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Accessibility statement for Edinburgh College Moodle (VLE)

This accessibility statement applies to Edinburgh College Moodle virtual learning platform. The core Moodle platform is a 3rd party, open-source solution, administered and with some customisations by Edinburgh College.

This website is run by Edinburgh College. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts, and font size using the UserWay widget
  • zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA)

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.


How accessible this website is

The open-source software, Moodle, has been designed with accessibility in mind. Moodle’s goal is to be fully accessible and usable for all users regardless of ability. The Moodle website has detailed information about Moodle’s conformance to standards and known bugs and issues. All core Moodle activities and resources have been designed to be accessible but Edinburgh College also uses additional third-party plugins and contains a lot of user-generated content. This means that it is difficult to maintain a fully accessible site and that some aspects of accessibility are outside of our immediate control. Content on Edinburgh College Moodle is created and uploaded by University Staff. Our aim is that all learning, teaching and assessment resources are, where possible, accessible to all users.  However, we cannot guarantee that this is the case.

 

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • Some content (usually headings) may have been added by individual users with hardcoded colours and/or sizes. In these cases text size and colour may not respect styles applied by all accessibility tools
  • Some older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • Not all images will have alternative text added
  • Some older, recorded video content may have poor-quality, inaccurate or missing captions
  • Most videos will not have audio descriptions available
  • Live video stream such as lectures for tutorials linked from Edinburgh College Moodle but hosted on external systems may not have captions (see Live Captions for Microsoft Teams)
  • Turnitin Feedback Studio and some Moodle assignments, will convert submissions into an image based PDF, which are inaccessible to users of screen readers
  • Many file resources available within course pages require proprietary software to view or edit (e.g. Adobe PDF, MS Word, MS PowerPoint). Edinburgh College offers all required software to all users free of charge. Edinburgh College cannot guarantee the functionality of screen readers or other accessibility software within these 3rd party applications.

Download Microsoft Office apps or access Office online


Feedback and contact information

If you have problems navigating Edinburgh College Moodle or need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

Responses from this email address will be made only between Mon – Fri 8:30am to 4:30pm. We’ll consider your request and get back to you within 5 working days.

If you are a student with existing arrangements or reasonable adjustments, you can also contact your designated support assistant for support.


Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of our VLE and ePortfolio systems. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact: moodle@edinburghcollege.ac.uk.


Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).


Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

In response to the nationally evolving coronavirus situation, Edinburgh College colleagues are now working remotely, in line with Government guidance. It is currently not possible to discuss accessibility issues for the Edinburgh College Moodle site in person. Please contact us via email and someone from the team will respond to you within 5 working days.

Email: moodle@edinburghcollege.ac.uk


Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Edinburgh College is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the  Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

 

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

 

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

 

Third-Party applications and integrations

Edinburgh College Moodle utilises a number of 3rd-party learning packages, software and integrations. Where possible, Edinburgh College will endeavour to utilise 3rd-party tools and integrations which fully comply with WCAG 2.1, but cannot guarantee, nor directly affect the compliance of these third-parties.
Turnitin: The user’s submission may not be readable by a screen reader due to the conversion to an image PDF used for annotation purposes
H5P: Some H5P content may not be fully readable on screen when zoomed in, and user created content may not conform to WCAG criteria (e.g. text size or colour). Please see H5P’s content types recommendations for compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA support)
Learning Content Packages/SCORM: Some content within Moodle comes from ‘content packages’, which the University buys from external suppliers. This includes essential staff training such as Health and Safety, and Equality and Diversities, and other 3rd party software which is integrated/accessed through Moodle (i.e. Turnitin for Similarity Checking). Some of these content packages may not be entirely accessible.
Office 365: Edinburgh College uses Microsoft as their productivity applications provider, so much of the content added to Edinburgh College Moodle will be in the form of Microsoft documents, spreadsheets and presentations.  Detailed information about Microsoft’s built-in accessibility features can be found on their website.

ClickView:

  • The ClickView Player can be controlled using the keyboard
  • All images and html elements have alt tags and titles to improve the experience with screen readers
  • All ClickView content produced content has captions
  • Options to set subtitles on by default
  • Auto-captioning


LinkedIn Learning: 

An online platform offering free courses (if member of Edinburgh College) on a variety of subjects. Please view LinkedIn’s Accessibility statement.

