I am totally convinced that Accessibility across the product line is a priority at Blackboard. They are already spending quality time and extensive resources working with a number of schools to make significant improvements. I have no doubts about Blackboard's commitment to Accessibility.
—Ed Garay, Assistant Director for Academic Computing,
University of Illinois at Chicago
Accessibility
Commitment to Accessibility
Blackboard® is committed to ensuring that our platform is usable and accessible. The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) recently awarded Blackboard Learn™, Release 9.1 with a Nonvisual Accessibility Gold Certification, making it the first learning management system to achieve certification.
With valuable input from our clients and a strong set of development tools, we invest in developing accessible products and capabilities that meet the wide range of our client’s needs. To fulfill this promise we are continually auditing our code and user interface design techniques to ensure that our applications are usable by everyone, to the greatest extent possible, regardless of age, ability, or situation.
Blackboard measures and evaluates accessibility levels using two sets of standards: the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) issued by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act issued in the Untied States federal government. Audits of our software releases are conducted by a third party to ensure the accessibility of the products.
Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) Blackboard Learn Release 9.1
The
Voluntary Product Accessibility Template®, or VPAT® documents Blackboard Learn 9.1's conformance with the accessibility standards under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. '794 d), as amended by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (P.L. 105 - 220), August 7, 1998.