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szw151

Yes, I did put in a ticket about this and my understanding is that someone at Instructure is looking into it. Currently we are providing the student with the content in Word using MathType and we will be converting all the Canvas exams as well. JAWS does not require MathCAT to read math correctly. I know NVDA + MathCAT is a good option - in this case we don't want to ask the student to learn new AT in addition to learning calculus. Thanks.

szw151 · ‎01-18-2023

We have a student who is blind and using JAWS in a math course. The exams are in the old (original) quiz platform and the math content was added with the built in math editor. When I tested the content with the JAWS screen reader, I encountered an issue. The math read correctly and then JAWS said, "math content" at which point I should be able to press Enter and explore the equation using my arrow keys, but instead I got a math scripting error message. I tried it on Chrome and Firefox and had a coworker test this as well. We both got the same result. This is an issue because unless the student has perfect memory for everything they hear, they are going to have a hard time understanding the math without the math viewer window feature. My short term "fix" is to print the exams and convert them to accessible Word files, but this seems like something Instructure should fix. Is anyone else having this problem?

szw151 · ‎01-18-2023

We have a student who is blind and using JAWS in a math course. The exams are in the old (original) quiz platform and the math content was added with the built in math editor. When I tested the content with the JAWS screen reader, I encountered an issue. The math read correctly and then JAWS said, "math content" at which point I should be able to press Enter and explore the equation using my arrow keys, but instead I got a math scripting error message. I tried it on Chrome and Firefox and had a coworker test this as well. We both got the same result. This is an issue because unless the student has perfect memory for everything they hear, they are going to have a hard time understanding the math without the math viewer window feature. My short term "fix" is to print the exams and convert them to accessible Word files, but this seems like something Instructure should fix. Is anyone else having this problem?

szw151 · ‎01-18-2023

We have a student who is blind and using JAWS in a math course. The exams are in the old (original) quiz platform and the math content was added with the built in math editor. When I tested the content with the JAWS screen reader, I encountered an issue. The math read correctly and then JAWS said, "math content" at which point I should be able to press Enter and explore the equation using my arrow keys, but instead I got a math scripting error message. I tried it on Chrome and Firefox and had a coworker test this as well. We both got the same result. This is an issue because unless the student has perfect memory for everything they hear, they are going to have a hard time understanding the math without the math viewer window feature. My short term "fix" is to print the exams and convert them to accessible Word files, but this seems like something Instructure should fix. Is anyone else having this problem?

szw151 · ‎09-13-2022

Another accessible way to create a toggle is with the <details> and <summary> tags. Check out our Buttons page for an example of a button created with these tags that is fully accessible with a keyboard, screen reader, mouse, and touch on mobile

szw151 · ‎07-20-2022

We did find a better way to add a long description to an image in Canvas using show/hide code. See the Adding a Long Description page in the Canvas Styles resource for details.

szw151 · ‎05-04-2022

Thank you! We have been working on it for two years and there is more content coming!

szw151 · ‎05-02-2022

Elizabeth, Many of us here at Penn State have identified this same issue, so we created the Canvas Styles resource with information about creating call-out boxes; decorative borders; placing, styling, and captioning images; accessible show hides; and more. It is publicly available and all the code has been vetted for accessibility. Check it out. You can also give us feedback using the form linked on the home page.

szw151 · ‎04-11-2022

James, When we create accessible documents for students using screen readers, we convert them to Word. To do that it helps to have a tool that will convert the PDF to a .txt file and from there, you can copy and paste the text into Word. We use SensusAccess.

szw151 · ‎01-18-2022

I am an accessibility consultant working for Penn State's online programs and we have many students with disabilities whose accommodations say they need longer, timed exams to be split into 2 or more parts so they can take them in sections. We are using the old quiz platform and finding this difficult to accomplish. I have written very long instructions on how to do this and found that the section on copying the exam is not working for people because the exam gets overwritten instead of duplicated. The solution is exporting a QTI file and then importing or exporting and exam to a 3rd course and importing from there... Is anyone else dealing with this? It would be nice if Instructure could make this easier to do. I am also wondering if this is easier on the New Quiz platform. Thanks.

szw151 · ‎01-18-2022

Creating accessible tables in Canvas got much easier when the accessibility checker was added to the RCE. Now you can create a simple data table then run the checker to easily add a caption and row and/or column headers.

szw151 · ‎01-13-2022

I am an advocate for UDL so I appreciate this post. Canvas does provide some good options. Many of our students require read-aloud with highlighting for reading text as part of an official accommodation and many others just prefer it. At our institution, not all of our course content is in Canvas - many combine Canvas with other content management systems, so we created a resource that explains various ways to get the read-aloud functionality (Immersive Reader, Read Aloud plug-in, browser-specific functions, etc.). regardless of platform. If you are interested, check out our Read Aloud Options page.

