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Accessibility

VHS Learning is committed to making our course offerings accessible to all, including users with disabilities.

We are continually working to make as much of our content accessible to all users as possible, while meeting or exceeding current standards for web accessibility. We believe that accessible design will improve the learning experience for all users, not just the disabled.

Accessibility is one of the key criteria we consider when looking at any software tool or content for VHS Learning use. This is an especially important focus for our learning management system (LMS). VHS Learning has chosen to use D2L's Brightspace platform, which has been designed from the ground up to be accessible to assistive technology (links to details below).

VHS Learning courses also make use of ReadSpeaker, an embedded text-to-speech tool which provides easy access to computer generated audio for course content documents, and text highlighting for bi-modal reading, which can benefit ESOL and SWLD users (note that ReadSpeaker is not a replacement for a fully-featured screen reader for blind users.)

While we are committed to improving the accessibility of our course content, currently not all courses are fully accessible for all users.

  • Most courses are largely or fully accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing and we have had numerous successful deaf students in VHS Learning courses.
  • Local accommodation may be required for blind students, where complex images (e.g. charts, maps, artwork, etc.) may not be fully accessible.
  • Courses which have significant accessibility concerns are noted in the catalog description.

Also note that while VHS is committed to providing accessible course content (or accommodations where necessary) we are not able to provide access or ongoing support for specific assistive technology tools.

If you have any questions or concerns about accessibility in VHS Learning courses, please contact us. We welcome any feedback that will help us improve the accessibility of our course content, systems, and websites.

Specific VHS Learning policy information can be found in our Handbook (pages 36 and 28, respectively):

Accessibility information for VHS Learning course tools

D2L's Brightspace is our primary learning management system

Other course learning tools