Question types and WCAG 2.0 compliance

Re: Question types and WCAG 2.0 compliance

by Tim Hunt -
Number of replies: 2
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

Accessibility is not that simple, and it is not determined just by the software, but also by how the software is used by question creators, and even what is the task that is being assessed. For example, "Identify the parasite in a photograph of a microscope slide of a tissue sample" is a valid skill to learn and assess in a pathology course (e.g. with drag-drop markers question type) but is obviously not possible for someone who is blind, without very special assistive technology.

Also, there are many different types of disability, not just blindness.

Over the years, we have put a lot of work into making Moodle quizzes accessible, and the results are pretty good. For example all the question types can be answered using only the keyboard. No mouse needed. We have also tested with voice input and while I think there are a few bugs, almost everything works.

In summary, if you think about this issue while authoring your questions, then you can make quizzes that comply with the recommendations of WCAG. There are a few known bugs (search the tracker for specifics), however, I am not convinced that some of those really are bugs, or that 'fixing' them would make things better for users.

 Another way to look at it is that the Open University, UK, has more disabled students than all other UK universities combined, and we use a lot of Moodle quizzes, and only occasionally do we hear that a student had a problem with the mechanics of answering the quiz.

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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Question types and WCAG 2.0 compliance

by Cari Jansen -

Thanks for the detailed response.

Definitely helpful, and I agree an amount of common sense in question choices definitely required wink

Good to hear much has been done to make them as accessible as possible and read the OU UK feedback.


In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Question types and WCAG 2.0 compliance

by Abdulrahman Ibrahim -

Thanks for sharing this, I want to be guided on how to use the Accessibility plugin on my moodle site to run a CBT test and Exam for my visually impaired students. I want to author the questions in text format then the software should be able to read the questions for them and they will press key to select there answer.

If the accessibility tools can be able to do this, kindly direct me on how to configure it.