CSU cautions use of Google apps due to accessibility issues

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Friday, 24 June 2011 16:47pm

A report by the Accessible Technology Initiative at California State University has cautioned US universities on campus-wide adoption of Google’s Apps for Education based on the accessibility issues found in these products.

The ATI Google Apps Accessibility Evaluation Project tested the accessibility of Gmail Chat, Google Calendar, Google Sites and Google Docs using automated, manual and user testing with screen readers.

The report showed a number of accessibility issues are present in the Google Apps suite, and based on these results made the following recommendations:

  • Limiting use of Google Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Forms, Calendar, Sites and Gmail Chat for students
  • Limiting use of Google Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations and Calendar to administration only
  • Limiting adoption or use of Forms, Sites and Gmail Chat for all users

For more details about these issues, as well as ‘workarounds’ that can be used to improve the user experience for persons with disabilities, see the ATI Google Apps Accessibility Evaluation report.


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