Sakai 2.4 Accessibility Review

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Last updated: Jan 06, 2010 by Former user (Deleted)Version comment
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This is an archive copy of an accessibility review performed for the Sakai 2.4 release. The results from this review are available on the Sakai 2.4 Accessibility Review Results page. Accessibility Results for the current version of Sakai can be found on the Sakai Current Accessibility Page page.

2.4 Accessibility Review

Prospective testers: Please go to the signup list below and indicate the tool you plan to review by putting your name or initials in the appropriate space. Please note that the following tools and features are high priority, because of significant changes in 2.4, or because they have not been tested recently: Announcements, Calendar Summary, Chat, Forum, Gradebook, Resources, Section Info, Site Info, Syllabus, Tests & Quizzes, Wiki, Worksite Setup, and the following provisional tools: Link, Mail, Page Order Helper, Polls, Roster, Search, SU and User Membership. They are marked with a star (star) . Note that we will be testing 2.5 versions of the Gradebook and Roster tools on a different server.

You can add your name to the table by choosing the "Edit" tab above, clicking on the "Rich Text" tab that appears, scrolling down to the tool you're interested in, and adding your name.

Go to the following pages to find: protocols, templates, and the 2.3 reviews. The amount of time to review a tool will vary by the number of pages it contains; in my experience it takes about half an hour on average to review a page using the combined protocol. Put comments on the comments page and put your reviews as attachments there.

Contact one of the three QA people listed below with questions. Thank you in advance for your help!

TOC

Conference Call

Weekly Meetings
Every other Thursday at 3:30PM EST
Starting November 20 and continuing through February 26, 2008
Dial-in# (812) 856-3600
PIN: 002264#

Meeting Agendas & Notes
Information on connecting to Conference Bridge

Testing Schedule

Activity

Dates

Focus/Notes

2.4 Accessibility Testing Kick-off Meeting

July 2, 10:30 AM

 

2.4 Accessibility Testing

July 2 - July 31

 

2.5 Code Freeze

?

 

2.5 Official Release

February 18

 

2.5 and 2.6 Accessibility Testing

November 20 - February 26 2009

 

QA Contacts

Name

Institution

Email

Phone Number

Accessibility Testing Role

Joe Humbert

Indiana University

johumber@iupui.edu

 

QA Coordination

Margaret Londergan

Indiana University

londerga@indiana.edu

517-353-8977

Accessibility Team Lead

Gonzalo Silverio

University of Michigan

gsilver@umich.edu

 

Interface Developer

Lisa Wilson

UC Davis

lijwilson@ucdavis.edu

530-754-7259

UCD Participant Team Leader

Where to test

Test Server for all tools EXCEPT Gradebook and Roster (WG: Accessibility worksite)
Test Server for 2.5 Gradebook Please contact Megan May for access.
Test Server for 2.5 Roster: TBD

Add your name below to the tool you are interested in testing. Tools marked with an star (red star) are targeted for this round:

Tool Signup

Sakai Enterprise Bundle Components

Tool

JAWS or W-E

WAVE 3.5

Firefox Accessibility Tool

Prior Testing

Attachments

 

 

 

2.3 JAWS

Membership

 

 

 

 

Permissions

 

 

 

2.3 JAWS

Portal

 

 

 

2.2 WAVE/Firefox, 2.1 JAWS

Preferences (JSF)

Renee Echols

 

 

2.3 JAWS

Presence

 

 

 

 

Profile (JSF)

 

 

 

 

Recent (synoptic views)

 

 

 

 

Site Browser

 

 

 

2.3 JAWS

Site Info

(star)

 

Joe Humbert

 

Sakai Enterprise Bundle

Tool

JAWS or W-E

WAVE 3.5

Firefox Accessibility Tool

Prior Testing

Announcements

(star)
Mary Stores

Cynthia York

Cynthia York

2.3 JAWS, 2.2 WAVE/Firefox, 2.2 JAWS

Assignments

 (red star)

Lisa Wilson

Lisa Wilson

2.3 JAWS, 2.1 JAWS

Chat Room

(star)
Mary Stores

 

Joe Humbert

2.3 JAWS, 2.2 WAVE/Firefox, 2.1 JAWS

Discussion

(star)
Mike Elledge

Mike Elledge

Mike Elledge

2.2 WAVE/Firefox, 2.1 JAWS

Drop Box

 

 

 

2.3 JAWS, 2.2 WAVE/Firefox

Email Archive

(red star)

 

 

2.3 JAWS, 2.3 WAVE/Firefox

Email Template Service

(red star)

 

 

 

Forums

(red star)
Mary Stores

Lisa Wilson

Joe Humbert

 

Gradebook

(star)
Mary Stores

Megan May - MMM (2.5 version)

MMM (2.5 version)

2.3 JAWS, 2.2 WAVE/Firefox, 2.1 JAWS

Help

(red star)

 

 

2.3 JAWS

Home

 

Lisa Wilson

Lisa Wilson

2.3 JAWS, 2.1 JAWS

Message Center (now Forums/Messsages)

 

 

 

2.3 JAWS, 2.3 WAVE/Firefox

Messages

(red star)
Mary Stores

Lisa Wilson

Joe Humbert

 

My Workspace

 

 

 

2.3 JAWS

News

 

 

 

2.3 JAWS, 2.1 JAWS

Outline

 

 

 

