**3. Knowledge required for users related to an accessible virtual campus**

Once a virtual campus reaches an acceptable level of accessibility, this accessibility must be constantly maintained. The content and learning material published by the teachers and administrators will be periodically updated, and it is important to teach stakeholders on how to create and adapt learning content to be accessible following most used guidelines. Among the actions to be carried out periodically to maintain accessibility in a virtual campus are the following:


#### **3.1. Techniques for creating accessible documents**

It is important to take into consideration that when digital content is created by teachers or students in any type of format (textual, graphic, audio, or multimedia), it is necessary to keep in mind that final users of such content may be people with physical, sensory, or cognitive limitations, who could find barriers to access the information. In fact, at some point in our lives, we all probably will have limitations that can affect our access to digital content. Among the difficulties that teachers are facing when preparing learning content in digital format is the diversity of authoring tools available to create the content. In [19], a collection of the basic considerations to create accessible digital content are presented and for diversity, the Acces‐ sible Digital Office Document (ADOD) initiative [20] prepared different recommendations based on the content creator used.

The Accessible Digital Office Documents (ADOD) Project [20] is an initiative created to provide guidelines on the accessibility of office documents, office document formats, and office applications independent of the tool used to create the content. ADOD provides both an "ADOD Assessment Framework" and a suite of practical guidance documents that are intended to help stakeholders in the educational process to make decisions about office applications. Currently, ADOD is based primarily on the WCAG and ATAG recommendations presented in Section 2.

The recommendations provided for office tools are also applicable to PDF documents. Among the recommendations to create accessible PDF documents with learning content, based on WCAG 2.0 guidelines [21], are the following:


WAI-ARIA also includes technologies to map controls, Ajax live regions, and events to accessibility application programming interfaces (APIs), including custom controls used for rich Internet applications. WAI-ARIA [16] techniques apply to widgets such as buttons, dropdown lists, calendar functions, tree controls (for example, expandable menus), and others

**3. Knowledge required for users related to an accessible virtual campus**

Once a virtual campus reaches an acceptable level of accessibility, this accessibility must be constantly maintained. The content and learning material published by the teachers and administrators will be periodically updated, and it is important to teach stakeholders on how to create and adapt learning content to be accessible following most used guidelines. Among the actions to be carried out periodically to maintain accessibility in a virtual campus are the

**•** Training for teachers and students in techniques for creating accessible digital contents

**•** Providing in the virtual campus the functionality of online accessibility checkers when final users work with basic actions such as uploading images and alternative text, providing

It is important to take into consideration that when digital content is created by teachers or students in any type of format (textual, graphic, audio, or multimedia), it is necessary to keep in mind that final users of such content may be people with physical, sensory, or cognitive limitations, who could find barriers to access the information. In fact, at some point in our lives, we all probably will have limitations that can affect our access to digital content. Among the difficulties that teachers are facing when preparing learning content in digital format is the diversity of authoring tools available to create the content. In [19], a collection of the basic considerations to create accessible digital content are presented and for diversity, the Acces‐ sible Digital Office Document (ADOD) initiative [20] prepared different recommendations

The Accessible Digital Office Documents (ADOD) Project [20] is an initiative created to provide guidelines on the accessibility of office documents, office document formats, and office applications independent of the tool used to create the content. ADOD provides both an "ADOD Assessment Framework" and a suite of practical guidance documents that are intended to help stakeholders in the educational process to make decisions about office applications. Currently, ADOD is based primarily on the WCAG and ATAG recommendations

context information for links, validating information in content editors, etc.

**•** Training for teachers in Universal Learning Design techniques

**3.1. Techniques for creating accessible documents**

based on the content creator used.

presented in Section 2.

usually available in virtual campuses so it is important that LMS administrators.

422 E-Learning - Instructional Design, Organizational Strategy and Management

following:


Besides the ADOD project and the recent book [19], other initiatives and guidelines for creating electronic documents accessible are found in [22–24].

As an alternative, authors can export a document in DAISY format, which is a good way to ensure that a document is accessible. DAISY is a multimedia format that maintains and promotes a system of Access to standard printed documents for blind, low vision or other problems. The format was developed by the DAISY consortium in 1996 and is currently based on the definition of ANSI/NISO Z39.86-2005 standard [25].

