Brief Description of Project: 

This project focused on auditing and improving the accessibility of a large eLearning platform offering a variety of courses, certifications, and interactive learning tools. The platform aimed to serve diverse learners, including individuals with vision, hearing, motor, and learning disabilities. The objective was to ensure that all learners could independently navigate the platform, interact with course materials, and participate in real-time activities without barriers, delivering an equitable learning experience for all.     
 

Sector : Education and eLearning 

Refers to the department within an organization dedicated to providing services related to the Education and eLearning services.

Problem Statement:  

The eLearning platform faced significant accessibility issues that hindered users with disabilities from fully engaging with course materials and completing learning activities. These challenges resulted in low course completion rates and negative user feedback from learners with disabilities. Key challenges included:

• Non-Accessible Interactive Assessments: Dynamic quizzes and timed assessments were not optimized for screen readers or users with motor disabilities, making it difficult for them to complete courses on time.
• Complex Drag-and-Drop Interfaces: Interactive exercises like drag-and-drop, often used for assignments, posed a barrier for users relying on keyboard navigation or assistive devices.
• Over-reliance on Visual Cues: Many course modules relied heavily on visual prompts and animations without offering alternative formats, making them difficult for visually impaired students to understand.
• Poor Screen Reader Compatibility with Real-Time Discussion Forums: Users relying on screen readers faced difficulties navigating real-time discussion forums, as the focus was often lost during new message notifications.
• Inaccessible Gamified Learning Elements: Features such as badges, points, and leader-boards, which were central to the platform’s gamified learning approach, were not accessible to screen reader users.

These issues prevented many learners from fully participating in assessments, completing interactive assignments, or benefiting from social learning features. The platform’s accessibility compliance score stood at 40%, and user feedback from individuals with disabilities was consistently negative.

Solution Statement :

We conducted a deep accessibility audit that uncovered over 120 violations, particularly with interactive elements and real-time communication tools. Our team partnered with the platform’s developers to create innovative solutions tailored to enhancing the accessibility of dynamic and interactive content.

Our actions included:

• Accessible Dynamic Quizzes and Timed Assessments:
  We redesigned the platform’s dynamic assessments to accommodate time extensions for users with disabilities. We also implemented screen-reader-friendly versions of interactive quizzes using ARIA roles and alerts, ensuring that visually impaired users could navigate and complete assessments with ease.
• Keyboard-Accessible Drag-and-Drop Exercises:
  Reworked drag-and-drop exercises to include keyboard-operable alternatives, such as dropdown menus or button-based interactions, making the exercises fully accessible for users with motor impairments and keyboard-only navigation.
• Alternative Textual Prompts for Visual Cues:
  Created textual and audio-based alternatives for visual-only cues and animations, allowing students with visual impairments to access and understand the content via screen readers. Audio prompts were also added for key actions in the learning modules.
• Optimizing Real-Time Discussion Forums:
  Improved screen reader support for real-time discussions by using ARIA live regions to announce new messages without losing focus, and refined focus management to ensure keyboard users could stay within the discussion context.
• Accessible Gamified Learning Features:
  Enabled screen readers to interpret badges, points, and leaderboard statuses by adding ARIA labels and alerts. This ensured that all users, regardless of their ability to perceive visual cues, could participate in the platform's gamified learning approach and track their progress.
   

Methods and Tools: