Evaluating Accessibility of Educational Software: the Proposal of the Italian GLIC Study Group

In this paper the authors present a grid to evaluate the accessibility of educational software developed by the Italian study group GLIC (Interregional Group of the Centres for electronic technical aids). With reference to Italian law 4/2004, that provides guidelines concerning accessibility of the web and “off-the-shelf” products, the grid proposes an efficient methodology to evaluate existing educational software and to offer methodological and instrumental information that may be useful for educational software developers. The evaluation activity was applied to 70 products, and results regarding the accessibility of such products are presented over three levels: in relation to input systems and to software output modalities; in relation to six different types of disabilities; and in relation to the 11 accessibility requirements outlined by the law