Hypothesis Accessibility and Usability Information

Hypothesis is a tool integrated into Canvas to have students highlight and annotate text. This document summarizes the accessibility and usability barriers identified during testing as well as how to get help. This is not a comprehensive list of accessibility barriers, but gives a sample of the kinds of barriers that the product has.

    

Get help

  • Contact the DoIT Help Desk for general assistance. Reach the Help Desk by phone at 608.264.4357, email at help@doit.wisc.edu or visit their KnowledgeBase.

  • For accessibility or usability assistance for Hypothesis, please contact the vendor. This is not a university-supported tool.

Accessibility and usability barriers 

The following information is provided to help people with disabilities know what potential barriers may exist and to help people who support them. This is not a comprehensive list of barriers. Our team evaluates common user flows, looking for patterns of barriers. We do not evaluate the entire application.

Screen reader barriers limit access for individuals using screen readers, such as people who are blind or who have a learning disability.

A piece of text highlighted in Hypothesis. See caption for details.

Figure 1 caption: The highlighted text produced a state change that was not announced by the screen reader. A user had to back up and re-read to hear that any text had been highlighted.

The tester was not able to get VoiceOver to select text with keyboard shortcuts, and had to use a mouse to test the state change to highlighted text. Vendor documentation indicates that screen reader use should be possible, but the tester was not able to complete the tasks of highlighting and annotating via screen reader.

Magnification and reflow barriers exist, creating barriers for people with low vision.

A magnified interface. See caption for details.

Figure 2 caption: Hypothesis magnified to 175%. By 175% magnification, a user can no longer read the reference text. WCAG 2.1 AA requires features to be usable at 400% magnification.

Some contrast barriers exist, creating barriers for people with low vision or who are color blind.

The Hypothesis app interface. See Figure 2 caption for details.

Figure 3 caption: The existing placeholder text (“enter comment” and “add new tags”) has a color contrast ratio of 2.54:1. Placeholder text contrast should be 4.5:1 to pass color contrast for placeholder text in WCAG 2.1 AA standards (or 3:1 for 18pt text or 14pt bold).

The dark gray button which says “Post to Leah Bowers Sandbox Course” has a 2.88:1 color contrast ratio which does not pass color contrast standards for WCAG 2.1 AA.





Keywordshighlight, annotate, Canvas, dlt, digital learning tool, Canvs integration   Doc ID141228
OwnerMaria D.GroupIT Accessibility and Usability
Created2024-08-16 12:14:26Updated2024-08-16 12:21:30
SitesDoIT Help Desk, IT Accessibility and Usability
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