Harnessing the Potential of Accessibility Standards and

Responsive Web Design Practices to Achieve Learning Interoperability

on the Level of the User Interface

Mohammad Al-Smadi, Vladimir Tomberg

Image by courtesy of HuffPost Education Group

Abilities of conforming to Learning Standards

• Durability: no need for further redesigns or redevelopments even with new versions of the system

• Scalability: can it grow from small to large?• Affordability: is it affordable?• Interoperability: are information and services sharable

with other systems?• Reusability: can it be used within multiple contexts?• Manageability: is it manageable?• Accessibility: are the contents accessible and

deliverable from anywhere and anytime?

General Learning Interoperability Framework

Lack of Interoperability at the UI Level(Presentation Interoperability)

• Launching the learning content on the end-user devices causes different behaviors based on the such properties of the device and the web browser:• Width, height of the window, • Resizing state• Area of launching within the browser

The first approach addressing mobile UI issues

Separate desktop and mobile versions of a web site in the mobile browser

Current Best Practices – Responsive Web Design (RWD)

• Using together several well-known technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

• The basic methods are:1. Flexible images (CSS)2. Media queries (JavaScript)3. Fluid grids (JavaScript, CSS)

From RWD to Adaptive Web Design

• The “Mobile First” principle (Minimum Viable Product Strategy)

• Progressive Enhancement versus Adaptive Degradation

Concepts of interoperability on the UI level

The Missing Part

Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.1

W3C First Public Working Draft 26 September 2013

WAI ARIA Code Example

<input type = "image" src = "thumbnail.gif" alt = "Effectiveness" role = "slider" aria-valuemin = "0" aria-valuemax = "100" aria-valuenow = "42" aria-valuetext = "42 percent" aria-labelledby = "effective">

WAI ARIA Models and Semantics

Keyboard Navigation Roles

State & PropertiesLive Regions

Advantages of using WAI ARIA

• The basic principles of Universal Design are covered − content by default is available for the widest audience

• Improved accessibility of learning content: all modern browsers and screen-reading devices already accessible today with WAI ARIA

Extended Learning Interoperability Framework

Advantages of the Framework

1. Establishing application domain semantics for common understanding

2. Consistent learning delivery through adaptive and flexible design of front-end, learning content, tools, and services

3. Additional layer of accessibility specifications enriched with semantics on the presentation level

4. Combining standard-conform technologies (WAI ARIA) with widely used best practices (RWD)