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 owner or creator. There is also a special site, My Workspace (private to you), where you can access personal information and change your system 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 Information Technology Services and/or Human Resources (faculty) or the Student Accessibility Center (students). You may also receive targeted help directly from the vendors of your assistive technology tools.
For additional information on accessibility in Sakai, visit the Accessibility Working Group on the Confluence Wiki.
This article describes the following:
- Desktop versus Mobile View in Sakai
-
Organization of Sakai
- Important Access Keys for Main Navigation
- Quick Access (Skip to...) Links
- Sites
- Your Profile Picture and Name (Use This Menu to Log Out)
- Favorite Sites List (on Desktop View)
- Tool Menu for the Current Site
- Expand/Collapse Tool Navigation (for Sighted Users, on Desktop View)
- Content Area
- Access Keys to Navigate the Content Area
- Footer
- Rich Text Editor Accessibility
- Instructions for Enlarging Screen Elements, Modifying Colors/Contrast
- How to Get More Help
Note: The content depicted in images on this page may differ from what you experience due to your institution's customization of Sakai.
Desktop versus Mobile View
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.
Organization of Sakai
Always present in Sakai are the following:
- Quick access Skip to... links
- One of the following two items, depending on whether or not you are logged into Sakai:
- Before logging in: Login links
- After logging in: the View All Sites menu (also referred to as the Sites Drawer) and your profile picture and name (a menu you access to Log Out)
- List of favorite sites (on Desktop View)
- Tool Menu for the current site
- Expand/Collapse Tool Navigation feature (for sighted users on Desktop View)
- Content area
- Footer
Important access keys for main navigation
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.
- Landmark: main (“Jump to Content”)
- Access key: [C]
Tools - Every Sakai site has a Tool Menu with a list of links to the current site's tools.
- Landmark: navigation (“Tools”)
- Access key: [L]
View All Sites menu - After you log in, you can use this menu to access your active sites.
- Landmark: navigation (“My Sites”)
- Access key: [W]
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:
- Most Windows browsers: Shift + Alt + [the Access key]
- Most Mac browsers: Ctrl + Option + [the Access key]
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).
Quick access (Skip to...) links
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.
Sites
When logged in on Desktop View, the Sites menu (also referred to as the Sites Drawer and View All 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.
Account Menu (Use this menu to log out)
Your profile picture (which displays as your initials if there is no photo) is at the top right of the screen.
Selecting your profile picture opens the user account menu with the following options:
- Your profile picture and a View Profile link that you can select to edit your picture or profile.
- A Manage Preferences link that will take you to a page where you can edit your Sakai notifications, time zone, language, and active sites.
- A My Calendar link that will take you to your aggregated calendar for all enrolled sites.
- A My Grades to view grades.
- You have the option to switch your theme to Light Mode or Dark Mode depending on your viewing preference.
- A Log Out link to log you out and take you to back to the Gateway page of Sakai.
Pinned Sites list (on Desktop View)
- Location: On Desktop View only, the pinned sites list appears in the Tool Menu.
- Landmark: Navigation (“Sites list begins here”)
- Heading: Level 1 (“Sites list begins here”)
This list contains the links to sites you most commonly use. You can select which sites appear in the list by selecting them as Pinned from the View All Sites menu. Each favorite site's title 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 pinned sites, only the first 15 sites will display in this list.
Tool Menu for the current site
- Location: On Desktop View, the Tool Menu appears to the left of the screen. On Mobile View, it can be accessed by selecting Tools near the top of the screen.
- Landmark: Navigation (“Tools list begins here”)
- Heading: Level 1 (“Tools list begins here”)
- Access key: [L]
Pictured above is the Tool Menu of a Home site, in both Desktop View and Mobile View.
Note: The Help tool will always be present as the last item in the Tool Menu no matter what site you are on. (More specifically, on the Mobile site, it will be the last option in the Tools drop-down menu. On the Desktop site, it is the last option in the Expand/collapse tool navigation menu to the left of the page.) This enables quick access to the Sakai help documentation.
Expand/Collapse tool navigation (for sighted users, on Desktop View)
Location: On Desktop View only, at the top of the screen and to the right of the system logo, there is a three-horizontal-lines icon which can be used to collapse or expand the left side navigation menu. When expanded (the default state) the Tool Menu is displayed vertically along the left side of the screen. When collapsed, the left Tool Menu disappears and only the content frame is displayed below the top navigation bar. Selecting the icon again will toggle it between expanded and collapsed display.
Note: Using the Expand/Collapse Tool Navigation button will have no effect on page navigation for users of screen reading software as all tools will still be available and announced.
Content area
At the top of the screen, you will find:
- The title of the site you are in and the tool you are currently viewing. This is also a Refresh Tool link that returns you to the main page of the tool when selected. Pictured above is an example of an Announcements (Refresh Tool) link.
- There is also a Help button in the top navigation, which opens a new tab or window (depending on your internet browser preferences) with help documentation.
- The content appears to the right of the Tool Menu.
- Location: On Desktop View, the content displays to the right of the Tool Menu. On Mobile View, the content appears underneath the Tools link.
- Landmark: Main
- Heading: Level 1 “Content begins here”
- Access key: [C]
Access keys to navigate the content area
Most content views use some or all of these Access keys:
- Delete, remove, or cancel - Access key: [X]
- Edit or revise - Access key: [E]
- Help - Access key: [0]
- Refresh - Access key: [U]
- Save - Access key: [S]
- View or preview - Access key: [V]
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:
- Most Windows browsers: Shift + Alt + [the Access key]
- Most Mac browsers: Ctrl + Option + [the Access key]
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).
Footer
The footer contains a list of links:
- Gateway, which takes you to the main page (homepage) of Sakai
- Accessibility Information, which displays the accessibility help documentation
- The Sakai Project and Powered by Sakai links, which take you to the Sakai LMS website
The footer also includes the following:
- Copyright information for the Sakai software
- Jump to top arrow, which will take you back to the top of the page (not pictured in above image)
Rich Text Editor accessibility
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?
Instructions for enlarging screen elements, modifying colors/contrast
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 or ZoomText.
To change color and contrast settings, use the operating system settings, browser settings, or your preferred browser plug-ins.