Digital Accessibility

Joe Dolson, developer and Wordpress accessibility champion, created an extremely useful plugin: Access Monitor, which interfaces with the accessibility analyzing service Tenon.io by Karl Groves and Asa Baylus. As a Wordpress user familiar with Tenon’s test quality, I couldn’t wait to check it out.

With a paid Tenon account and the Wordpress plugin installed, users can run tests against webpages and receive a detailed report about existing accessibility issues right there in the dashboard. (Tenon recently changed their pricing model for all plans, with the smallest plan costing $19 a month annually or $27 monthly.) You can run accessibility compliance audits on-demand or schedule them weekly.

At the end of October I attended the Future of Web Design conference in San Francisco, Future Insight’s first time hosting this event in the Bay Area. As a popular and well-known conference for those in the digital industry, I was excited to see what they would bring to the table in this West Coast expansion. Over two full days I had the opportunity to immerse myself in the realities of being a designer in such a fast paced industry - where our use of the medium changes so quickly. After two days I walked away with new knowledge, networks and couldn’t wait to put everything I learned to use.

INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ – Blackboard Inc. (“Blackboard”) today announced two accessibility milestones for the latest version of its online virtual collaboration tool Blackboard Collaborate™. Today’s announcement marks the company’s latest steps toward providing industry-leading inclusive technology for teaching and learning.

According to SSB Bart Group, Blackboard’s accessibility partner, Blackboard’s browser-based web conferencing tool supports the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.0 at Level AA, which includes features like live captions, 4.5:1 contrast, consistent navigation, and more. SSB Bart Group also gave the technology approval for meeting Section 508 standards in the United States, which apply standards to electronic and information technology used by federal agencies.

One example of an organization currently using these accessibility features is at the University of Montana, where the school’s Accessibility Interest Group uses the new Ultra experience of Blackboard Collaborate to conduct their regular webinars.

“It’s extremely important to us that we use tools and technologies that share the same values and standards that we’re working hard to achieve through our Accessibility Interest Group,” said Marlene Zentz, Senior Instructional Designer and Accessibility Specialist at the University of Montana. “The new Blackboard Collaborate is not only the tool we use to allow our campus leaders to keep working toward making teaching and learning an inclusive process on our campus, but the tool that our disabled students themselves can use to collaborate and learn at their highest potential.”

“Blackboard is fully committed to delivering product experiences that conform to the highest levels of global accessibility standards,” said JoAnna Hunt, Blackboard’s Accessibility Manager. “The publication of support statements for both the WCAG and Section 508 standards for Blackboard Collaborate with the Ultra Experience is the first of many achievements on our path to delivering on our promises of truly inclusive teaching and learning technology.”

Read more about Blackboard’s commitment to accessibility or get involved in the company’s ongoing accessibility work, by joining the Accessibility Community.

For more information about Blackboard, please visit www.blackboard.com or follow @Blackboard on Twitter.

About Blackboard Inc. Blackboard is the world’s leading education technology company. We challenge conventional thinking and advance new models of learning in order to reimagine education and make it more accessible, engaging, and relevant to the modern-day learner and the institutions that serve them. In partnership with our customers in higher education and K-12 as well as corporations and government agencies around the world, our mission is to help every learner achieve their full potential by inspiring a passion for lifelong learning. For more information about Blackboard, follow us on Twitter @Blackboard.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/blackboard-brings-virtual-collaboration-to-learners-with-disabilities-300167085.html