Atomic Assessments - Accessibility & Usability Guide for Instructors [UW-Madison]

The separation between each question is unclear

When an assessment has several questions per item, the questions are not properly paginated causing questions to run together visually.

• Students with visual disabilities and cognitive impairments may have difficulty distinguishing one question from another, as well as identifying how many questions are in an assessment. Additionally, understanding the progress made through the questions can be confusing for students if multiple questions exist per page.

• Recommend using the default setting for pagination with one item per page and limit the number of questions to one question per item for ease of clarity for your students.

Missing alternative text

There is no mechanism in place to remind or require instructors to enter alternative text for images in Atomic Assessments. As a result, instructors creating an assessment question with an image in it will not know that students with visual disabilities may not be able to answer the question.

• Consider adding alternative text to all your images when building an assessment.

• Make sure the alternative text has enough information for the student to answer the question.

Content not read by screen reader

Content isn’t readable via screen reader on some of the assessment questions.

• Users primary impacted: Students who are blind or low vision. 

• Question types:

  • Multiple choice matrix standard, inline, and labels questions.

Input fields not labeled for screen reader

Input fields do not have a label for students using a screen reader. The vendor is working to link the label with the input field so screen reader users hear the question in the field. 

• Users primary impacted: Students who are blind or low vision.

• Question types impacted:

  • Text Input (Fill in the blank “cloze)

  • Drop down selection (Fill in the blank “cloze”)

  • Label image (Dropdown fill in the blank)

  • Math formula and fractions

  • Math fill in the blank

  • Math essay

  • Math image

  • Graphing number line plot

  • Bar chart

  • Line chart

  • Chemistry formula

  • Chemistry Cloze

  • Chemistry essay

  • Cloze chemistry with images

  • Annotation upload with an image

Keyboard Navigation Partially not Functioning

Keyboard navigation partially not functioning or entirely inaccessible for users of assistive technology. This may cause students using a screen reader or other assistive technology to miss the input fields or be unable to answer the questions due to keyboard accessibility barriers.

• Users primary impacted: Students who are blind or low vision, students with motor impairments.

• Question types impacted: 

  • Text Input (Fill in the blank “cloze)

  • Drag and Drop (Fill in the Blank)

  • Images with Classification

  • Sort List

  • Short Text

  • Shading highlight

  • Math formula

  • Math fill in the blank

  • Math matrix

  • Math essay

  • Math image

  • Graphing

  • Graphing 1st quadrant

  • Graphing number line

  • Graphing number line plot

  • Line chart

  • Chemistry formula

  • Chemistry Cloze

  • Chemistry essay

  • Cloze chemistry with images

  • File upload (focus frequently lost for screen reader user)

  • Annotation upload with an image

  • Fill shape

  • Gridded

Audio Indications on Assessment Questions

Assessment questions do not play proper audio indications when selecting an option, for students using assistive technology (like a screen reader). Site does not play audio indication if:

• status or state changed
• something was selected
• that a region is selectable

For example, file upload doesn’t tell the screen reader user the file was uploaded.

• Users primary impacted: Students who are blind or low vision.

• Question types impacted: 

  • Label image (Drag & Drop fill in the blank)

  • Images with Classification

  • Match List

  • Sort List

  • Highlight Image

  • Token highlight

  • Hotspot

  • Graphing

  • Graphing 1st quadrant

  • Graphing number line plot

  • Bar chart

  • Histogram

  • Dot chart

  • Line plot

  • File upload

  • Rating

  • Fill shape

Inaccessible table headings

Table headings are not accessible to the screen reader or assistive technology. 

• Users primary impacted: Students who are blind or low vision.

• Question types impacted:

  • Match List

Timer messages

Random timer messages are read by assistive technologies when no timer is set by the instructor. This can cause confusion for students and make them believe the assessment is timed.

• Users primary impacted: Students who are blind or low vision.

• Question types impacted:

  • Written and recorded

Styling inaccessible when using screen reader

The text editor is not accessible to a screen reader user because it doesn’t tell the user that they successfully selected styling options to use. The user is able to write in the text editor but styling may be inaccessible. 

• Users primary impacted: Students who are blind or low vision.

• Question types impacted: 

  • Written and recorded

    • Rich Text

    • Plain Text

Audio Recorder inaccessible when using screen reader

The recorder isn’t accessible to a screen reader because the student is unable to hear if they select record. There is also no indication of where the volume function is, or if playback is happening.

• Users primary impacted: Students who are blind or low vision.

• Question types impacted:

  • Written and recorded - Audio Recorder

Math formulas unread

Math formulas not read properly by screen readers.

• Question types impacted:

  • Math formula

  • Fill shape-rectangle

  • Fill shape

• Users primary impacted: Students who are blind or low vision.