Sakai is a Learning Management System created to assist faculty and students by providing online tools for communication, assessment, content delivery, etc.
Sakai is composed of sites, and each site has a number of tools selected by the site creator. There is also a special site, My Workspace (private to you), where you can access personal information and change your settings.
This document is assistive technology agnostic and will briefly describe the different areas of the interface, point out how they are implemented for accessibility, and go into more depth where extra assistance may be needed.
If you need specific help with your assistive technology, please contact your institution's office for Disability Student Services and/or Information Technology Services.
For additional information visit the Accessibility Working Group on the Confluence Wiki.
Note: The content depicted in images on this page may differ from what you experience due to your institution's customization of Sakai.
This article describes the following:
If you need specific help with your assistive technology, please refer to your local institution's website to find contact information for groups that can assist you with accessibility accommodations.
Sakai has a responsive design to adapt to different screen sizes, so certain elements only display when an internet browser window is larger than 770 pixels in width. In the descriptions that follow, Desktop View will be used to refer to the display when an internet browser window is larger than 770 pixels in width. Mobile View will refer to the display on smaller windows.
Always present in Sakai are the following:
The major elements of a Sakai site can be accessed via Access keys (see note for more information on how to use Access keys):
Content - This access key takes you to the area that contains the site where you are working.
Tools - Every Sakai site has a Tool Menu with a list of links to the current site's tools.
View All Sites menu - After you log in, you can use this menu to access your active sites.
Note: The exact keyboard commands to trigger an Access key depend on your computer operating system and internet browser. Commonly used browsers tend to use the following commands:
The information on Access keys in this note provided by WebAIM.org (opens new window). You can learn more about Access keys on their website, Keyboard Accessibility © WebAIM (opens new window).
Location: The quick access links are the first three links on the page. They are announced by text-to-speech software after the page title.
These links enable the user to reach frequently used areas of Sakai.
Pictured above is how one of these (normally invisible) links displays on the page if you navigate using the Tab key on your keyboard in Chrome after logging in to Sakai.
When logged in on Desktop View, the Sites menu follows the Academic alerts icon.
On Mobile View, the Sites menu appears below your profile icon (described next).
You can expand the Sites menu to access your active sites.
This list contains the links to sites you most commonly use. You can select which sites appear in the list by selecting them as Favorites from the View All Sites menu. Each favorite site's tab will either take you to the site, or if you Tab to the menu and press the Down arrow key, it will supply you with a submenu of that site’s tools so that you can go straight to that tool on the selected site.
Using the Up and Down arrow keys, you can navigate the submenu to the site specific tool links. These links can be activated using the Enter key.
If you have a large number of favorite sites, only the first 15 sites will display in this list.
The content comes after the Tool Menu.
At the top of the content area for most tools, you will find:
In most areas of Sakai where text can be entered, you can use the Rich Text Editor to edit and format your text, and to add links, images, or media.
Steps to access the Rich Text Editor's toolbar with a keyboard are included in What are some keyboard shortcuts for the Rich Text Editor?
You can use the browser’s zooming function to increase text size. Sakai will work well up to 200% zoom.
If you need a higher level of magnification, or if you need to have the cursor/pointer augmented, you may be more comfortable using a third-party magnifier such as MAGic (opens new window) or ZoomText (opens new window).
To change color and contrast settings, use the operating system settings, browser settings, or your preferred browser plug-ins.
If you need further help, please contact your local institution's accessibility support resources.