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Webwork and Accessibility

Webwork and Accessibility

by Bianca Sosnovski -
Number of replies: 4
Hello,

In our school, we host our own Webwork server (version 2.13). We are going through the process to request Webwork integration to Blackboard. Part of the process is to certify/report that the LTI tool to be integrated is ADA compliant (we are going through of the process of becoming fully ADA compliant).

Webwork's Accessibility Guide reports on accessibility of version 2.10 and says that it was "not fully Section 508 compliant, but just barely" and that it was planned to make it fully compliant by summer 2011.

What is the current status of Webwork's accessibility? Are there any know issues with accessibility?

Thank you.


In reply to Bianca Sosnovski

Re: Webwork and Accessibility

by Lars Jensen -
Hi Bianca,

Please note that Section 508 only applies to federal agencies. The (much weaker) accessibility requirements that normally apply to educational institutions is described in Section 504.

Lars.
In reply to Bianca Sosnovski

Re: Webwork and Accessibility

by Alex Jordan -
Hi Bianca,

Accessibility information is at: http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Accessibility_Guide

The release of 2.10 is (to my knowledge) the last time there was an attempt at a comprehensive review. This was in 2015 though, not 2011. (I believe there was an earlier attempt to tackle WeBWorK accessibility that had 2011 as a target year.)

Most of the work that brought WeBWorK to the state described at the link happened in the summer of 2014, at a WeBWorK code camp at PCC (my institution). Then the version release came a bit later, and then the review for the VPAT was made.

Probably more important than the VPAT is the accessibility guide at the link, mostly written by Greg Krauss.

Since that era, we've kept our eye on accessibility when new features are implemented, so I think WeBWorK is in good shape. The main vulnerability is sort of outside of the control of WeBWorK developers. Whoever writes each problem might not be thinking about accessibility. So some exercises may violate standards. Like having some kind of graph but the author did not provide the alt text. Or having an answer entry field, but the instructions for using it come after the entry field. Thankfully these are easy to fix with local versions of problems (and even better if such edits are submitted back up the chain).

In reply to Alex Jordan

Re: Webwork and Accessibility

by Davide Cervone -
Just FYI, MathJax has been working on improving its support for assistive technology, and the report listed in the accessibility link is out of date concerning MathJax.

In particular, MathJax now inserts a MathML version of the math into the page (not visible to sighted readers), that will be read by screen readers like VoiceOver that understand MathML. MathJax also can produce `alttext` strings automatically from the math that can be read by screenreader that don't understand MathML. Finally, there is an expression explorer that can be used to "walk through" an expression, reading each piece individually.

See the MathJax contextual menu's Accessibility submenu for those features. Note that the MathJax contextual menu is now accessible itself, and is available by tabbing to any math expression and typing shift-space to activate it.
In reply to Davide Cervone

Re: Webwork and Accessibility

by Bianca Sosnovski -
Hi everyone,

Thank you very much for all the information on accessibility related to WeBWorK. It is great to know that its accessibility features are good and the developers are doing their best to keep up with accessibility when new features are implemented in the system. It certainly helps to get the approval from our college's administration to move on with the process to integrate Webwork to our LMS.