Six-Point Guidance from Print-Disabled Students to School Administrators

Kids reading accessible content

The World Health Organization has assessed that about 15% of the world, about one billion people, has some sort of disability. Dyslexia is one of the most common forms of learning challenge affecting about a tenth of the population. Some forms of dyslexia lead to print disabilities, hampering the uptake of classroom education, leave alone the challenges of remote learning.

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Global Population Disabled
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Billion People Disabled

Why Education Needs Active Intervention?

In a post-pandemic world, the education industry has been one of the fastest adopters of learning management systems. In a classroom, physical access was the largest stumbling block for knowledge dissemination to begin with, but with the rapid adoption of LMS, there is a remote possibility of it becoming a tool for creating a level ground. A properly designed learning management system (LMS) can provide the foundational framework to make that possible. Digitized curriculums, virtual classrooms, AI-based real-time student assessments, automated assignment tracking and attendance management, hyper-personalized content, and format are a few requirements facilitated by LMS software.

Considering the high incidence of print-disabled citizens in the general population, the chances that you’ll have at least one disabled learner in every training group is very high. And as a training professional, it’s your responsibility to ensure that everyone experiences education & training in a positive, accessible, and engaging way. The solution? Create accessible learning management for an inclusive and equitable experience.

The Legal Backing for Accessibility

The Section 508 Standards for Electronic & Information Technology was legislated as an amendment to the United States Rehabilitation Act of 1973 in 2000 by the then president of United States H W Bush. The recent EU web accessibility directive made it mandatory for all the public websites & apps within the geography of Europe to meet the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) guidelines. Both of these standards have always served as a statutory stimulus for faster migration to accommodate everyone online. 

The LMS Basics

While there is a range of LMS products available in the market, educational institutions need to choose ‘the one’ that is holistic, customizable, and most important of all, Accessible! Either the choice can be to buy an off-the-shelf (OTS) product that is accessible, in which case your existing investment becomes useless or the alternative is to integrate it with an accessibility compliance product. 

A holistic approach to the integrated solution for LMS design ensures that all aspects of student learning are accommodated. Customization makes the software better suited for your institution’s needs to deliver personalized content. But it is accessibility that facilitates learning for students with diverse kinds of needs. The success of an LMS depends on how well a student comprehends, understands, and receives the content delivered through the software. Accessibility is the key to delivering that success! The digital platform should be easily intuitive for regular readers and print-disabled alike!

In designing applications & apps, sometimes the experience of end-users is assumed and never actually collated and used to design a suitable UI or incorporate a functionality. Our design team spoke to many print-disabled students currently attending classrooms remotely for their feedback. Their feedback will surely help designers and product owners in academic institutions decide when choosing the LMS suitable for their educational institution. We have collated six of the major suggestions that can transform your online education experience and make them accessible & inclusive.

codemantra’s Accessible LMS Solution

codemantra believes ‘accessibility’ promotes comprehensive student learning. Every new release of our Content Assembly Platform ensures an ongoing refinement of the built-in accessibility features. Our products are not only WCAG 2.1 AA compliant, but they are also integrated with loads of AI features that keep them up to the standards with the latest trends of accessibility. 

codemantra’s Content Assembly Platform is designed to work with any learning management/delivery solution across operating system stacks. The application complements your existing LMS to make all your courseware accessible. 

At codemantra, we also support educators in converting all their content into fully accessible content across any file type like image, text, audio-video & hyperlinks. Educators can leverage the native text editors of codemantra solutions to evaluate the accessibility attributes of their digitized content. 

Features of the Right Accessible LMS

Text/Font Size & Color Choice

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Men Color Blind
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Women Color Blind
Link Contrast Checker

Links & Accompanying Text

Images & Context

Multimedia

Tables

Note: codemantra’s aI platform can syntactically give alt-text to tables and give content to rows and columns. 

Equations

Note: codemantra’s alt-text can tag elements within individual rows and columns.

These six elements can help you evaluate the accessibility standing of your online educational programs. If you need support in transforming your online education towards becoming accessible, reach out to us at email-id.

codemantra LMS can help your school build a learning ecosystem that accommodates student diversity and promote inclusivity at the same time. To learn more about accessibility, contact our codemantra team today!

codemantra LMS can help your school build a learning ecosystem that accommodates student diversity and promote inclusivity at the same time. To learn more about how to make your curriculum accessible, contact codemantra team today at info@codemantra.com