Angel Perez and Jessica Gramp preset about the UCL Accessible Moodle project. More info at: http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/digital-education/category/accessibility/accessible-moodle-project/

1. Angel Perez (Student Disability Advisor) angel.perez@ucl.ac.uk
Jessica Gramp (Digital Education Advisor) j.gramp@ucl.ac.uk
UCL Education Conference 2018
Making Moodle more accessible
for disabled staff and students

2. Introduction
- Disability at UCL
- Accessible Moodle project:
- Disabled Student Portal
- Accessible Moodle theme
- Accessible Teaching Practices: UDL course
- Quiz and feedback.

3. Disability in Higher Education
• The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in the
workplace and in wider society.
• You’re disabled under the Equality Act 2010 if you have a physical or
mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect
on your ability to do normal daily activities.
• Our duty to take proportionate action to remedy discrimination and
disadvantage affecting particular groups
• The Act also includes a duty to make reasonable adjustments and this
duty is ‘anticipatory’.

4. Disability at UCL
Approx. 3000 students with a
range of disabilities including:
• Mobility Impairments.
• Sensory Impairments.
• Specific Learning Difficulties.
• Mental Health difficulties.
• Autistic Spectrum Disorders.
• Long Term/Chronic Medical
Conditions.

5. How accessible is UCL?
• Student Support and Wellbeing Services
• Summary of Reasonable Adjustments (SORA).
• Special Exam Arrangements.
• Assistive Technology available at UCL Computer Network.
• SENIT Room at UCL.
• 2016 Accessibility Survey.
What is missing?
• First-hand account from students.
• Lecturers often reported that they didn't know how to make content
accessible.
• Lack of information available to staff regarding accessibility practices.

6. Accessible Moodle Project
• Small project to improve accessibility of Moodle.
• Focus groups with disabled students and staff.
• Specialist disability consultants helped us develop
recommendations.
• Important not to favour one disability over another –
supplement with advice for how to use adaptive technologies
for specific impairments.
• Many of the concerns raised are around general usability that
cause additional problems for those with disabilities.
• A new theme solves many of the issues raised.
• Making Moodle more accessible for people with disabilities
will improve usability for all!

7. Which disabilities did we consider?
There are four broad areas that are covered by a number of
disability charities (AbilityNet):
• Hearing: Auditory Disability (deafness).
• Vision: Blindness and Visual impairment.
• Cognitive: Cognitive and Neurological Disability
(Dyslexia, Autism etc.).
• Motor: Physical Disability.

8. Ten main areas of accessibility concern
1. Clutter - difficult to find information amongst irrelevant links and content.
2. Emphasis – difficult to understand what is the most important information.
3. Layout - page elements are not configurable, there is too much visible at once and the
blocks are too wide.
4. Navigation and Orientation - long, disorganised pages, with links to external services
not being signposted.
5. Usability - some interfaces, especially for assessments, are particularly difficult to use.
6. Awareness - useful features (skip links) & services (Moodle snapshot) remain unknown.
7. Personalisation - a lack of configurable page elements (blocks, fonts, font sizes and
colours) or information about how to do this independently with browser plugins and other
assistive technologies.
8. Text - Problems reading text that is overly long, too small, in a difficult to read font with
poor contrast and in difficult formats both in Moodle and the resources it contains.
9. Consistency - inconsistencies between Moodle courses and conversely some courses
not being adequately distinguishable from others.
10. Graphics - heavy reliance of written information that could be expressed more simply
with icons and images, with appropriate alternative text for those using screen readers.

9. Accessible Moodle theme
• Alerts (closed by individuals) 2, 7.
• Simplified menus 1, 3, 4.
• Scrolling announcements (pausable) 5.
• Larger text 8.
• Icons (alongside text) 10.
• Grey background (helps Dyslexia) 8.
• Accessibility statement / help 6, 7.
• Visible tabbing through elements 2, 4, 6.
n Numbers indicate mapping to area of concern listed in previous slide.

10. Accessible Moodle theme
• Dockable blocks 1, 3, 4.
• Hide / show blocks 1, 2, 3.
• Full screen toggle 3.
• Customised help
depending on role 1, 7.
• Wider spacing between
elements 3, 8.
• Simplified design 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
• More & larger icons 10.
• ‘This course’ menu links to
people, grades, activities 1,
2, 4, 5, 6.
• Blue theme selected (more
accessible for visual
impairments) 5, 8.
n Numbers indicate mapping to area of concern listed in previous slide.

11. Multifaceted approach
Accessible
Moodle
Theme
Disabled
Student
Portal
Accessible
Teaching
Practices
Course

12. Disabled Student Portal

13. Accessible Teaching Practices: Universal
Design for Learning (UDL) course
• A platform for lecturers to learn how to make their
modules more accessible.
• Raise awareness of how disabled students learn.
• Accessibility benefits all, not only disabled students.
• Work with UDL principles to create accessible
environments.
• A resource centre with tools, strategies and guides.

14. Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

15. Accessible Teaching Practices: Universal
Design for Learning (UDL) course
Different learning techniques help staff better understand
disabilities and how they can support them:
• Personas – help staff identify with and understand some of the
challenges disabled students may face.
• Simulations – help staff to better understand how students may
experience certain disabilities.
• Case studies – help staff consider what they can do to make things
easier for students with particular disabilities.

16. Accessible Teaching course: personas
• Anna is 20 and studying a BA in Art History.
• She has moderate dyslexia, which affects
her ability to read, spell and use numbers.
• She modifies web pages to use brown text
on sepia backgrounds to help her read.
• Even then, some websites are too difficult
and distracting for her to read.

17. • Course participants can
get some idea of how
disability affects people
via the simulations.
http://geon.github.io/programming/2016/03/03/dsxyliea
Accessible Teaching course: simulations

18. Anna’s tutor has given her a photocopied chapter of a book to read. The quality
of the photocopying is not very good and the font is very small. She finds it really
difficult to read this type of documents as they require a lot of concentration.
What could her tutor have done to facilitate learning?
a. Give her a different text to read.
b. Contact the publisher to ask for an accessible copy of the chapter.
c. Suggest Anna to print the chapter in a larger format.
d. Convert the text to an accessible format.
Accessible Teaching course: case studies

19. Test your knowledge

20. Accessible Teaching course quiz
How should you name your web links?
(select one or more):
a. Click here to download and complete the application form.
b. Click here to download and complete the application form.
c. Click here to download and complete the application form.
d. Please complete the application form.

21. Accessible Teaching course quiz
External website links should open in (select one):
a) A new window
b) The same window

22. Accessible Teaching course: launching May ‘18
The course will be launched on 9th May at the
UCL Interdisciplinary Conference on Disability
From this date search UCL Moodle for:
Accessible Teaching Practices: Using Universal Design
For Learning (UDL) to provide access to all*
*Please help us by providing feedback on the course.

23. Questions?
Angel Perez
angel.perez@ucl.ac.uk
Student Disability Advisor
UCL Student Support and Wellbeing
Jessica Gramp
j.gramp@ucl.ac.uk
Digital Education Advisor
UCL Information Services Division

24. Acknowledgements
The Accessible Moodle project team also included:
Michele Farmer
Disability IT Support Analyst
UCL Information Services Division (ISD)
Mira Vogel
Digital Education Advisor
UCL Information Services Division