2.3 JAWS

Post 'Em

 

 

 

2.3 JAWS, 2.3 WAVE/Firefox

Presentation

 

 

 

2.3 JAWS

Resources

(star)
Mary Stores, Renee Echols

Lisa Wilson

Joe Humbert

2.3 JAWS, 2.2 WAVE/Firefox, 2.1 JAWS

Schedule

Renee Echols

 

 

2.3 JAWS, 2.2 WAVE/Firefox

Section Info

(star)
Mary Stores

 

Joe Humbert

2.3 JAWS

Syllabus

(star)
Mary Stores

 

Joe Humbert

2.3 JAWS, 2.3 WAVE/Firefox, 2.1 JAWS

Web Content

 

 

 

2.3 JAWS, 2.3 WAVE/Firefox, 2.1 JAWS

Wiki

(red star)
Mary Stores

 

Joe Humbert

2.3 JAWS, 2.3 WAVE/Firefox

Worksite Setup

(star)
, Renee Echols

 

 

 

Provisional Tools

Tool

JAWS or W-E

WAVE 3.5

Firefox Accessibility Tool

Prior Testing

Become User (in Admin Workspace)

(star)
Mary Stores

 

Joe Humbert

 

Blogger

(red star)

 

 

2.3 JAWS, 2.3 WAVE/Firefox

Link

(star)
Mary Stores

 

Joe Humbert

 

Mail

(star)
Mary Stores

 

Joe Humbert

 

Page Order Helper Tool (in Site Info)

(star)
Mary Stores

 

Joe Humbert

 

Podcasts

 

 

 

2.3 JAWS, 2.3 WAVE/Firefox

Polls

(red star)
Mary Stores

 

Joe Humbert

 

Roster

(star)
Mary Stores

 

Joe Humbert

2.3 WAVE/Firefox, 2.1 JAWS

Search

(star)
Mary Stores

 

Joe Humbert

 

Tests and Quizzes (was Samigo)

 

 

 

 

User Membership Tool (in Admin Workspace)

(star)
Mary Stores

 

Joe Humbert

 

OSP Tool Bundle (Provisional)-- Sakai 2.5 and 2.6

Tool

JAWS or W-E

WAVE 3.5

Firefox Accessibility Tool

Prior Testing

OSP: Audience Tool

(red star)

 

 

 

OSP: Comments

(red star)

 

 

 

OSP: Data Warehouse

(red star)

 

 

 

OSP: Glossary

(red star)

 

 

 

OSP: Guidance

(red star)

 

 

 

OSP: Portal

(red star)

 

 

 

OSP: Portfolio Layouts

(red star)

 

 

 

OSP: Portfolio Templates

(red star)

 

 

 

OSP: Portfolios

(red star)

 

 

 

OSP: Reports

(red star)

 

 

 

OSP: Styles

(red star)

 

 

 

OSP: Wizards

(red star)

 

 

 

OSP: Matrix

(red star)

 

 

 


General Development Issues for Accessibility Sakai 2.5 and 2.6

Issue

 

 

 

Pri

Page layout

The width of the tools menu column increases greatly when the text size is increased, to the detriment of the main content section. It is assumed that this is because the width of that column is specified in ems. It is recommended that the column's width instead be specified in pixels or as a percentage of screen width.

FCKeditor

The icons for FCKeditor do not increase in size in relation to the font size. Also, the text within the editor does not enlarge in relation to font size in Internet Explorer 6. Further, the editor's tool icons are not accessible to screenreaders. FCKeditor's tools are operable using keyboard shortcuts. It is recommended that the relevant keyboard shortcuts for the installed version of FCKeditor be documented on the help tool section on the editor. Further, a link to this list of shortcuts should be included above every instance of the editor. It is not sufficient to simply have shortcuts documented in the help section and expect users to find them of their own accord; this information needs highlighting at the point of use.
Keyboard shortcuts will mitigate against the non-resizing of icons; no solution for resolving the non-resizing of editable text in IE6.

Tool states

The way in which tools respond the back button is confusing an inconsistent. In some cases, the back button will take you back to the previous tool, sometimes back to the previous tool state (probably the expected behaviour, and therefore desirable) and in some cases, nothing happens. This is extremely problematic and hampers user interaction with tools to a considerable degree.
It is recommended that all tools behave consistently (within themselves an as a group) with regard to the back button. Further, it is also recommended that tools do not 'break' the back button, i.e. that the back button returns the user to the previous screen.
The reload button is intended to solve this problem, however it fails for several reasons:
1. It is not prominent enough
2. It is badly named; you are not reloading the tool, you are returning to the starting page of the tool, and in any case 'reload' has an implication of a loss of data that will prevent most users from clicking it.

Navigation

The Sakai system causes disruption to the behaviour of the browser's back button functionality. It is highly recommended that this be prevented if at all possible, as
the back button is a vital mode of navigation for many users. Failing this, it may be useful to provide the user with some system-specific breadcrumb trail or history function, though it would be far better if the system simply didn't break the existing browser functionality that does just that.

Form Buttons

There are several instances where character combinations such as "<,>, vertical bar<, and >vertical bar are used in links and form buttons to indicate previous, next, first, last etc. Using characters in a purely visual fashion is very bad practice as it is logically meaningless, completely inaccessible to screenreader users and they don't even look very good.
It is recommended that these be replaced either with text, or icons with appropriate alt tags.