Joe Humbert, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis
Gonzalo Silverio, Michigan State University
Scott Williams, Michigan State University
Jira Updates
There was a flurry of Jira updates. Quite a few were accessibility Jiras.
4 will be verified on the nightly server.
Some have been declared as verified, but Brian is not sure how that happened.
FCKEditor - Solution for Keyboard Trap
CKEditor has been shelved for 2.8.
Regarding FCKEditor, the creators have fixed some of the accessibility issues in the new versions.
The accessibility issues in the FCKEditor toolbar have not been fixed.
However, they provided a solution so the editor isn't a keyboard trap.
CK Editor doesn't deal with the tab key at all, so there are no accessibility issues for keyboard only users. In order to tab, though, you have to use the toolbar or press space.
To resolve the keyboard trap issue with the FCKEditor so users and tab in and out of the editor, if tab spacing is set to 0, it won't handle the tab key.
Currently, tab spacing for the FCKEditor is set to 3. This needs to be changed in two configuration files of FCKEditor.
The tab issue has been put out as a Jira for the FCKEditor, but implementing a solution would make a behavior change to the editor.
By default, as far as liability goes, being able to configure it for institutions would take the liability off Sakai.
It's been tested in 2.8.
A Jira to request the creation of comments specifying that the editor would be more accessible if tab spacing is set to 0 would be a good solution.
After the comments are created, they would be maintained because the editor has not been updated since it has been implemented in Sakai.
Gonzalo will take care of it.
Table issues
A comment that one of the student testers has made is, "I don't listen to table summaries because they are often incorrect."
Table summaries in Sakai are often poorly written, incorrect, or ones that say "layout."
Another issue with the tables in Sakai is that most tables don't have any row headers at all.
When there's a list of assignments, the assignment titles are not row headers. In resources, there are no row headers.
Frequently, the first column is blank, the second has a check box, and the 3rd column has the actual table header.
To appropriately put row headers, row header attributes should be used and they must have unique IDs.
Gonzalo says the developers were told to concentrate on column headers and use headings h4-h6 for subject line or row. So for Resources, group folder is an h3, child image h4, etc.
The problem for screen reader users is when they are in the action buttons, they don't know what those buttons are associated with if there are no row headers.
This probably is an issue in Forums, Assignments and Resources, but Mary and Brian will prioritize where this issue occurs.
Question Regarding Layout Tables
Gonzalo wanted to know how screen readers distinguish between layout and other tables.
In order to create a layout table, do not put table summaries. Do not use table header tags. Set an ARIA role on the table: role=presentation. Convert the table elements to td elements.
For more information on tables, Google "JAWS Ate My Tables." There's a WebAIM article on why JAWS reads some tables and not others.
Resolved Accessibility Issues
Implicitly Labeled Check Boxes and Radio Buttons
A JQuery script has been created so that this issue has been resolved.
Onchange handlers
Blur values have mostly been removed. Now an effort can be made to push it back into 2.7 and 2.6.
For 2.9 Brian wants to put in an accessibility handler in for IE.
Accessibility Issues Which Still Need To Be Resolved
Multiselect Element difficulties: At least one instance of this is selecting users to send e-mails to. We will need to see if other instances of this issue exist.
Tool Tips Popup Messages: These include things that appear as DHTML. We will need to figure out use cases and come up with solution. This issue might also extend to error or confirmation messages.
Sakai 2.9 Interface
Regarding making Sakai 2.9 modern like Sakai 3, Gonzalo thinks this may only affect the portal.
The reason for this is there are not enough resources to make all pages structurally consistent.
D2L and Blackboard have a consistent design ethic.
In a video for D2L, a screen reader user talks about how she loves that she doesn't have to worry about navigation. She can just go to the content she is looking for.
Accessibility 2.8 Review Procedure
Scott asked about accessibility reviews.
The Word document templates are no longer being used.
Instead, go to the 2.8 accessibility page and enter the results on the Wiki.
Copy the Wiki markup from one of the Firefox Accessibility Template (FAT) results, and paste it into a new Wiki page.
The extra column that wasn't present in the Word Template is where applicable Jiras can be listed. This will make it easy to track the issues once they have been created.