via Blackboard/Ally.

> 

> Yes, based on 700,000 courses reviewed in Blackboard.

> 

> It is unfortunate that this was presented as a sweeping evaluation of the state of things.  Would one ask Microsoft to provide a summary of smartphone trends?  It seems that limiting scope to one provider and one system is hardly the way to evaluate progress.

> 

> That said, it is positive that the issue is even raised.  There are some good comments after the article.  One caught my eye, by user ‘Red Orville’:  "Try navigating a course in Bb Learn with a screen reader. When the LMS itself is hardly "accessible," it makes it hard for campuses to create truly accessible courses.”

> 

> It seems Blackboard as a platform for evaluation really was an interesting choice.

> 

> David

> 

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