[NABS-L] Question Regarding Accessibility With McGraw-Hill Connect

Thu Aug 24 16:34:16 UTC 2023

OMG. I hope that the McGraw-Hill connect platform is accessible for my
kinesiology course. I have had the course opened for me quite a while ago
but I do not feel like playing with it because this is my summer vacation.
I will definitely test it out Monday morning before I have class on
Tuesday. I would imagine that they are fully accessible because they work
with the Nfb very closely. They were at a table at the NFB National
Convention this year. The textbook format that I have received, though from
them are accessible. I have received a PDF and an EPUB format from them.  I
just have not checked out some of the other requirements for the course.

On Thu, Aug 24, 2023 at 11:34 AM Noah Carver via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
wrote:

> Dear Jackson,
>
> I hope this message finds you well.
>
> I tried McGraw-Hill Connect for an Elementary German class that I will be
> taking this semester. Here is part of the email I sent to the Office of
> Disability Resources at my school describing the multiple
> accessibility failures I discovered:
>
> "I've given this a cursory look. Unfortunately, the online textbook has the
> same problems as the Italian textbook, namely that English is labeled as
> German and German is labeled as English. This is particularly apparent with
> image descriptions and built-in page controls that are English but read as
> German. This makes content tagged incorrectly unintelligible. In regards to
> the workbook, I loaded the first activity, which has the following
> instructions:
>
> 'Alles klar?
>
>  A  One of the things you will learn to do in German is to give information
> about yourself and other people in different situations and contexts. Look
> at this young woman’s profile and find the following information about
> her.'
>
> The image required to do this activity is not read at all by my screen
> reader. I called AIRA to confirm there was an image there, and there was,
> but there's absolutely nothing there according to JAWS. If this is the
> state of accessibility for the first activity of Chapter 1, God knows what
> else is in there, and I don't want to find out the hard way when
> inaccessible homework needs doing."
>
> To clarify, I have found language class accessibility to be particularly
> abismal. I hope that administrators of your sociology course have taken
> better care to make material accessible. With that being said, I wouldn't
> rely on McGraw-Hill Connect to be fully accessible given my experience.  If
> you have a chance, I would suggest requesting access to your course
> materials early so that you can determine whether or not the course content
> is indeed accessible. I would also suggest notifying
> your Accessibility/Disability Office and/or your instructor now that the
> McGraw-Hill Connect platform might not be accessible and that
> accommodations may be needed.
>
> I hope this helps. I also hope that someone with direct McGraw-Hill Connect
> sociology course experience can chime in.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Noah
> --
> Noah Carver
> Candidate, B.M. '26
> Applied Music (Performance) -- Voice
> Eastman School of Music
> University of Rochester
> [image: JAWS Certified, 2023]
> <https://www.freedomscientific.com/Training/Certification/>
> +1 (207) 557-9143 <+12075579143>
> noahcarver494 at gmail.com
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 24, 2023 at 10:51 AM Jackson T. Schwoebel via NABS-L <
> nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> > Hello Students,
> >
> >
> >
> > I hope all of you are doing well. I am taking a Sociology course using a
> > McGraw-Hill Connect platform this semester. Rather than having the
> quizzes
> > and Examinations on Blackboard, the instructor has us take them through
> > McGraw-Hill Connect. Has anyone used this platform successfully with
> JAWS?
> > If so, how was your experience? Was the platform fully accessible with
> > JAWS? Were there any hangups or anything that was not accessible with
> JAWS?
> > Thanks, all feedback will be appreciated.
> >
> >
> >
> > Kind Regards,
> >
> >
> >
> > Jackson Schwoebel
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Jackson T. Schwoebel, A.A.
> >
> > He/Him/His
> >
> > Secretary | Ohio Association of Blind Students
> >
> > Phone: (706) 905–1963
> >
> > Business Email: jtschwoebel at yahoo.com
> >
> > NFB Email: jtschwoebel.nfb at gmail.com
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > NABS-L mailing list
> > NABS-L at nfbnet.org
> > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> > NABS-L:
> >
> >
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/noahcarver494%40gmail.com
> >
> _______________________________________________
> NABS-L mailing list
> NABS-L at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> NABS-L:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/aevans.nfb%40gmail.com
>
-- 
Yours truely,

Asia Quinones-Evans

Phone: 440-670-6509
Email: aevans.nfb at gmail.com

Live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back