Towards an Accessibility Evaluation of eLearning Tools in Emerging 3D Virtual Environments Like Metaverse: Taking Advantage of Acquired Knowledge in Moodle and Second Life

Abstract

Second Life (SL), a widely used Three-Dimensional Virtual World (3DVW), is being used as a tool for eLearning because of its interaction capabilities. On the other hand, accessibility is growing as a requirement for eLearning software tools, mainly because it can be an important factor for the learning process success by the impaired. In this paper we evaluate the accessibility of SL under WCAG 2.0/2.1 principles, and compare it with Moodle, which is a widely used web-based eLearning tool. We found that neither Moodle nor SL complies with accessibility under WCAG 2.0/2.1 rules, but SL does present itself as more accessible than Moodle. Moreover, WCAG 2.0/2.1 has several requirements specific for web pages, although they do not apply to 3DVWs. In this study, we intent to give a step forward towards evaluating emerging 3D virtual environments, like Metaverse, in the context of accessibility in the eLearning tools.