The Moodle File Scan block—or Moodle PDF Accessibility Check—was developed to help determine how friendly course PDFs are to assistive technology such as Read & Write, Kurzweil, screen readers, and various other tools students might use to help them consume course readings.
To access the File Scan (and all other blocks) open the "block drawer" on the right of your moodle Moodle course.
The File Scan provides a Summary report on files in the course. "Click View File Details" to to get more information.
The Moodle File Scan tool checks the accessibility of PDF files in a Moodle class and provides a report on the accessibility of each file. The status is either pass, fail, check, or question. A PDF file fails if it does not contain any text. A file is marked as "check" if the file has text but does not have other accessibility elements. A PDF passes if it meets all the accessibility checks.
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If a PDF file does not have text the file has been scanned as an image. This means that screen readers and other assistive devices will not be able to read the content. As of spring 2022fall 2023, our current goal is to strive for green checks under both the "Text" and the "Outline" column columns on all documents (except where files are legitimate images not images of text).
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A PDF file stores information about the language of the document. This is used by screen readers and other assistive devices to ensure proper pronunciation and particularly important for documents that are in foreign languages languages.
Outline
Creating structure in a PDF file allows screen readers to easily navigate a document.
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Documents created in a word processor (Word, Google Docs, Pages) create a structure using the built-in heading styles (e.g. Heading 1, Heading 2). That structure will be saved in the native document format, or by saving as a tagged PDF. PDFs created from a scanned document usually do not have outlines because the scanner cannot distinguish between chapters or sections within a document. It can be complex to tag PDF files, and we suggest contacting the accessibility team if you need help.
As of fall 2023, our current goal is to strive for green checks under both the "Text" and the "Outline" columns on all documents (except where files are legitimate images not images of text).
Symbols
The following symbols are used to display the result of the accessibility File Scan.
A green check means the test passed
A purple X means the test failed
An orange exclamation mark means that the PDF is partially accessible
A blue question mark means that the file has not yet been scanned or the file has an error that prevents it from being scanned. The file could be corrupted or have a password that prevents the tool from opening the PDF.
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- For existing PDF documents, upload your file on the convert inaccessible course material page and choose the accessibility conversion option. It is possible to select multiple documents to be converted at one time. You will receive the converted document(s) via email within a few hours.
- For newly scanned documents, all department Canon printers multifunction machines have been set to automatically scan documents using OCR.
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The Moodle PDF Accessibility Check or Moodle File Scan is a very useful tool to use as an indicator of how much of your course material may be friendly to assistive technology. By assistive technology we mean tools like Kurzweil, Beeline Reader and Read & Write, screen readers such as VoiceOver, NVDA and JAWS, and various other tools people might use to help them consume course readings.
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