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This Accessibility Statement is provided by the London School of Economics and Political Science in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the Accessibility Regulations). The School seeks to ensure that people are treated equitably, regardless of age, disability, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or personal circumstances.
Priority 3 of the LSE 2030 Strategy is to “Develop LSE for everyone”. An accessible VLE is an essential part of this strategy.
Please contact eden.digital@lse.ac.uk if you have any questions about Moodle accessibility.
About LSE Moodle
LSE Moodle is LSE’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and is hosted and managed by the LSE Eden Centre Centre’s Digital Education team. LSE is currently using Moodle 34.9 1 with a bespoke theme that has been developed by an external contractor.
Moodle hosts teaching and learning resources and activities and is built by the Moodle project, which is led and coordinated by Moodle HQ. Moodle HQ is financially supported by a network of over 80 Moodle Partner service companies worldwide. Moodle HQ's goal is for Moodle to be fully accessible and usable for all users regardless of ability and is . Moodle 4.1 has been built in accordance with the WCAG 2.01 guidelines. The Moodle VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) provides further information on how it conforms to the guidelines.
LSE aims to ensure that teaching, learning and assessment resources built in and/or uploaded to Moodle are fully accessible to all users.
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You can change colours, contrast levels and fonts and zoom into pages up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen. This has been tested in multiple browsers using the native zoom function and the extensions High Contrast, Colour Enhancer and Midnight Lizard.
Navigate Moodle and its content using your preferred method
Navigation using
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headings
Moodle has an inbuilt headings structure that should enable screen readers and other assistive technologies to list and navigate to headings and sub-headings.
Navigation by
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links
Moodle has many in-built links that are used for navigation purposes. These have meaningful names indicating their purpose and destination. Users of assistive technology such as screen readers should be able to access a list of all the links on a page and understand their purpose from the link text.
Navigation by
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keyboard
Moodle has been designed to enable navigation around most of the site using just a keyboard. All components on a Moodle page should be focusable with the keyboard (available in the tab sequence) and should allow the focus to be moved away using only the keyboard.
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Using your preferred assistive technology
My Computer My Way guide provided by AbilityNet - make your device easier to use if you have a disability.
DTS Assistive Web Service - DTS web page on assistive technology at LSE.
Windows Accessibility Features - Overview of accessibility tools in Windows 11.
Apple Accessibility Features - Overview of Apple accessibility tools.
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DTS Assistive Technologies - DTS web page on assistive technology at LSE.
Disability and Mental Health Service - assistive technology and making your device easier to use.
Assessing accessibility of the LSE Moodle platform
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System level accessibility definition
The LSE Moodle platform is a complex system with many bespoke and customised parts. Its code is always evolving. From time to time, new modules (e.g. plugins, code patches) are added to the system and others are removed. When considering accessibility at system level we refer to the core Moodle application user interface including all plug-ins and the LSE Moodle theme.
The Moodle development community supported by the Moodle Accessibility Collaboration Group maintains a detailed list of known accessibility bugs and issues with the Moodle platform. This is subject to continuous change and updating and we will update this accessibility statement annually to include up to date information
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Moodle Plugins
At LSE, we use plug-ins with Moodle to enhance the platform for learning, teaching and assessment. The most widely used plugins are Echo 360, H5P, Talis AspireLeganto, Zoom and Turnitin. Each of these have their own accessibility statements which you can view on their websites:
For information regarding the plugins used on LSE Moodle, and links to their accessibility statements, see ‘List of Currently Enabled Moodle Plug-ins'.
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This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.12 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.
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In addition to issues tracked by the Moodle development community (see system level accessibility definition) we have identified issues that we are aware of that time specific to or are particularly relevant to the LSE Moodle platform.
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Some images and audio video materials have not been provided with meaningful “alt” alt-text, captions or transcriptions and are not perceivable to assistive technologies.
All new recordings are transcribed using Automatic Speech Recognition, these transcriptions are likely to contain inaccuracies. If you require higher quality transcription or captions for recorded lectures, please get in touch with the Disability and Wellbeing serviceMental Health Service for assistance.
Other known issues
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We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of LSE Moodle and content available within it. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page, continue to experience issues after contacting the responsible teaching team or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact the Eden Centre digital education team at Eden eden.digital@lse.ac.uk
Enforcement procedure
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Accessibility Regulations. If you’re not happy with the response contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).
Contacting us
If you have any questions in relation to this accessibility statement or would like to notify us of a Moodle system level accessibility issue, you can contact the Eden Centre digital education team at eden.digital@lse.ac.uk.
How we tested this website
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What we’re doing to improve accessibility
What have we done so far? (last updated March 2024)
Undertaken a Moodle content review
Compiled guidance and training resources on digital accessibility for staff
A Produced a quick guide on digital accessibility essentials
A Developed a digital accessibility Moodle resourceTested
Delivered digital accessibility workshops for staff and academics.
Launched Yuja Panorama, a new accessibility checker for Moodle (see future developments)Eden Digital have established which provides suggestions for improvements and allow students to convert content to alternative formats
Established a Moodle Baseline for staff, including guidance on digital accessibility standards.
Produced and linked to relevant accessibility statements.
In addition, the Eden Centre have set up an Centre’s Inclusive Education team which includes a Head of Inclusive Education, an Academic Developer, a learning technologist and student interns. They and Digital Education team are able to provide support and guidance around wider accessibility and inclusion practices.
We are working to implement the LSE Inclusive Education Action Plan.As part of the LSE inclusive education action plan, these issues will be addressed which aims to improve accessibility and inclusion through a combination of provision of continuously updated enhanced guidance, staff training, provision of accessible document templates provision of and increased use of Moodle course accessibility checklists and , regular audits of Moodle courses .The issues identified above will be addressed through a combination of provision of enhanced guidance, staff training, provision of and increased use of Moodle course accessibility checklists , regular audits of Moodle courses and the introduction of Yuja Panorama.
Staff are encouraged to make the most of inbuilt accessibility checkers such as those included in Office 365 and only then check with Yuja Panorama when uploading to Moodle (available from MT 2022).
The Eden Centre Digital Education team also provide guidance on accessibility expectations through the provision of a Moodle Baseline for staff.
The Inclusive Education team have also produced training for academics. This includes:
Future developments
In October 2022, we will also be introducing Yuja Panorama to academics. This is a tool for Moodle which will provide scores on the accessibility of content uploaded by staff and suggestions on how to make improvements. It will also allow students to convert content to alternative formats.
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Future developments
Updating and relaunching our training and guidance for staff (Summer 2024).
We are planning to work with an external consultant to complete another accessibility audit of all of our web properties.
In addition we will be working on an accessibility roadmap for Moodle and education technology applications in use at LSE.
Contacting us
If you have any questions in relation to this accessibility statement or would like to notify us of a Moodle system level accessibility issue, you can contact the Eden Centre digital education team at eden.digital@lse.ac.uk.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 07 December 2020. It was last revised August 2022March 2024.