Web Accessibility in E-learning : Identifying and Solving Accessibility Issues for WCAG 2.0 Conformance in an E-learning Application

Abstract: With the rise of e-learning and recent legislations of the European Union enforcing conformance to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 for web applications of public sector bodies, the issue of identifying and solving web accessibility issues in e-learning applications is more relevant than ever. This thesis is based on a case study of a publisher of course literature whose intention is to improve the accessibility of their e-learning applications. The thesis contains a theoretical foundation on disabilities, e-learning and web accessibility including assistive technologies, the web accessibility guidelines WCAG 2.0 and the web accessibility evaluation method WCAG-EM. This theory is used for developing solutions to accessibility issues found in the e-learning applications and comparing accessibility with e-learning theory. The results are presented as concrete examples to be useful for developers of e-learning applications. It was found that there exist a few instances where accessibility and e-learning contradict each other, but the solutions to accessibility problems are most often not affected by the learning premise of the applications.