Accessibility and Moodle:Accessibility and Moodle:Jailbreak your LMSJailbreak your LMS

Agenda for the SessionAgenda for the Session

• Neil Squire who? What do these guys do?

• Accessibility–Types and things to consider–What does Moodle do?–What should a teacher / instructional designer do?–What customizations we’ve done?

• Jailbreak

• Get Engaged with Accessibility

Who are these guys?Who are these guys?

IntroductionIntroduction

The Neil Squire Society has for over 25 years empowered people with physical disabilities through knowledge, technology, and passion.

Offices:–Burnaby, BC–Regina, SK–Ottawa, ON–Fredericton & Moncton, NB

Neil Squire and eNeil Squire and e--LearningLearning

• Two major programs delivered through Blended e-Learning:

– Employ-Ability • 12 week Career and Wellness Program

– Computer Comfort • one-on-one computer tutoring program, lead by volunteers

• Delivered with partners throughout the country

Neil Squire: Reach of ProjectsNeil Squire: Reach of Projects

Technology for ConnectivityTechnology for Connectivity

• Elluminate (Web Conference)

• TeamViewer / VNC

• Moodle (LMS)

Computer Materials MashupComputer Materials Mashup

• Microsoft Digital Literacy

• Moodle Commons

• OpenCoursewareConsortium

• GCF Learn Free

• Existing Neil Squire Society resources

AccessibilityAccessibility

Types of Accessibility / DisabilityTypes of Accessibility / Disability

• Mobility

• Vision

• Auditory

• Cognitive

Why Accessibility?Why Accessibility?

• Uber - use case

• Better usability

• Scalability

• Legality

Support doesnSupport doesn’’t stop at the servert stop at the server

• User Assistive Technologies

http://solutions.neilsquire.ca

Future AccessibilityFuture Accessibility

• WAI-ARIA–Web Accessibility Initiative: Accessible Rich Internet

Applications

• HTML5

• Browser Adoption

What Does Moodle Do?What Does Moodle Do?

** we are on 1.9

Accessibility UpdateAccessibility Update

• Moodle 1.6 & 1.8?

• “Skip to”

• Requires “Alt” Tags

• Screen Reader profile field

What doesnWhat doesn’’t Moodle dot Moodle do

• Theme is not separate layer, more of a “skin”

• User interface is built by Moodle, not your theme (semantics come from database and function calls)–Find .lib file that produces bad semantics–Override it in the theme

What Can You Do?What Can You Do?

Accessibility TestingAccessibility Testing

Quick tests

•Select All

•Fangs (Firefox plugin)

•Tab-through page

Accessibility PitfallsAccessibility Pitfalls

• AJAX (flaw that can’t be fixed for all browsers)

• Flash (poorly/commonly developed)

• Moodle modules

Semantic MarkSemantic Mark--upup

All users•Separate meaning from appearance. •Use CSS for appearance

•Don’t “click here”•If it’s a list, use <li>•If it’s a heading, use <h1> <h2> <h3>•Don’t style with a table, use <div>

Accessibility BlockAccessibility Block

Visual

•Text Size

•Contrast Settings

•*snag with newer Moodle versions

Captioning of VideosCaptioning of Videos

Auditory

•Captioning of videos

Elastic & Liquid ThemeElastic & Liquid Theme

Visual•Elastic: Page scales to font size•Liquid: Page scales to resolution

•Relative ratios instead of fixed pixel values

•“em” Width of letters•% Width of parent block or text

What Did we Do?What Did we Do?

Welcome CourseWelcome Course

Cognitive, Universal Design•Sample course introducing:

– Organization– e-Learning and Moodle– Demos and sample activities– Learning Styles

Marking BlockMarking Block

Cognitive, Visual•Queries facilitator’s participants•Shows the assignments, and who has submitted assignments•Assignments sorted by name (labeled resources)•Clicking the name links directly to their submission

Template AnswersTemplate Answers

Cognitive•Forums/Online Text Assignments – core hack

Duplicate NavigationDuplicate Navigation

Cognitive, Mobility, Vision

•Navigation between resource is both in the Header and Footer

Audio Responses to AnswersAudio Responses to Answers

Cognitive, Universal Design•NanoGong – submit audio for answer

Keyboard Controls for MultimediaKeyboard Controls for Multimedia

VisualMobility

Keyboard Controls for MultimediaKeyboard Controls for Multimedia

Visual, Mobility

Liberated Learning OverviewLiberated Learning Overview

• Consortium of universities utilizing speech recognition technology to enhance accessibility for students with disabilities in the university classroom.

• http://www.transcribeyourclass.ca

Transcribe Your ClassTranscribe Your Class

Liberated Learning PlayerLiberated Learning Player

• Vision, Cognitive

http://moodle.neilsquire.ca/mod/resource/view.php?id=445http://moodle.neilsquire.ca/transcribed/CD/cdf09.php

Audio PlayerAudio Player

Visual, Cognitive

•JavaScript Scrapes text of page•Looks for audio in browser cache•Looks for audio in server cache•Else passes text to TTS web service, retrieves and caches mp3 for text segments•Play sound

Accommodations (EndAccommodations (End--user)user)

• Firefox Language plug-in: highlight2translate

• All Google Translate Languages available

Accommodations (EndAccommodations (End--user)user)

• Firefox Dictionary / Thesaurus plugin

JailbreakJailbreak

Elluminate IntegrationElluminate Integration

Cognitive•User profile field

•Links to assigned classroom•Links to archives of class

•Three line block

Built Multimedia filtersBuilt Multimedia filters

Visual, Mobility•Builds entire accessible player with one line of code in wysiwyg•[[swf|ytORppt|title|url|normalORwide]]

–yt – YouTube–ppt – Flash outputted Power Points–Title – HTML output–url – just ID for YouTube, url for PPT–Aspect ratio

View by RoleView by Role

• Assign site-level roles, sorts alphabetically• Allows easy interface to create groups

PHP LabelsPHP Labels

• Allow PHP code on course page

PHP ResourcesPHP Resources

• Allow PHP code in resource page (separate resource)

PHP Resource ExamplePHP Resource Example

Building the JailbreakerBuilding the Jailbreaker

• Programmed to work only for super-admin

• eval('?>' . $phpage->content . '<?php ');

• “eval is evil”

Get Engaged with Neil SquireGet Engaged with Neil Squire

Distance Computer ComfortDistance Computer Comfort

• Be a one-on-one computer tutor to a Canadian with a disability

• Tutoring done online using Elluminate

• Once a week for two hours

Liberated LearningLiberated Learning

• Liberated Learninghttp://www.transcribeyourclass.ca

• Record your lecture• Upload the audio• Receive a multimedia transcript • First five uploads are edited for accuracy

Work towards AccessibilityWork towards Accessibility

• We provide fee-for-service:

–Consultation–Procedure writing–Site audit–Development–Content creation–Staff training

Thank you for your timeThank you for your time

Chad Leaman –

chadl@neilsquire.ca

Ryan Thomas –

ryant@neilsquire.ca

604 - 473 - 9363