The text content can be exported in DAISY format with plug-ins for Word processors as Microsoft Office Word and LibreOffice Writer. This format can be tested with a DAISY complaint software, for example, the AMIS software (http:/www.daisy.org/amis). Exporting content to DAISY [25] format allows authors to check the accessibility of a document to a person with vision problems because the software prepares and audio book based on the content.

Administrators for a virtual campus based on learning management systems (LMS) should not assume that the users (e.g., teacher, instructor, tutor, student, etc.) have all the knowledge concerning WCAG guidelines or principles of Universal Learning Design. It is important to incorporate and provide descriptive aid in the different interfaces and provide validators to allow users to know whether the content is accessible based on the minimal requirements established by the educational institution.

Examples of basic functionality to be included to help final users creating contents are as follows:


#### **3.2. Automatic analysis using validation tools**

The evaluation of the accessibility of a virtual campus and its contents is performed in two main phases.


The first phase is proposed to use an online automatic validator based on the WCAG guide‐ lines. Some of the identified tools available online are as follows:


The assessment of accessibility should identify a simple of pages related to the main actions from users within the virtual campus. The main actions to be evaluated are as follows:

	- **a.** Visit the homepage of the educational institution.
	- **b.** Visit the accessibility information for the educational institution.
	- **c.** Pages that the user needs to visit to reach the virtual campus login pages.

incorporate and provide descriptive aid in the different interfaces and provide validators to allow users to know whether the content is accessible based on the minimal requirements

Examples of basic functionality to be included to help final users creating contents are as

**•** Basic code validator (HTML) included in WYSIWYG content editors usually used in application for discussion forums, wikis, information box, etc. (e.g., AChecker plug-in

The evaluation of the accessibility of a virtual campus and its contents is performed in two

The first phase is proposed to use an online automatic validator based on the WCAG guide‐

The assessment of accessibility should identify a simple of pages related to the main actions from users within the virtual campus. The main actions to be evaluated are as follows:

**•** Validator for images and alternative text aids for users editing content

**2.** Manual analysis/heuristic evaluation by experts and end users

lines. Some of the identified tools available online are as follows:

**•** CynthiaSays (based on WCAG 2.0) (www.cynthia-says.com)

**a.** Visit the homepage of the educational institution.

**•** Tingtun (based on WCAG 2.0) (accessibility.tingtun.no)

**•** HERA (based on WCAG 1.0) (www.sidar.com/hera)

**•** CSS validator (http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/)

**•** Examinator (based on WCAG 2.0 guidelines) (www.examinator.ws) **•** AChecker (based on WCAG 2.0, HTML y CSS) (www.achecker.ca)

**•** WebAim (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool) (http://wave.webaim.org)

**b.** Visit the accessibility information for the educational institution.

**c.** Pages that the user needs to visit to reach the virtual campus login pages.

established by the educational institution.

(www.achecker.ca) for ATutor LMS)

**•** Validator for accessibility in equation writer editors

424 E-Learning - Instructional Design, Organizational Strategy and Management

**3.2. Automatic analysis using validation tools**

**1.** Automatic analysis with validation tools

**•** TAW (based on WCAG 2.0) (www.tawdis.net)

**•** HTML validator (http://validator.w3.org/)

**1.** Start using the virtual campus.

follows:

main phases.

	- **a.** Create and publish content in a course page.
	- **b.** Create content on the course with conditional availability (hide and enable content).
	- **c.** Create a task assignment.
	- **d.** Create a questionnaire with different types of questions.
	- **e.** Reorganize and sort items in the course menu.
	- **f.** Copy items from one section of the course to another section.
	- **g.** Login and manage the student gradebook.
	- **h.** Evaluate and comment a student assignment.

The pages included in the virtual campus (dynamic content and login required pages) usually cannot be verified easily by automatic analysis tools. To perform this analysis, it is possible to use installed tools as plug-ins (e.g., WAVE tool) or download the pages to be evaluated as static content.

The second phase of the evaluation is the heuristic evaluation by experts and end users. Automatic validation tools offer a partial view on the accessibility, but it is important to have a group of accessibility experts and final users with disabilities to test the main functions and have a contrasted opinion and recommendations to improve the accessibility of the virtual campus.
