Table of Contents
Overview
Public Catalog Accessibility
External Instructor Preference Form
Internal Application Accessibility
Commitment to Remediation
Related Articles
Overview
Accessibility plays a crucial role in the design of public-facing sites Coursedog can help you create (e.g. Course Catalog and Events sites), and we prioritize Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 compliance for those.
Coursedog has a full-time UX designer that reviews all changes for usability and accessibility on a regular monthly cadence.
Each item is tested for accessibility during initial prototyping, during development, and during final QA.
We also cover a large part of accessibility standards in our internal applications, and major application flows/jobs can be performed by all groups of users.
We are currently assessing our general accessibility and building a backlog of necessary improvements.
We partner with clients if/when they raise accessibility concerns.
Public Catalog Accessibility
Overview | Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) | Additional Considerations
Additional Accessibility Audits
Overview
Our public course catalog has accessible keyboard-based navigation support.
Users can browse the public website and use all controls just by using their keyboard.
Screen reader support is also accessible; all the labeling is appropriate and understandable.
You can find commonly asked accessibility questions addressed here.
Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)
Overview
We completed a VPAT assessment of our public Catalogs March 2023.
Overall, no critical issues were found, and our accessibility level is really good as our service enables all users, including those who utilize keyboards and screen readers, to efficiently browse Catalog content.
Minor issues that were found have been documented internally for future enhancements.
You can find full details of the report attached at the bottom of this article as a PDF.
Known Issues
Some landmarks and IDs are missing on the home page and in certain sections that have a slight impact on browsing.
Problems with table tags that cause cell content to be placed in the "Title" tag, which is confusing for screen readers.
Lack of “Status message” once "No Results Found" and "0 Results" are displayed in the page's Header (Program/Course landing page, and Global Search Page).
Minor issues occur with the global search modal, such as screen readers reading content outside of the modal window and keyboard focus not being maintained after the modal is closed.
Additional Considerations
The public-facing Catalog page is customizable which means good color contrast will depend on the school's choice of theme and their official colors.
If you run into any color contrast issues as a result of your chosen theme/colors, reach out to your Customer Success representative or submit a support ticket for help achieving the best possible contrast without compromising too much of your preferred theme.
Additional Accessibility Audits
Overview | Google Lighthouse | WebAIM WAVE Report
Overview
In addition to our VPAT, Catalog pages created in Coursedog have been audited for accessibility by respected third-party tools. See below for results.
Google Lighthouse
Homepage | Program List Page | Program Page | Course List Page
Course Page | Custom Page
Homepage
Program List Page
Program Page
Course List Page
Course Page
Custom Page
WebAIM WAVE Report
External Instructor Preference Form
Overview
Academic Scheduling gives customers the ability to create Preference Forms that are sent out to instructors.
The forms that instructors receive have accessible keyboard-based navigation support.
Instructors can use all controls on the form with their keyboard.
Screen reader support is also accessible; all the labeling is dependent on customer configuration.
Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)
Overview
We completed a VPAT assessment of our Instructor Preference Form March 2024.
As a whole, only minor issues were found that did not affect accessibility. In general, our service is accessible since it allows all users – including those with keyboards and screen readers – to efficiently complete preference forms.
Minor issues that were found have been documented internally for future enhancements.
You can find full details of the report attached at the bottom of this article as a PDF.
Known Issues
Coursedog's Instructor Preference Form allows adding a “question” that displays a link, but its label cannot be customized. Only the header and description text next to the displayed URL can be edited.
Depending on customer configuration - Coursedog's Instructor Preference Form correctly marks mandatory fields and indicates that they must be filled out. A screen reader also announces them correctly. Form errors, however, are not automatically detected.
In some input and dropdown fields, placeholders provide visible labels that are announced by screen readers.
There are some small issues with color contrast in some elements (validation red message and the hover states of blue elements when the background becomes gray).
Internal Application Accessibility
Overview
We design all feature proposals with accessibility in mind, follow industry-standard code quality practices, and test each feature before release.
That said, our internal application is primarily designed for high-caliber tasks (e.g. Catalog page creation, workflow design, etc.) where phone screens are not the most comfortable devices for performing such actions. Consequently, our applications perform best at tablet resolutions or bigger.
We support keyboards and screen readers in a large majority of elements, but some parts of the application might not be fully accessible.
Due to the vast number of interactive elements available on each screen (long curriculum forms, template builders, etc.), it might be difficult to use keyboards/screen readers effectively.
Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)
Overview
We completed VPAT assessments of our Academic Scheduling (Dec. 1, 2023), Curriculum Management (Dec. 1, 2023), Instructor Preference Form (Mar. 1, 2024), and Catalog Management (Mar. 29, 2024) applications.
The accessibility conformance level depends on the customer's configuration and available features. Based on the results, we know that additional work is needed to ensure that all aspects of internal accessibility conformance are addressed.
We've identified a set of issues captured below under “Known Issues” as well as both VPAT Reports.
Most repetitive interface patterns on which Coursedog Applications are based (like Modal Windows, tabular views, and forms) are operable despite known issues. Therefore, users can still perform main flows throughout the application.
To ensure the best user experience, we work closely with our customers to mitigate any quirks that may hinder customer success.
We are committed to making all of the most important internal user flows fully accessible and operable across all applications.
For all remaining applications (Event Scheduling, Public Event Site, Syllabus, and Course Demand Projections), we plan to finalize reports and internal accessibility audits in 2024.
Known Issues
Coursedog is aware that there are some current accessibility breaches on heavyset parts of the internal Coursedog user interface (UI).
When administrators run tasks such as the Section Optimizer, we found some "icon only" buttons lack proper labeling for screen readers (such as course material delete buttons inside the section editing modal).
Some items that are expandable lack proper "state" labeling for screen readers so the users might have trouble understanding if the item is expandable/expanded or not. This is in the process of being fixed through proper aria attributes.
There are some heading levels that are skipped in the application.
There are times when users might experience issues with keyboard focus and its visibility.
The tables used in WYSIWYG editors lack explicit row headers and captions (however, this does not affect the tables displayed in Public Catalog).
There are some small issues with color contrast in some elements.
There are minor parsing errors associated with missing/duplicated IDs on some application screens.
At present, there is no alternative way to edit content/settings in places that use drag-and-drop functionality. It affects the following places:
Catalog Navigation builder in the Catalog Management app
Home page builder in the Catalog Management app
Requirements Section in Curriculum (reordering added requirements)
Template builders available in application settings
In some parts of internal applications, main landmarks are duplicated, resulting in lower accessibility levels.
See the VPAT reports attached below for more information.
Commitment to Remediation
Above all, Coursedog prioritizes fixes to all accessibility breaches and expects to obtain a VPAT showing full compliance across all applications in the near future.