[Trainer-Talk] Pearson MyMathLab

[Deborah Armstrong]

Well the accessibility info does tell instructors in one vague sentence to look for the "blue ear" icon in textbooks published after 2012 to see which questions are screen reader accessible. I bet half the instructors who even find that sentence -- why would they read the accessibility page anyway under support -- would not even know what a screen reader is.

--Debee


-----Original Message-----
From: Trainer-Talk [mailto:trainer-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of The Brandts via Trainer-Talk
Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2016 6:00 PM
To: 'List for teachers and trainers of adaptive technology'
Cc: The Brandts
Subject: Re: [Trainer-Talk] Pearson MyMathLab

Trainers,

I recently worked with a student whose college uses MyMathLab.  This student is taking Intermediate Algebra.  Because we weren't really able to get things to work well, I had a couple of calls with Pearson.  There are components to MyMathLab that are accessible, but many that aren't.  

In discussions and demonstrations with Pearson, we discovered that instructors who use MyMathLab have to actually choose content that is accessible; not all the content available is accessible.  The other content may or may not be accessible.  Not all math concepts have accessible content.  Also, the student needs to go to the link for Course Tools, then choose the math book in HTML format in order for the book to be read by a screen reader.  In 2014 and beyond, Pearson issued an HTML version of their books in MyMathLab.  Pearson recommends that students use Internet Explorer and JAWS for the best accessibility; Firefox with JAWS is also supposed to work well.  Pearson states they are still in the testing phase on the Mac platform with VoiceOver, so they do not recommend it at this time.
 
The other thing that students who use screen readers need to do when answering questions in an edit box is to type the math operators, symbols, expressions or Greek letters in a code documented by Pearson.  That code is included in the document that serves as their Quick Start Guide.  
 
I suggested that Pearson begin including in their accessibility documentation the instructor information about choosing accessible content.
Without an instructor knowing this, inaccessible content could very easily and unknowingly be chosen, and a student would not be able to participate fully in the class.  

I would urge you to let Pearson know of each portion of their content that is not accessible, as it's important for all students.  You can contact Pearson at disability.support at pearson.com.

Jan Brandt
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Trainer-Talk [mailto:trainer-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Deborah Armstrong via Trainer-Talk
Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2016 2:56 PM
To: Trainer-Talk at nfbnet.org
Cc: Deborah Armstrong <armstrongdeborah at fhda.edu>
Subject: [Trainer-Talk] Pearson MyMathLab

This is software that runs in a browser (a web application) but also has a component that needs to be installed according to its manual.

It seems like more and more math courses at our college are requiring students use it and I've heard it wasn't that accessible.

I took a look at Pearson's accessibility information
 
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.pearsonmylabandmastering.com_northamerica_mymathlab_accessibilit&d=CwICAg&c=xoYdONxMEGxjdvKj5bOdEOV28uakaJ20R4TjadGGZBc&r=gcvya4Pqy0A2EsMRyTgo_6FBoT7u3CEAfkJa0Ic8T-s&m=uxq8HMTvjuZKIx4QGyKDX2wr9r7ow0agVDaM4gB7zDY&s=7tB08J3f5fstDMTC4MK_6jytAMcymfz_132vojZSsk4&e=
y/

And it wasn't very comforting.

I have students using NVDA, JAWS, zoom-text and the Windows magnifier who are all asking about it. You have to pay to get a log-in so I have no way of testing it at this time.

Has anyone worked with this software? It takes over the whole homework process, presenting you problems and letting them work through them at your own pace. It also handles all the exams.

Must make it nice and easy for the instructors, but I'm concerned since so many of our blind students fail math even without this extra complication.

--Debee

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