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Re: Accessible SCORM Compliant E-Learning Software

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From: deborah.kaplan@suberic.net
Date: Dec 9, 2010 9:48AM

Sam asked:

"I am looking for a SCORM compliant e-learning software and
authoring tool that is accessible. Ideally, both the authoring
tools and the courses they produce should be accessible. "

And Michael Langum responded:

"Don't forget that an accessible course is only half the issue.
You (or you client) will also need to ensure that your Learning
Management System (LMS) is also accessible."

I will also add, the classes are only accessible as the course
designers make them. No matter how much accessibility is built
into the learning management system, if the professor/course
designer puts up videos without captions, flash without
accessibility, and images without alternative text. Training your
faculty/course designers is a huge part of making sure your
classes are accessible.

(Also, kudos for making sure that both the authoring tools and
the courses be accessible -- many course designers have
accessibility needs as well! As do the LMS administrators, so
make sure that the administration tools are also accessible.)

In any case, I've been very impressed with both Moodle and Sakai,
fairly unimpressed with Blackboard, and exceedingly unimpressed
with Angel. The latter two obfuscate what they mean by
accessibility and what their accessibility efforts are. Moodle
and Sakai, on the other hand, both take accessibility very
seriously and are very open about what they mean by accessibility
and what their efforts are:

http://docs.moodle.org/en/Moodle_Accessibility_Specification
http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/2ACC/Sakai's+Current+Accessibility

My favorite part of the Moodle accessibility specification is at
<http://docs.moodle.org/en/Moodle_Accessibility_Specification#Rationale_for_Moodle_accessibility>;:
the legal, moral, and market argument for taking accessibility
seriously.

-Deborah