We’re committed to creating free, open, and accessible educational resources. If you encounter any accessibility issues with this book, please contact us.

Accessibility Features

The web version of this textbook includes the following accessibility features:

• All content can be navigated using a keyboard
• Links, headings, and tables are formatted to work with screen readers
• Non-decorative images include alt text. When alt text is insufficient there are links in image captions to long descriptions of images (in a collapsible section at the bottom of the page). At the end of every long description is a link that will return you to the image in text.
• Information is not conveyed by color alone.

H5P Activities

H5P activities are HTML based interactive activities that are used throughout this book. All H5P activities are labeled with a heading formatted title and instructions outside the body of the activity. There are several different types of activities. Some don’t require any reader engagement, these include presentation slides, and collapsible “accordion” text. These activities have built-in buttons to go to the next slide or read the next section. There are also interactive activities like flashcards and multiple-choice questions. Multiple choice questions have a “check” button after all of the choices, arrows to move to the next question, and a “retry” button if you answer incorrectly. There are two “image hotspot” activities; images are annotated with clickable buttons. When readers click on the buttons they can read more about that section of the image. These activities are fully usable with screen readers and include additional image description when necessary to describe information in the images.

Drag and Drop activities require more complex engagement. They ask the reader to match one or more draggable images or objects with one or more “drop zones” by placing the image into the zone. All objects and drop zones include descriptive labels. Screen readers will always read out the label on the draggable object, but some screen readers may not read out the name of the drop zone until after you place a draggable object into it. You can always select items that are already placed in one drop zone and move them to another zone before checking your answers.

Drag the Words activities are similar to Drag and Drop activities. The drop downs are ‘blanks’ in sentences, and the draggable objects are words that you can use to fill in the blanks. This activity type is compatible with VoiceOver on Chrome but may be less accessible with JAWS and NVDA in other browsers. Some readers report needing to switch between browse mode and focus mode to correctly ‘drop’ words in the blanks.

In the Language Endangerment and Revitalization section of Chapter 3, there is an interactive map that shows how the colonization of North America affected indigenous language groups. It allows readers to scroll through multiple slides and see how the map changes and read the author’s commentary on those changes. This activity isn’t fully accessible to readers who use screen readers because the map images are complex. A long description of the entire activity is linked in the description of the activity, under the title.

List of Known Accessibility Issues:

While we strive to ensure that this resource is as accessible and usable as possible, we might not always get it right. Any issues we identify will be listed below.

• Summary elements:
  • This book uses drop down summary elements in several chapters, and at the ends of chapters to format accessible long descriptions of complex images. By default, these drop downs are collapsed. Readers can click on the drop downs to expand them and read the text. These summary elements work like buttons and are fully keyboard navigable. They are compatible with most screen readers in most browsers. However some screen readers and some browsers may use different terms to describe these elements, which could be unintuitive to readers using screen readers.
  • Scott Ohara summarizes how screen readers describe summary elements on his blog:
    • “Disclosure Triangle” with Narrator, VoiceOver and TalkBack when paired with Edge/Chrome.
    • “Button” with NVDA when paired with Firefox, Edge or Chrome.
    • “Summary” with VoiceOver when paired with Firefox or Safari.
    • Bugged behavior or no role announced with TalkBack with Firefox or iOS VO with Safari, respectively.
• Drag the Words H5P activities. There are two drag the words activities in this book, that may not be accessible with every screen reader in every browser (see the H5P section of this accessibility statement to learn more.)

Accessibility Standards

The web version of this book was designed to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1, level AA standards.

Let us know if you have any problems accessing this book

If you encounter any accessibility barriers while reading this book, please get in touch with the UO OER team by emailing us using this contact form. Please include the location of the issue in the text, a description of the issue, and information about the software, browser and/or assistive technology you are using to read the book. We will get back to you as soon as possible with an accommodation.

Attribution

This page is adapted from the BCcampus Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition Accessibility Statement by Amanda Coolidge, Sue Doner, Tara Robertson, and Josie Gray, which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.