szw151 · ‎07-16-2020

Thanks for sharing that resource. I also really like the UDL Graphical organizer.

szw151 · ‎05-29-2020

Thank you so much for testing this!

szw151 · ‎09-10-2019

Lisa, I am not sure what you mean. The accessibility checker provides a nice place to type in your table caption (the title). And then you can specify the scope of the table headers (row, column, or both) and that will give you the essential elements of an accessible table. If you have title for your table outside the table code, I might look like you have two titles. Not sure what you mean by extra labels. In the HTML view, column or row headers should have <th> tags with scope="col" or scope="row" and the table title or caption is in a caption tag <caption> table title</caption>. You do not need headings (<h2>heading</h2>) for a table. If you create the table and add the data and then run the checker to fill in the caption and headers, your code will be correct. Let me know if I have misunderstood your question.

szw151 · ‎09-09-2019

You can use the Accessibility checker to add table captions and headers easily. It is a nice hack until or if Instructure updates the RCE to make the table tool easier to use.

szw151 · ‎07-08-2019

Thanks. I voted that one up.

szw151 · ‎05-31-2019

At Penn State we are updating our accessibility policy to align with the WCAG 2.1 guidelines. Guideline 1.3.4 Orientation says this: "Content does not restrict its view and operation to a single display orientation, such as portrait or landscape, unless a specific display orientation is essential." So I think this is more than nice to have. This is an accessibility requirement. Incidentally I believe that many people with disabilities use iPhones because of all the built-in accessibility features, so have the Canvas app support landscape orientation on iOS devices becomes even more important.

szw151 · ‎03-12-2019

Audra, I am seeing two issues. If you add math content via the math editor in the RCE, the math content is not reading correctly with a screen reader because the MathML that provides correct math speak is not being generated as it should, and as it does in other places in Canvas. This is supposedly fixed. The fix is in beta, but I tested it yesterday and it was not fixed in our beta instance, so I did let them know. If you have MathJax in your instance, adding MathML code directly to the page does not work. It does not display correctly. What I see on the page after saving is the raw MathML code. I have worked with our programmer and Canvas tech support and not been able to identify why this is happening. Again this is only in the quiz platform. We did create a work around, which is where you use the free online version of the MathType editor to generate the correctly spoken math and then use that text to replace the LaTex code in the math image alt text. Let me know if you have other questions.

szw151 · ‎03-08-2019

As Matt said in November, the Canvas math editor does produce accessible content for everyone. It displays the math as an SVG that enlarges nicely, provides the LaTeX code in the image title attribute and generates correctly spoken math for screen reader users in the background when the page is saved. At the moment, the only place this is not working correctly is in the quiz platform (the old one). I have been working with tech support to get that fixed and the fix is currently in beta and should be moved to production soon. LaTeX and MathML can both be accessible for screen readers. At Penn State we have added the MathJax script to our instance of Canvas so that people can author in LaTeX or MathML on the page in the HTML editor view. MathJax causes the code to be rendered visually correct in all browsers and provides some nice built-in accessibility features. Both will read correctly with JAWS and NVDA. Some of us have brought this up in the ATHEN group to ask that Instructure add MathJax to Canvas to allow for additional math authoring workflows for all Canvas users. I see that is also a feature request.

Post Details	Date Published	Views	Kudos
Math content and the JAWS screen reader We have a student who is blind and using JAWS in a math course. The exams are in the old (original) quiz platform and the math content was added with the built in math editor. When I tested the cont...	01-18-2023	209	0
Math content and the JAWS screen reader We have a student who is blind and using JAWS in a math course. The exams are in the old (original) quiz platform and the math content was added with the built in math editor. When I tested the cont...	01-18-2023	65	0
Math content and the JAWS screen reader We have a student who is blind and using JAWS in a math course. The exams are in the old (original) quiz platform and the math content was added with the built in math editor. When I tested the cont...	01-18-2023	54	0
Splitting Exams I am an accessibility consultant working for Penn State's online programs and we have many students with disabilities whose accommodations say they need longer, timed exams to be split into 2 or more...	01-18-2022	405	0
Using Canvas with speech recognition software Does Canvas work with Dragon Naturally Speaking? or any speech recognition software? I know a couple of years ago it didn't and I am wondering what the current state is.	10-02-2018	3942	3
The UDOIT Tool and Headings I noticed that while UDOIT flags bold text that appears to be a heading, it does not flag skipped heading levels, so you can go from the H1 page title to the H4 heading level without that being flagg...	09-25-2017	1196	4
Enhancing the UDOIT Tool - Alt Text Alt Text I think the UDOIT tool is very helpful. I love that it flags alt text that is the image file name and gives you a U FIX IT button to easily add alt text. What I find frustrating is that the...	09-14-2017	1517	7

Posts	44
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Kudos received	73
Member Since	‎07-08-2015

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