[d2l-consortium] Some notes (but not really minutes) on the June 22, 2007 D2L Consortium teleconference

[Ken Petri]

Just so I don't fall too behind, here are some really patchy and
potentially incoherent notes from our last teleconference.

NOTES on teleconference:
Time and Date: June 22, 2 PM EST.
Janna Cameron, Don Amos, Nolan Crabb (OSU), Ken Petri, Sandra Earl,
Dawn Hunziker, Mark Felix.

VPAT:
Need to deliniate between supporting and expections.
Need to revisit the use of skip navigation. Mark notes that paging
value can be set by section, but all students appear on one page for
special access/dropbox tool: alternative timelines for certain
students with different needs.

There were many other specific recommendations for the VPAT, some follow:

* Language enhancement in introduction: Consider redrafting to: "D2L
includes a number of enhancements aimed" at making the web interfaces
of our product functionally accessible to assistive technologies and
users with diverse use and learning needs.

What is meant by: "Hidden skip links at provided...". Some language is
ambiguous.

Unclear: c) why "HTML editor does not use CSS"?
Question: d) "style sheets do not affect how content is read by assistive
technology" (do you use no display: hidden?)
Problem?: g) tables do not use row headers (because they are not
needed? Answer: no, they are needed in places, but are not yet
implemented.)
Table complexity: h) how are row-spans handled? will this be improved?
Note on looking
at use of headings and ids. Currently, no use of headings and ids in
markup, though use of scope is present.
Problem: i) frames: never use an empty frame for layout! Screen
readers can get stuck in them and they always get read aloud.
Point l) javascript alerts: ambiguous description in last two points,
can an engineer explain?

Some context is needed for some of the descriptions and there should
be a divide between support and exception, they are mixed now

Panel Stuff:
Janna: Product developer familiar with accessibility will be
moderating the panel (name?--Beckman?).

Panel members: Janna, Ken, and Mark.

Dawn: That's good. The fewer the better. Dawn will output to web
accessibility wizard to make the PPT accessible.

How we'll divide work on the presentation:
Ken will do screen capture walk-throughs -- will keep total at 15 minutes with
discussion and introduction.
Janna and Mark will collaborate on presentation, will have 1/2 hr total.
Janna will create a course site on the Community for sharing documents.

Next meeting july 6
* progress on the UC07 Fusion panel event
* continue with discussion on the VPAT

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  Ken Petri
  Program Director
  OSU Web Accessibility Center
  102D Pomerene Hall
  1760 Neil Avenue
  Columbus, Ohio  43210
  (614) 292-1760
  mailto:petri.1 at osu.edu
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