Note that WebCT 3.6 supports only Netscape 4.51 to 4.76 and 6.01 and IE 4.0 to 5.5. This is important because developing content for these browsers, some of which are not compliant with the content accessibility standards, may mean making content inaccessible to people with compliant assistive technologies or other smart devices.
The WebCT application does not provide information for users needing assistive technology. This information should be provided to students. Many users do not realise their difficulties can be catered for and their access improved.
A video demonstration of how to set up WebCT for accessibility is also available online (http://www.webcontentaccessibility/webct/settings/admin_settings.mov).
Mail: There is a no-frames option for the mail tool and this should be used. For the sake of those with special needs, the Administrator can allow the forwarding of WebCT mail to users' usual addresses. This may allow them better access to their mail but you will need to notify them that this is possible.
Bulletin Boards: There is a no-frames version for BULLETIN BOARD and this should be used. Neither Home Page Reader nor pwWebSpeak can access the first page of the Bulletin Board. These devices cannot make sense of course content listings and the compress and expand functions.
| Creating Courses | You can create a blank course, a course based on a template, or a course based on an existing course. |
| Modifying Course Information | You can change information stored in the Course Profile, including the course category, the course title, and the designer’s information. |
| Configuring Course Settings | Configuring the Course Settings allows you to control course backups, set the appearance of student names and student homepages, and set course colors. |
It should be noted that creating or modifying courses or creating templates for course designers etc., places responsibility on the Administrator to ensure that these will be used to produce only accessible course content. This means that there should be warnings to course designers, where appropriate, and that the templates should be accessible.
Having created a new course, the Administrator chooses whether to give the designers access to tools to use in the course. There are three templates available that specify tools that can be made available. Alternatively, you can make a new course using an existing course as a template. Note that not all tools are universally accessible and so those chosen should be ones that all students can use.
In the following table, the scale of ease of use is 0 to 10 with 0 as inaccessible.
| Tool or feature | Accessible | Ease of use |
| Assignments tool | yes | 4 to 7 |
| Audio links | yes/no | n/a |
| Bookmark | yes | 5 |
| Calendar | no/yes | 3 |
| CD-ROM | n/a | n/a, 8 |
| Chat rooms | no | 0 |
| Compile tool | yes | 5 |
| Content module | yes/no/maybe | 3 to 6 |
| Discussion tool | yes | 2 |
| yes | 4 | |
| Glossary | yes | 6 |
| Help | no/yes but.. | 5 |
| Home page | yes | 8 |
| Home Page icons for tools | yes/no | 3 to 8 |
| Image database | yes | 6 |
| Index | yes | 6 |
| Movie links | yes/no | n/a |
| MyGrades | yes | 8 |
| MyNotes | yes | 5 |
| MyProgress | yes | 8 |
| Presentations | no/yes | 2 |
| Quiz | no | 1 |
| References | yes | 8 |
| Search | yes | 9 |
| Self test | no | 1 |
| Student home pages | yes | 4 |
| Student tips | no/yes | 4 |
| Syllabus files | n/a | n/a |
| Syllabus tool | yes | 10 |
| Targets/Goals | yes | 6 |
| Whiteboard | no | 0 |
From the full table of accessibility of tools compiled by Stephen Rehberg and Caroline Gergely of Georgia State University.
Care should be taken in providing image fields for designers if this means that image alt tags cannot be added.
Icons that don't have alt tags should be avoided. Cut-and-paste the icon's img src into the title field. (Does this convert the icon into an image so that an alt tag can be added????) Make sure icons are large so they do not require very precise mouse clicks. Note that some icons have built-in text but this is graphical and not accessible.
Note - icons on other pages can cause problems as alt tags cannot be added.
Administrators can choose to let designers choose course colours. Whoever chooses the colours, there are many problems associated with the use of colour and it should be done with strict adherence to the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Warnings about the possibility of problems with colours should be available to all designers that have control over the use of colour.
15% of people are red/green colour blind and many are blue/brown colour blind. This means they cannot discern colour changes between these colours. Colours should be chosen so that in a black and white version, the content is still still meaningful and accessible.
Frames and pop-up or new windows are not connected to the original window and so users who cannot see the screen often cannot navigate between these. For example, the back button on the browser will not take them back to the window from which they opened the current window.
The four main WebCT frames are:
Administrators can choose to have a single form of menu bar for all courses or to allow designers to do as they please. As menu bars can cause problems for access, either the Administrator should set an accessible version (if this is possible, eg with close frame links etc.), or provide warnings for designers so they repeat all menu information on the main page.
Administrators have control over how calendars are used. If calendars are to be used, and relied upon for student information, they must be accessible. Access can be improved with the use of the 'weekly' function and the use of the compilation tool but users will need to be made aware of these options.
Similarly, designers can be enabled to use the news feature. It is again important to ensure that such news will be accessible to all students, eg by providing the 'compile tool'.
The compile tool should be added to the site, either on the home page or on a subsidiary page. It can be used to make printing and compilation of pages easier and helps with accessibility. It can make the calendar accessible to users.
Bookmarks may be useful to students with difficulties
Communications
The CHAT and WHITEBOARD are not accessible to all users.
Last updated: 8 March 2002