Web accessibility evaluation of massive open online courses on Geographical Information Systems

Abstract

This paper describes some of the challenges that exist to make accessible massive open online courses (MOOCs) on Geographical Information Systems (GIS). These courses are known by the generic name of Geo-MOOCs. A MOOC is an online course that is open to the general public for free, which causes a massive registration. A GIS is a computer application that acquire, manipulate, manage, model and visualize geo-referenced data. The goal of a Geo-MOOC is to expand the culture of spatial thinking and the use of geographic information, enabling geospatial web technologies for widespread use. However, the Geo-MOOCs, by nature, have inherent problems of accessibility. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), Article 24, recognize the right of persons with disabilities to education. "States Parties must ensure that persons with disabilities are able to access general tertiary education, vocational training, adult education and lifelong learning without discrimination and on an equal basis with others" [1]. Therefore, it is important to have accessible Geo-MOOCs. In this paper, we present the results of the evaluation of a Geo-MOOC called "Maps and the Geospatial Revolution" using three tools available for free on the Internet: Chrome Developer Tools -Accessibility Audit, eXaminator and WAVE; and included a selection of web content and geographical data representative of the course. This provided feedback for establishing recommendations to improve the accessibility of the analyzed course. Other Geo-MOOCs can also benefit from these recommendations.

Evaluating Web Accessibility Metrics for Jordanian Universities

“…This type of study requires an assessment and monitoring of LCMS accessibility to guarantee the universal accessibility of this type of systems. Similar studies were conducted by [24], [25], and [26], among others.…”

Research challenges in accessible MOOCs: a systematic literature review 2008–2016

“…The existing relevant studies have sufficiently explained the general concepts of accessibility, disability, diversity, universal access as well as the demographics [22][23][24][25][26][27]29,30,33,35,38,[42][43][44]46,54,56,57,60,61]. In the same way, the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities [29,44,59] and related legislation had also been addressed, both in general [29,44,61] and countryspecific level, e.g.…”

“…The existing relevant studies have made important efforts to identify the needs related mainly to blindness and low vision [27][28][29][30][31]35,45,48,53,57,59], deafness and reduced hearing [29,45,49,57], and combined disabilities due to natural aging [23,33,51,54].…”

Accessibility of MOOCs for Blind People in Developing Non-English Speaking Countries

“…However, their openness does not necessarily equate an access, as studies have shown that most MOOC websites do not fulfill minimum accessibility requirements [5,6]. Hence, despite the MOOCs adage to include and offer education to all people, research has shown that their interface is not accessible to people with disabilities, such as the blind [7,8,9] or the elderly [10]. In spite of the opinions that in a single course MOOCs bring together diversity in ideas, cultures and regions, they currently exclude the disabled, which approximately comprise 15% of the world population [7].…”

“…Evaluators randomly selected a course and lectures from Almooc and made notes about the problems discovered. To evaluate Almooc's compatibility with assistive technologies, various screen reader software was used, such as: Non-visual Access Desktop (NVDA) 8 , WebAnywhere 9 , and ChromeVox 10 .…”