 

Display

The Moodle platform is designed for responsive display. However, there are some circumstances where accessibility is more limited:

  • Due to the nature of the content that might be hosted in Moodle it cannot be guaranteed that text can be resized without assistive technology up to 200 percent without loss of content or functionality. This doesn’t meet WCAG 1.4.4.
  • It cannot be guaranteed that content can be presented vertically and horizontally without needing to scroll. This doesn’t meet WCAG 1.4.10.
  • Moodle is developed by a 3rd party and colour contrast for the standard product should meet accessibility regulations. However, it is possible that content owners may alter defaults which results in some text being hard to read. This does not meet WCAG 1.4.3.

 

Content within Moodle

  • Edinburgh College Moodle platform contains lots of files which must be downloaded to be viewed e.g. Adobe PDFs, Word Documents, PowerPoint presentations. These may not be fully accessible to a screen reader. You will also need access to the programs to view these files. This does not meet WCAG 4.1.2.
  • The purpose of each link may not always be determined from the text alone, for example some links may just say ‘click here’.  This does not meet WCAG 2.4.4. We are working on fixing historical links and will try to ensure when new content is published, this also meets accessibility standards. 
  • Images may not have alternative text. This does not meet WCAG 1.1.1
  • Video content may have poor-quality or missing captions. This does not meet WCAG 1.2.2. Edinburgh College is working to improve this situation and is actively exploring technologies and processes to meet the requirements
  • Most videos will not have audio descriptions available. This does not meet WCAG 1.2.3 and WCAG 1.2.5.
  • Turnitin Feedback Studio and some Moodle assignments will convert submissions into an image based PDF, which are inaccessible to users of screen readers. This does not meet WCAG 4.1.2.


Navigation

  • Heading tags may be used inconsistently to create emphasis to text, rather than styling them with set styles. This also means that Headings may not always be sequential. This does not meet WCAG 1.3.1, WCAG 1.3.2 and WCAG 1.3.3.
  • Tool tips and pop-up content may not be read out by screen reader software. This means that help functionality and error messages may not always be readable by screen reader software.  This does not meet WCAG 1.3.1.
  • Some form inputs may be missing form labels so may not be readable to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.5.3.

 

Disproportionate burden

This section covers issues that we cannot fix right now as we have assessed the cost involved in fixing these issues would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the law. We are not currently claiming disproportionate burden for any issues.


Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

  • Many of our older PDFs and Word documents may not meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they are accessible to a screen reader. The accessibility regulations don’t require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services. For example, we don’t plan to fix documents from older Moodle courses that are archived and no longer being taught. 
  • Pre-recorded audio and video content published before 23 September 2020 may not be accompanied with a text alternative, captions, audio description or sign language interpretation. We do not plan to create a text alternative, captions, audio description or sign language interpretation to content pre-dating 23 September 2020 as all pre-recorded audio and video content published before 23 September 2020 are exempt from the regulations.
  • We do not plan to add ‘baked-in’ captions to live video streams as live video is exempt from the meeting the accessibility regulations and users can enabled live captions themselves within some communication applications (e.g. Microsoft Teams).
  • We do not plan to fix or amend archived Moodle content which was archived before 23rd Spetember 2018 unless a specific request is made. All archived data requests must be made via a Subject Access Request made to the Edinburgh College Data Protection Officer, who will assess the scope of the request and respond in due course.

Data Protection Email: dataprotection@edinburghcollege.ac.uk

 

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Edinburgh College upgrade the Moodle platform on a regular basis. With each upgrade we will continue to assess and redevelop (where possible and practical) existing features, integrations and interfaces based on the WCAG 2.1 success criterion.

We will continue to use accessible themes for Moodle and endeavour, where possible, to only integrate software and services which are fully compliant with WCAG 2.1 criteria.

The Edinburgh College Learning Technology team have been investigating and assessing tools to support teaching staff in creating and maintining accessible learning content. For example, Blackboard Ally for Moodle. The Learning Technology team have begun creating a series of reports which will regularly run on against all LIVE courses on the VLE. These reports aim to continually assist in the identification of non-compliant course content.


Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 21 August 2020. It was last reviewed on 21 August 2020.

This website was last tested in July 2020. The test was carried out by the Edinburgh College Learning Technology team as part of the annual summer archive/rollover/upgrade process.

We used this approach to deciding on a sample of pages to test:

  • Follow up on any accessibility concerns previously raised by users of Edinburgh College Moodle
  • Take sample of 3 of each page ‘type’ within the VLE (course type pages must include one of each ‘Course Format’ type)
  • Top course level course page (x3)
  • Unit level course page (x3)
  • Site level info page (x3)
  • Site front page (x1)
  • Test using W3.org recommended compliance checking software
  • Test screen reading, text manipulation and navigation using JAWS, Read & Write Gold, and NVDA assistive software

 


Last modified: Friday, 18 June 2021, 2:18 PM