Abstract
Authoring tools are software programs that allow users to create learning content, lessons, and courses, usually to be used in virtual learning environments. These tools are a reasonable choice for novice users, as they use pre-programmed elements and do not require specific programming skills. However, they do not always meet accessibility guidelines, nor do they ensure that the educational content generated through them is accessible. This study first evaluates the accessibility of four popular free open-source authoring tools based on the ATAG recommendations. Then it evaluates the accessibility of the educational content generated through them based on the WCAG recommendations. These evaluations allow us to identify the level of accessibility of the authoring tools and their potential to help people with disabilities to become not only consumers but also producers of accessible educational content. We conclude that, while much work remains to be done to ensure accessibility, authoring tools are a potential key to effective social inclusion. Based on the findings of this study, we establish a set of recommendations for stakeholders to help close some gaps regarding accessibility.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The documentation that supports our study is available at https://osf.io/srvbc/?view_only=d44d88cd3bc641f0a15c24f75df12117.
Code availability
Not applicable.
References
Fauville, G., Lantz-Andersson, A., Säljö, R.: ICT tools in environmental education: reviewing two newcomers to schools. Environ. Educ. Res. 20(2), 248–283 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2013.775220
Asgari, S., Mehrpouyan, A.: A group comparison of E-learning authoring tools in educational production and management. Indian J. Sci. Technol. 11, 24 (2018)
Treviranus, J., Richards, J., Clark, C.: Inclusively Designed Authoring Tools. In: Yesilada, Y., Harper, S. (eds.) Web Accessibility. Human-Computer Interaction Series, pp. 357–372. Springer, London (2019)
WHO: Disability and health, Geneva (2018)
Cooper, M.: Web accessibility guidelines for the 2020s. In: Proceedings of the 13th Web for All Conference, pp. 1–4 (2016)
Acosta-Vargas, P., Acosta, T., Lujan-Mora, S.: Challenges to assess accessibility in higher education websites: a comparative study of Latin america universities. IEEE Access 6, 36500–36508 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2848978
W3C: Authoring Tools Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG ) Overview (2015)
W3C: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (2018)
Kurt, S.: Moving toward a universally accessible web: Web accessibility and education. Assist. Technol. 31(4), 199–208 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1080/10400435.2017.1414086
Rodrigo, C., Tabuenca, B.: Ecologías de aprendizaje en estudiantes online con discapacidades. Comunicar 28(62), 53–65 (2020). https://doi.org/10.3916/C62-2020-05
Moriña, A.: Inclusive education in higher education: challenges and opportunities. Eur. J. Spec. Needs Educ. 32(1), 3–17 (2017)
Mourão, A.B., Netto, J.F.D.M.: Inclusive model application using accessible learning objects to support the teaching of mathematics. Informatics Educ. 18(1), 213–226 (2019). https://doi.org/10.15388/infedu.2019.10
Schiavone, A.: Is Moodle accessible? An analysis through experiences in scientific literature and a case study. In: International Symposium on the Future of Education in Information Science, pp. 165–174 (2018).
Zhang, X., et al.: Accessibility within open educational resources and practices for disabled learners: a systematic literature review. Smart Learn. Environ. 7(1), 1–19 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-019-0113-2
Pascual, A., López, J.M., Granollers, T.: Aportaciones a la mejora de la evaluación de la accesibilidad en entornos web 2.0 interactivos administrados mediante sistemas de gestión de contenido, Universitat de Lleida (2009)
Bittar, T.J., do Amaral, L.A., Faria, F.B., de Mattos Fortes, R.P.: Supporting the developer in an accessible edition of web communications. In: Proceedings of Working Information in System Design Communication-ISDOC ’12, pp. 3–9 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1145/2311917.2311919
Pascual, A., Ribera, M., Granollers, T.: In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Interacción Persona-Ordenador (INTERACCION’12). In: Perception of accessibility errors to raise awareness among web 2.0 users (2012). https://doi.org/10.1145/2379636.2379652
Roig, J., Ribera, M.: Creation of accessible EPUB documents by non-technical users. In: Proceedings of the XXI International Conference on Human Computer Interaction-Interacción ’15, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1–2 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1145/2829875.2829926
Avila, C., Baldiris, S., Fabregat, R., Graf, S.: Cocreation and evaluation of inclusive and accessible open educational resources: a mapping toward the IMS caliper. IEEE Rev. Iberoam. Tecnol. del Aprendiz. 11(3), 167–176 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1109/RITA.2016.2589578
Ministry of National Education: Portal Colombia Aprende - Banco de Contenidos (2018)
TinyMCE: TinyMCE Editor (2021). https://www.tiny.cloud/. Accessed 30 Dec 2021
Half-baked softare Inc: Hot Potatoes (2009). https://hotpot.uvic.ca/. Accessed 30 Dec 2021
Google: Blogger (2021). https://www.blogger.com/about/. Accessed 30 Dec 2021
Xarxa Telemàtica Educativa de Catalunya: JClic (1992). https://clic.xtec.cat/legacy/es/jclic/. Accessed 30 Dec 2021
Funding
Not applicable.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Baldiris, S., Vargas, D., Garzón, J. et al. Evaluation of authoring tools under ATAG and WCAG recommendations. Univ Access Inf Soc 22, 919–930 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-022-00904-9
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-022-00904-9