Accessibility Audit by SHUFFLE

Within the SHUFFLE project, which is a research project in the field of digital accessibility, in cooperation between the German universities "Hochschule der Medien" in Stuttgart, "Universität Bielefeld", "Pädagogische Hochschule Heidelberg" and "Pädagogische Hochschule Freiburg", an audit on accessibility of Moodle courses was conducted by a professional auditor. However, it is not a complete audit with representative selection of pages, but selected objects (more information in the attached PDF and PPT files).

Note: the individual accessibility issues listed here are gradually being implemented as issues in the issue tracker, this was not yet completely possible due to the time limit on how fast you can upload issues in sequence). It also lists only the accessibility issues that we have not already found in other Issues.

The following platform accessibility issues were found (a more detailed description of these issues can be found in the attached PDF and PPT files, as well as in other information about the audit):

1.1.1 Non-text Content

• Special characters such as the left arrow when switching to the last section of a task (e.g.: "◄ Task 3") should be placed in an extra <span> element and hidden from the screen reader with aria-hidden="true". Otherwise, the special characters will only cause confusion for screen reader users, since they are only there for decoration.
• The button for the profile has only the initials, but there should be an alternative text, for example per aria-label, and also contain the function. For example, for the Admin User (AU): "AU - to the Admin User's profile".
• The gaps in the drag & drop exercise with the gap text do not have alternative texts, only "empty" is read out by the screen reader.
  It’s very hard for Screen reader users to figure out how the task works. In addition, there should be an alternative to describe the shape and color or alternatively, for example, simply a selection list per gap as an alternative for screen reader users, where you have the possible answers to choose from.

1.3.1 Info and Relationships (WCAG 2.1)

• The order of some headings is not coherent (MDL-77106)
• Missing HTML list markup for some lists / grouped elements (MDL-77108)
• It is not possible to mark up quote blocks as <blockquote> without the HTML editor in Moodle
• In the Glossary there are tables which only consist of one <th>-element (letters like "A", "B", "C" and so on) (MDL-77649)
• It is not possible to mark up tables as layout tables without using the HTML editor in Moodle.

1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose

• There is no way in Moodle to add "autocomplete" without coding HTML for input fields that refer to user data.

1.4.1 Use of Color

• In the calendar, the types of appointments can only be distinguished by different colours, so users with limitations in terms of colour perception can distinguish them poorly or not at all. - Symbols or similar should be used in addition to the colour difference. 

2.1.4 Character Key Shortcuts (WCAG 2.1)

• In the menu bars, the first letters of the menu items are used as keyboard shortcuts, which consist of only one key and thus override the screen reader's keyboard shortcuts.

2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide

• Moving content can be switched off:
  There is no way to turn off animated GIFs.

2.4.1 Bypass Blocks (WCAG 2.1)

• There are several <nav> elements or "navigation" landmarks. This alone is not an accessibility issue, but these need meaningful unique names per aria-label or aria-labelled by, otherwise this makes navigation difficult for screen reader users. These names are currently missing (MDL-77674)

2.4.2 Page Titled (WCAG 2.1)

• Most of the document titles on this page each contain a different, individual name of the respective page, but do not mention the name of the website itself (MDL-78806)

2.4.5 Multiple Ways (WCAG 2.1)

• There is only one way to access most content pages within a course, but there should be at least two. For example via the main navigation, sitemap or the search function.

2.5.3 Label in Name (WCAG 2.1)

• Instead of the displayed profile name, the aria label in the upper right corner has "User menu", which means that the visible label and the accessible name do not match. Screen reader users do not get read out what is visible to others (MDL-77549)
• In tables, e.g. in the forum, the names of the column headers or sort functions differ from the accessible names. E.G.: Column header "started by" instead of "sort by topic starter in descending order". Screen reader users are read something other than what is displayed visually (MDL-77549)

3.1.2 Language of Parts (WCAG 2.1)

• Except with the HTML editor, there is no way to mark up sections as English or any other language if you write text. If the language of a text section is different from that of the main page, then the language should be set in the lang attribute. Otherwise the problem is that the screen reader will read what is read in the wrong language, making it difficult to understand. A new feature that makes it possible to set languages for text sections should be added (similar to the existing MDL-67395).

3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (WCAG 2.1)

• The <select> field to switch the user in the evaluation mode has no label except the default.
• If you open up the notification menu and when you subsequently call up a conversation, the chat field only has a default value, but no sufficient label.

4.1.1 Parsing (WCAG 2.1)

• Syntax validation shows errors like "Duplicate ID" (for example in "lessons").

4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (WCAG 2.1)

• For the filters (icons) under the calendar, no status is output for the screen reader.
  Here, for example, instead of icons you could either use checkboxes natively or use role="checkbox" and aria-checked with "true" or "false".
• In the toolbar next to name and profile picture there are elements to expand that do not use aria-expanded.
• On the timer of the video there is incorrectly role="presentation" (so it is only shown as decorative).

7.1.5 Spoken subtitles (EN 301 549 v3.2.1)

• There is no option in either the YouTube player or the native Moodle player to have subtitles read aloud for videos in other languages.

11.8.3 Preservation of accessibility information during transformation (EN 301 549 v3.2.1)

• Tables and some other elements copied over from Word (or other programs) into Moodle lose accessibility information such as table headings for tables.

11.8.5 Templates (EN 301 549 v3.2.1)

• There are several themes in Moodle, but no completely accessible one and none that is labeled as such.

9.6 WCAG Conformity criteria (EN 301 549 v3.2.1)

• Accessibility issues caused by the platform are still to be found (see other test steps, especially those of WCAG 2.1).

References

• WCAG 2.1
• EN 301 549 v.3.2.1 (PDF)