- From: Paul Bohman <Paulb@cpd2.usu.edu>
- Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 19:25:45 GMT
- To: mscott2@msfw.com
- CC: j.byrne@gcal.ac.uk, w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Greg Ritter of Blackboard just gave a presentation on the current and future accessibility status of Blackboard yesterday at the CSUN Conference in Los Angeles. You can read a synopsis at http://www.csun.edu/cod/conf2002/proceedings/233.htm. WebAIM has provided Blackboard with some consulting, training, and evaluation services, as has EASI, and Blackboard is involved with the SALT project, which helps to set standards for accessibility of educational content. This doesn't mean that the accessibility of the product has been perfect, as explained in the conference presentation, but it does mean that they are making an effort and are on the right track. Your feedback of specific points is useful as constructive criticism to their developers. It's always good to have external evaluators of products such as this. It raises the bar in terms of customer satisfaction. I would encourage you to pass on the results of your more formal study to the Blackboard developers (see the conference link above for contact info). Blackboard has prepared accessibility information on their product at http://access.blackboard.com. One of the most useful features of this site is the Blackboard screen reader tutorial. During testing, it was found that user orientation was one of the biggest accessibility problems, so the document was created to help screen readers orient themselves within the program. It's true that it would be better if the orientation problems didn't occur in the first place, but for current users of the product, this may be useful still. Greg explained some of the improvements that are in the forthcoming Blackboard 6.0. They have simplified the interface and have created an entirely new chat/whiteboard program from scratch. I haven't yet been able to use it, but the intent was to design it with accessibility in mind. Hopefully it will fulfill that design goal. Although it often takes longer to convince corporate entities of the need for accessibility, many of them are making strides in the right direction. There's nothing wrong with pointing out their shortcomings. There is nothing wrong with praising them for their successes either. Paul Bohman > In a project with a local community college, I have been working to provide > Blackboard-based on-line courses to students with disabilites. In a > nutshell, the accessibility of the Blackboard 5.5 system has been extremely > disappointing > Mike >
Received on Friday, 22 March 2002 14:40:14 UTC