Accessible and User-Friendly Drag-and-Drop Questions

Handouts Media

Presented at 9:15am in Cotton Creek I on Wednesday, November 20, 2019.

#29378

Speaker(s)

  • Emilie Berglund, Accessibility Implementation Manager, McGraw-Hill
  • Lin Mahoney, Accessibility Manager, McGraw-Hill Education

Session Details

  • Length of Session: 1-hr
  • Format: Lecture
  • Expertise Level: Beginner
  • Type of session: General Conference

Summary

Drag-and-drop questions are popular but often inaccessible.  In an effort to create drag-and-drop questions for all students, in 2018 we updated our Ordering and Matching question types for WCAG compliance.  In 2019, we dedicated ourselves to usability improvements.  We will share our progress and lessons learned.

Abstract

Drag-and-drop questions are popular with students and faculty, but they are often inaccessible for users relying on a keyboard or a screen reader to navigate content.  This means we’re often forced to cut drag-and-drop questions for all users or offer a separate, alternate set of content using accessible question types for those who cannot use a mouse. 

In 2018, we updated our Ordering and Matching question types to achieve WCAG compliance, but knew we still had room to improve the user experience. This year, we dedicated ourselves to making the usability improvements needed to make them both accessible and usable. 

We conducted user testing and incorporated user feedback to update the experience to benefit all users, but especially screen reader users.

We will provide a brief summary of our process, focusing on the user experience changes, and provide walkthrough of the experience, including keyboard navigation and screen reader navigation.

Keypoints

  1. How we overcame common accessibility challenges in drag-and-drop questions
  2. How we translated user-feedback into an improved experience for screen reader
  3. Demonstration of the accessible user experience with keyboard navigation and screen reader navigation

Disability Areas

Cognitive/Learning, Mobility, Vision

Topic Areas

Accessible Educational Materials, Assistive Technology, Uncategorized

Speaker Bio(s)

Emilie Berglund

Emilie is the Accessibility Implementation Manager for the Digital Platform Group (DPG) at McGraw-Hill (MH). Throughout her career, she has served in several roles in the area of assessment and accessibility, including Product Owner, focusing on the assessment experience for authors, instructors, and students; Director of Digital Content for Higher Education Math/Stats where she led the authoring strategy and execution of the group's online math/stats content; and as a Developmental Mathematics faculty member at Utah Valley University. Emilie partners with Lin on the DPG Accessibility Implementation team, which focuses on training and supporting the McGraw-Hill DPG teams as they strive to develop and deliver innovative and accessible learning technologies.

Lin Mahoney

Lin Mahoney is an Accessibility Manager in McGraw-Hill’s Digital Platform Group (DPG). Throughout her career, Lin has served in multiple roles in accessibility services--as a publisher representative fielding accessible file requests from DSS offices, as well as an on-campus accessibility coordinator working directly with students. Lin holds a M.Ed with a concentration on technology and adult education. Lin partners with Emilie on the DPG Accessibility Implementation team, which focuses on training and supporting the McGraw-Hill DPG teams as they strive to develop and deliver innovative and accessible learning technologies.

Handout(s)

Developing Accessible Ordering and Matching Questions