Accessible Course Management Systems
I’ve been trying to get my finger on the pulse of what is happening with course management systems and have been somewhat overwhelmed. The options out there span the spectrums of open source vs. proprietary, instructor-centric vs. learner-centric and of course from almost completely inaccessible to claims to be accessible to all users. Right now I’m trying to sort through some of those claims to interpret what different developers mean by accessible.
Starting with what I would consider to be the major commercial players, Blackboard has an accessibility page that describes some of their efforts and they have been a partner with WebAIM for a few years. I was able to dig up what appeared to be a token accessibility page on the WebCT website. However, I don’t currently have access to either of those systems to really take them for a test drive so I’d love to hear from any of you who have.
Regarding open source systems, there is a great list at EdTechPost from Scott Leslie. There are a number of projects, primarily developed at universities and then made available to the educational community. One promising system from the University of Toronto is ATutor, “designed with accessibility in mind.” I’ve just set up and version 1.3 (which has adopted the IMS Content Packaging Instructions) and will be playing with it over the next couple of weeks- I’ll be sure to report what I find out.
If you’re looking for a good place to start in finding out what some of your options are, EduTools is a great place to start. They have a number of reviews (including a brief blurb on “Accessibility Compliance”) and allow you to compare the products that you are interested in, including a group of what they consider “Accessibility Conforming Products”.
Any of you have an experience with a CMS that has (or hasn’t) worked for your needs?
My sense is that colleges are so terrified of daunting their computer-illiterate staff that once they choose one system they stick with it, no matter how inaccessible. They’d rather try to improve a bad system than find a better one.
Am I too negative?
I wish you were being too negative Danielle, but unfortunately I think that is the case way too often. A fear of implementing a new system, a long with endless bureaucratic read tape has kept many organizations (at least in my experience) in the dark ages.