Accessibility of Open Educational Resources
John Richardson, Accessibility Specialist, IET
OER resources have varying levels of accessibility, depending on the approach of the repository they are hosted in. This document outlines the accessibility policies of some of those repositories in January 2013. These policies may have changed; visit the relevant website to see up-to-date versions.
Ariadne
http://www.ariadne-eu.org/
Ariadne is a European network devoted to the creation, sharing and reuse of knowledge. The website does not contain any explicit statement about accessibility. An inquiry elicited the following response:
‘In our case, the accessibility license/policy depends on each content provider and there is no network-side policy. In some sub-networks (like www.organic-edunet.eu) there are some explicit policies, in some others none.’
(nikosm@ieee.org)
Jorum
http://www.jorum.ac.uk/
Jorum is a website containing free learning and teaching resources for teachers. The website states: 
‘The Jorum repository platform interface has not been tested for any accessibility standards.’ 
(http://www.jorum.ac.uk/ policies/ jorum-collection-development-policy)
Merlot
http://taste.merlot.org
The Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching is supported by the California State University. The webmaster states: 
‘MERLOT does not have a policy regarding the accessibility of the materials found through MERLOT. MERLOT does not store most of the materials in the database. Any material however that is created with the MERLOT Content Builder is accessible and has creative commons license.’
However, the website does include the following accessibility policy: 
‘MERLOT is working to support accessibility on our website. MERLOT has completed 2 of 3 phases to of accessibility work to improve the experience on the site. The following is a summary of Accessibility changes completed to date: 
•	Tables used to display the front page design were written so that they could be read correctly in later versions of JAWS. 
•	Images and submit buttons have been coded in html tags that contain descriptive alt attributes. Other images have alt text which matches what the image says (for example, sort button has alt text of Sort). 
•	There are no style sheets. 
•	Image maps were coded in HTML tags that contain descriptive alt attributes. 
•	The client-side, drop-down menu, written in javascript proved difficult to navigate with a screen reader, and has been removed. Go buttons are provided with the remaining javascript drop-down menus, which makes the links accessible to a screen reader. 
•	The ability to sort materials by title, author, date entered, rating and item type can be accomplished with a go button as well as by clicking on the headings. It is always good to provide alternate methods of navigation (alternate routes) to accommodate users with various disabilities. 
•	Discipline Communities can now be reached from the Communities tab in the header bar. 
•	While the header bar colors may be hard to distinguish by some visually impaired viewers, they are not needed to navigate the site. The navigation links are text that is accessible by a text reader and screen reader. 
•	Allow navigation and keystrokes/mouse using the keyboard. 
•	Added tab indices to pages with forms for easier keyboard navigation. 
•	Added alt tags for images, to enable screen readers to read them. 
•	MERLOT home page redesigned, changing images to text links, and including alt tags. 
1.	Changed Links have a consistent look and feel. 
2.	Images [that] are not links are now text links. 
•	Added labels to fields for more descriptive forms when using a screen reader. 
•	Made headers and lists use HTML header and list tags. This helps screen readers to navigate the pages easier. 
•	Form field labels are tied to the fields they describe. This is done with special HTML tags for this purpose. Allows screen readers to tell a user what a field is for when they go to that field. 
•	All images have good alt text. 
•	Decorative images have blank alt text. 
•	Image links do not have both a title attribute in the link and an alt attribute in the image. 
•	Modified images and buttons so it is clear what is a link and where the cursor is on the page. 
•	Improved accessibility navigation on the MERLOT Communities page. 
•	Links are made to look like links. 
1.	Text links are underlined or become underlined when rolled over and are a different color from regular text. 
2.	Image links change when rolled over. 
•	Image buttons have text that matches their action. For example, a button that causes a sort to happen, says “sort” instead of “go”.
•	Use CSS for all colors and fonts rather than outdated HTML attributes. 
•	Links are unique in their description. For example, in the material hitlist page, a category name might be the same as a material in the search results. Categories on hitlists now have titles for links that say “Limit search to items in xxx category”.
MERLOT is not responsible for the ADA compliance of sites whose links are listed in MERLOT. MERLOT has also completed a VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) to outline our progress and status on making accessibility changes to the merlot.org site. You can also view a VPAT for the MERLOT Content Builder. Accessibility changes that MERLOT has made are outlined at http://taste.merlot.org/ AccessibilityChanges.html. 
MERLOT is in the process of being compliant with ADA priority one standards as mandated by TITLE IV, SECTION 508, of REHABILITATION ACT AMENDMENTS OF 1998. MERLOT is undergoing testing for accessibility compliance. CSU Chancellors Office has an Accessibility Technology Initiative site available at http://www.calstate.edu/ accessibility/ resources. We welcome your comments or questions to the Webmaster at webmaster@merlot.org.’ 
(http://taste.merlot.org/ accessibilitypolicy.html)
MIT OpenCourseWare
http://ocw.mit.edu 
MIT OpenCourseWare is a web-based publication of MIT course content. The website contains the following FAQ: 
‘Is the MIT OpenCourseWare site compliant with W3C standards and accessibility requirements?
The templates we designed for our content management system (CMS) are both valid HTML 4.01 and meet Sec. 508 & WCAG AA Web Accessibility recommendations. Our style guide has been revised to include validating and checking the accessibility of HTML as part of the authoring process. Our standards require all images on our web pages to contain ALT attributes. Our data tables contain heavy use of the scope and headers attributes that make it easier to navigate using screenreaders such as JAWS. 
