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Thread: Accessibility of Blackboard CMS?
Number of posts in this thread: 4 (In chronological order)
From: Alexa Schriempf
Date: Wed, Apr 23 2014 3:19PM
Subject: Accessibility of Blackboard CMS?
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Hello -
Apologies for any cross-posting:
My university is testing Blackboard as a potential CMS that we might switch
over to. Any thoughts out there about its accessibility status? Is it
accessible, what features should one negotiate for if it's missing
accessible baked-in features? Anyone have experience in working with
Blackboard to make it more accessible?
Feel free to PM or post to list. Thanks!
Alexa
--
Alexa Schriempf, Access Tech Consultant
Office for Disability Services
Teaching and Learning with Technology: Accessibility Group
Adaptive Technology Services, University Libraries
Penn State
https://sites.psu.edu/aschriempf/
http://equity.psu.edu/ods
http://tlt.its.psu.edu/
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/adaptivetechnologies.html
--
Alexa Schriempf, Access Tech Consultant
Office for Disability Services
Teaching and Learning with Technology: Accessibility Group
Adaptive Technology Services, University Libraries
Penn State
https://sites.psu.edu/aschriempf/
http://equity.psu.edu/ods
http://tlt.its.psu.edu/
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/adaptivetechnologies.html
From: Jonathan Metz
Date: Wed, Apr 23 2014 7:27PM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Blackboard CMS?
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Hi Alexa,
I believe that the Great Lakes ADA (http://www.accessibilityonline.org/)
uses Blackboard for the US Access Board webinars (I¹ve only been on a
couple so I can¹t remember if that¹s the case). I don¹t know if you¹ve
been to their site, but they have a number of material regarding their
accessibility features. Here is a direct link for you:
http://www.blackboard.com/Platforms/Learn/Resources/Accessibility.aspx.
It appears that they take accessibility very serious which is always good
to see.
HTH
Jonathan Metz
On 4/23/14, 5:19 PM, "Alexa Schriempf" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>Hello -
>
>Apologies for any cross-posting:
>
>My university is testing Blackboard as a potential CMS that we might
>switch
>over to. Any thoughts out there about its accessibility status? Is it
>accessible, what features should one negotiate for if it's missing
>accessible baked-in features? Anyone have experience in working with
>Blackboard to make it more accessible?
>
>Feel free to PM or post to list. Thanks!
>
>Alexa
>
>--
>Alexa Schriempf, Access Tech Consultant
>Office for Disability Services
>Teaching and Learning with Technology: Accessibility Group
>Adaptive Technology Services, University Libraries
>Penn State
>https://sites.psu.edu/aschriempf/
>http://equity.psu.edu/ods
>http://tlt.its.psu.edu/
>http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/adaptivetechnologies.html
>
>
>
>
>
>--
>Alexa Schriempf, Access Tech Consultant
>Office for Disability Services
>Teaching and Learning with Technology: Accessibility Group
>Adaptive Technology Services, University Libraries
>Penn State
>https://sites.psu.edu/aschriempf/
>http://equity.psu.edu/ods
>http://tlt.its.psu.edu/
>http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/adaptivetechnologies.html
>>>
From: Gunderson, Jon R
Date: Thu, Apr 24 2014 8:04AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Blackboard CMS?
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Alexa,
Blackboard has done a lot to improve the accessibility of their products in the last 5 years and have more (but not perfect) internal controls to improve accessibility.
But they are a big company with many projects so some parts are more accessible than other parts (e.g. some still not accessible at all) and they have only recently started to add basic ARIA technologies like Landmarks to their main product.
They do have an accessibility interest group that meets monthly and creates sub groups periodically to test the accessibility of new products they are working on.
The best chance you have for getting accessibility improvements is when they are working on creating a new feature or updating an existing feature.
You can contact JoAnna Hunt < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > to request to be part of accessibility interest group to help monitor and improve the accessibility of Blackboard.
In general accessibility with these large web applications is not either accessible or not accessible, it is a continuum and if the company is not getting any actionable accessibility feedback then they will think everything is OK for accessibility. So it is very important to take a long term view of accessibility with companies like blackboard and it is more of a partnership for the long term. Don't assume they know anything about accessibility, they are trying to learn about accessibility as issues come up and they become aware of them. You need to see yourself as an educator, the more you know about the issue the more you can help come up with a good fix.
Jon
From: Lucy Greco
Date: Thu, Apr 24 2014 10:35AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Blackboard CMS?
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Hello:
I think there is a basic mix up here. The question was not about
blackboard collaborate but about the black board cms to vary different
products and both have different access considerations.
Lucia Greco
Web Accessibility Evangelist
IST - Architecture, Platforms, and Integration
University of California, Berkeley
(510) 289-6008 skype: lucia1-greco
http://webaccess.berkeley.edu
follow me on twitter @accessaces