Accessibility in OPAL

The project "Accessibility in OPAL" is a sub-project in the field of action "Educational equity, access and openness" of the working group E-Learning of the State Rectors' Conference of Saxony and runs from 01.01.2023 to 30.11.2023.

According to a recent report by T-Systems MMS, the most widely used learning platform in Saxony, OPAL, and its content are not accessible to all users. The project intends to sustainably improve the accessibility of digital teaching or teaching materials and course offerings at universities and colleges in Saxony. This is to be achieved by identifying, removing, and sustainably avoiding the digital barriers of OPAL in close cooperation with the BPS Bildungsportal Sachsen GmbH.

First, implementation steps and barriers will be analyzed in detail by experts of the Chair of Human-Computer Interaction. Solution approaches will be developed and prioritized, which will then be implemented by BPS GmbH. The conformity of the learning platform to the requirements of the BITV is checked and proven using a detailed test. For the sustainable and development-accompanying implementation of accessibility, training of the BPS GmbH staff is also carried out so that the expertise in accessibility remains beyond the project.

While the creation of accessibility is carried out by the BPS GmbH and especially concerns the software OPAL, the course content that can be created in OPAL is continuously realized by teachers. To support them in avoiding barriers, the possibility should be made to submit a declaration of accessibility for each course.

The BPS GmbH will finally check the achieved degree of accessibility by a new test of the improved OPAL platform.

Goals of the project

Evaluate the learning platform OPAL for conformity according to BITV
Remove identified barriers from OPAL by BPS GmbH
Expansion of the expertise to avoid barriers after the project by training the staff of the BPS GmbH
Enable accessibility declaration for each OPAL course