Here’s a development update, covering everything that’s changed since July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I spent a lot of time on the Summer working on our other project, Chirun<\/a>. I wrote a new LTI 1.3-compliant tool, to make it easier to embed Chirun material in our virtual learning environment. That’s now in use at Newcastle, and I’m looking for other institutions to test it with virtual learning environments other than Canvas or Moodle. Our intention is to make our server available to everyone, since it won’t handle any personally identifying information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So it’s been a while since I had time to do a Numbas development update. There have been quite a few bug fixes and an encouraging number of contributions from other people. The main news is that the Numbas runtime is now WCAG 2.1 AAA compliant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Over the Summer a few people asked us for a formal statement that Numbas is compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). <\/p>\n\n\n\n I spent a week or two working through all the WCAG 2.1 criteria. Happily, most of them were already satisfied, but I identified a few that needed some work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We’ve put together a VPAT\u00ae report<\/a>, a standard declaration of conformance with the guidelines. The Numbas exam interface supports all of the criteria that apply to it, at level AAA. That’s great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the report we’ve put “partially supports” for a couple of criteria to do with reading level and terminology: they’re written with informational content in mind, and the assessment context necessarily means that it isn’t always safe to explain what a word means – it might be being assessed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyway, I’m very proud that we’ve reached this level of accessibility. There’s always more work to do, so if you’ve got any thoughts around the accessibility of Numbas exams I’d be happy to hear them: email numbas@ncl.ac.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve tagged v7.2 of the Numbas runtime on GitHub<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve tagged v7.2 of the Numbas editor on GitHub<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve tagged v3.4 of the Numbas LTI provider on GitHub<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I fixed a typo in the Moodle Numbas SCORM report which affected parts with steps. (code<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\nAccessibility improvements and VPAT<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Numbas runtime<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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with_precision<\/code>, so they’re restored as the same type. (issue<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\ndecimal<\/code> values substituted into the expected answer for a mathematical expression part would have scientific notation evaluated incorrectly. (issue 1<\/a>, issue 2<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\nNumbas.jme.display.simplify<\/code> returns an empty string if the input expression is undefined, instead of throwing an error. (issue<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\nisclos<\/code>e function, to allow some room for floating-point error. (issue<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<output><\/code> tag, so it’s more semantically linked. (issue<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n--line-height<\/code> and --spacing<\/code> to control the line-height of text and general spacing, so they can be more easily changed. (code<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\ngrid<\/code> layout, fixing a few problems that arose on very small screens and improving scrolling. (issue<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<img><\/code> tags loading SVG files with an <object><\/code> tag, so that the structure of the SVG figure can be navigated by assistive technology. If the <img><\/code> tag has alt text, it’s used as the accessible label for the <object><\/code> tag, so it’s not lost. (issue<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\nprefer-reduced-motion<\/code> preference is respected, so animations don’t happen when preferred. (code<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\nmin<\/code> and max<\/code> functions for ranges. (pull request<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\nautocomplete=\"off\"<\/code> on text answer inputs, to ensure the browser doesn’t suggest any answers. (issue<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\nln<\/code>, exp<\/code> and arg<\/code> have definitions for decimal<\/code> values, and the logarithm of a negative number always produces a complex value. (issue<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\nNumbas editor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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range<\/code> values. (issue<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\nExtensions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Numbas LTI provider<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Moodle Numbas SCORM report<\/h2>\n\n\n\n