We spend a lot of time on the accessibility of PDFs. As part of our conversion process we remove any PDFs using Type 3 or bitmapped fonts. We use Adobe’s “Make Accessible” plugin before finalizing the document. We work closely with the MIT Adaptive Technology for Information and Computing Lab to ensure that the MIT OpenCourseWare course sites are as accessible as possible. 
As resources permit, we create transcripts and subtitles for our lecture videos. Approximately half of our lecture videos now contain transcripts. These are identified on each course home page under “Course Features”.’ 
(http://ocw.mit.edu/ help/ faq-technology/ #t5)
OpenLearn
http://www.open.edu/openlearn/  
The website contains the following statement: 
‘The units released in OpenLearn are all reviewed to address accessibility and we aim to make them as accessible as possible. We are also working towards a new release of the underlying Moodle software to help meet compliance with W3C standards for all aspects. 
OpenLearn has been reviewed by accessibility experts and tested using a range of different assistive technologies and computer settings. There are areas that can and will be improved based on recommendations from this review and otherwise identified, but core aspects of the site are already provided in a way which meets the needs of a wide variety of users. 
•	Screenreaders: users with screenreaders should have no difficulty accessing the text-based content. 
•	Settings: Users who require specific Windows or browser settings should not have any difficulties with the site, nor should users with screen magnifiers. 
•	Video and audio materials can be played through a range of different media players or downloaded and over 90% have textual descriptions or transcripts to accompany them. 
•	Our work with the Moodle community to enhance accessibility across OpenLearn will be of benefit to OpenLearn and all other sites which make use of Moodle worldwide. 
You may find making changes to your web browser settings help you use this web site:
•	You can change the options in your browser to adjust the size and colour of the text and the colour of the background. 
•	If you are using the latest version of Internet Explorer you will be able to override the colour scheme of this and many other websites. 
Playing video and audio materials
Each video and audio asset is provided through a media player within the site, as a file download, and has a textual description or transcript to accompany it. 
Some video assets are available for download in two file formats which offer different size files. These file downloads allow users to open the asset in the player of their choice, and to save it to their hard drive. 
The media players within the site are keyboard accessible in a limited way. Users may find the following advice helpful: 
•	In order to play the audio/video, tab to the media player, then spacebar or enter to activate it, then tab again to get the focus on the play button, then spacebar or enter to operate the button. 
•	When the video frame is in focus the spacebar can usefully be used to toggle the play/pause button. Note this does not work on the audio player. 
•	On both players it is possible to tab to the progress slider, but it is not possible to operate it. 
•	On the video player it is possible to tab to the mute button but the focus is then lost. Tab then shift+tab to get back to the button. 
The keyboard shortcuts for the media player are:
•	Play/Pause (p)
•	Fast backwards (-)
•	Fast forwards (+)
•	Volume increase ([)
•	Volume decrease (])
•	Mute on/off (m)
•	Show/hide captions where available (c)
•	Enter full screen mode (f)
•	Quit full screen mode (Esc)
Transcripts are usually held in PDF format. You will need free Acrobat Reader software to open PDF files. If you don’t have this already installed on your computer you can download it at http://www.adobe.com/ products/ acrobat/ readstep2.html. 
Speech recognition
Users who interact with their computer through speech recognition may find that their software cannot recognise the media players through the usual commands for buttons and links. You may be able to use mouse commands, but we suggest the ‘separate player’ and ‘download file’ links are likely to be the easiest to use.
Filling in forms
When filling in any OpenLearn online form we would recommend the following: 
•	Read all of the form carefully before attempting to fill it in. 
•	When you do fill the form in you may find it more useful to turn Virtual PC Cursor off if you are using the screenreader JAWS version 3.3 or above. 
•	Once you have filled the form in, turn Virtual PC Cursor back on and check what you have entered. Then submit the form.’ 
(http://www.open.ac.uk/ about/ main/ admin-and-governance/ policies-and-statements/ website-accessibility-openlearn)
Rice Connexions
http://cnx.org
Connexions is a global repository of educational resources created by Rice University. It has a detailed statement about accessibility that begins as follows: 
‘We strive to create an environment for collaboratively developing, freely sharing, and rapidly publishing scholarly content on the Web. Our content repository contains educational materials for everyone — from children to college students to professionals.
As part of this mission, we are committed to making our content repository accessible to users with disabilities, allowing us to serve a wider audience, extend our community, and provide for greater collaboration and sharing of ideas. We are also aware that many organizations that may wish to take advantage of the site, including schools and government offices, are required by policy or law to accommodate users with disabilities, and are fully committed to working with these groups to meet their needs.
We encourage users with disabilities or those supporting users with accessibility requirements to contact us regarding any feature requests, technical difficulties, or general feedback you may have. We are actively growing our support for assistive technologies and are happy to work with individuals and groups to ensure their needs are met.’
(http://cnx.org/ help/ techsupport/ accessibility)
The statement also notes:
‘Connexions has provided authors with a number of tools for making their content more accessible to users with disabilities. While we cannot guarantee that every author of every module will take advantage of these features, we are working to improve our authors’ awareness of the importance of these issues. We are also currently working to improve our content editor, Edit-In-Place, to make authoring accessible content easier. If you come across content that does not conform to accessibility standards, you may wish to contact the authors directly and ask them to consider updating their works accordingly.’