Accessibility

Learn a wide range of accesibility tools and functions available in VU Collaborate

Screen magnifiers, zooming and colour contrast accessibility features

VU Collaborate is a learning management system that enables access to course material online. There are a number of learning tools within the system that contain course content. This topic provides information for using the system with screen magnifiers, zooming functionality and colour contrast functionality.

This guide covers the following topics, use these links for easier navigation.

Magnifying or zooming

Listed below are a few options to adjust or modify the size of content within VU Collaborate for improved readability:

 

Option 1 - VU Collaborate Account settings

Account settings within VU Collaborate allow you to adjust the size of content.

1. Within VU Collaborate, open the drop down menu by clicking on your name at the top right corner.

 

profile drop down menu with account settings identified

 

2. Select Account Settings.

3. Underneath the subheading Font Settings, click on the drop down menu for font size and select an option.

 

font settings with font size drop down menu identified

 

Option 2 - Browser settings

Most web browsers allow adjustments for font and screen size. 

Note: This only includes Firefox, Google Chrome and Apple Safari.

 Firefox

1. Click on the Menu button at the top right corner of the screen.

2. Click the "+" (plus)  or "-" (minus) icon to adjust the magnification of the browser window.

3. To change font size, select Preferences.

4. Open Content menu.

5. Open the size drop down menu from the Font & Colors subheading and select a font size. You may need to restart Firefox for the change to take affect.

 

Google Chrome

1. Click on the Menu button at the top right corner of the screen.

2. Click the "+" (plus)  or "-" (minus) icon to adjust the magnification of the browser window.

3. To change font size, select Settings.

4. Open the font size drop down menu from the Appearance subheading and select a font size.

 

Apple Safari (Mac only)

Use the keyboard shortcut: "Shift" & "Command" & either "+" or "-" to increase or decrease the screen magnification.

 

Option 3 - Screen Magnifier

Use a screen magnifier to magnify a portion of the page, such as the area around the cursor. 

 

 Customising colours

Individual course instructors can customise page colours and text font as desired. You can contact the instructor of your units to assist you if you require modifications to be made to course content.

If you are having difficulty using VU Collaborate because of the text and background colors used, we recommend that you use a screen magnifier or other assistive technology that allows you to invert or adjust the colours on a page.

Another popular option is to use a custom cascading style sheet (CSS). There are many free cascading style sheets available on the internet. CSS works best in VU Collaborate when background images are turned off, but normal images and icons are left unaltered. VU Collaborate is a complex site with a number of different tools and page designs, as a result a fairly detailed style sheet is needed to display content effectively.

 

 Account Settings

There are a number of settings in the Account Settings tool that you may find improves the readability of VU Collaborate. You can access the Account Settings tool from anywhere in VU Collaborate simply by clicking on your name and selecting Account Settings from the drop down menu that appears.

 

profile drop down menu with account settings identified

 

Account Settings tab

  • Font Settings: This setting allows you to change the font size to suit your preferred size, there are four options available to choose from: Small, Medium, Large, and Huge.

 

font settings with font size drop down menu identified

 

  • You can also enable the OpenDyslexic font to improve the readability of VU Collaborate.

 

font settings with opendyslexic font enabled

 

  • If you disable style sheets to navigate VU Collaborate, use a phone to view VU Collaborate, or use assistive technology, we recommend you select show secondary windows as pop-ups; otherwise, some secondary pages may not be distinguishable from the main page.

 

show secondary window as setting with pop ups identified and selected

 

  • HTML Editor Settings: These settings allow you to turn off the rich text editor if it interferes with the usability of the assistive technology you're using.

 

html editor setting to turn off with checkbox ticked and identified

 

  • Reading Content: This setting is recommended to be disabled if you use a screen reader, this stops items from being marked as read as the page scrolls.

 

reading content settings with automatically marking items as read turned off

 

  • Video Settings: This setting allows assistive technologies to detect video content on the pages you visit, videos will overlap menus if this setting is enabled.

 

video settings to allow assistive technologies to detect videos with checkbox ticked and identified

 

Discussions tab

  • Show the discussions topic list: Selecting this option displays the left Topics List pane in the Message List view.

 

discussions settings show discussion topics list with checkbox ticked and identified

 

  • Include original message text in reply: Selecting this option includes the original message text in the new message by default when composing a reply.

 

discussions settings include original message text in reply with checkbox ticked and identified

 

 Getting additional support

If you are having difficulty using VU Collaborate to complete your course work, consider seeking help from your instructor or an Accessibility Liaison Officer at VU. VU campuses have support staff to assist students with disabilities on campus.

For more information, there is an extensive disability and accessibility support page on the VU website - here.

 

See also

Screen magnifiers, zooming and color contrast tips