Accessibility and usability of open educational platforms (MOOCs platforms) to support persons with disabilities: Comparative analytical study

In recent years, open educational platforms (MOOCs platforms) have grown exponentially because of their flexibility as well as their ability to create learning environments beneficial to persons with disabilities. However, persons with disabilities may face obstacles in accessing and using the platforms' sites if the principles of accessibility and usability are not taken into account in their design. The study therefore sought to analyse a sample of Arab and foreign open educational platforms from the perspective of accessibility and usability for disability users, which was conducted in accordance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) and 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design and the researcher used the analytical descriptive approach to assess platforms' compliance with the criteria adopted by the study sample, Based on the checklist as an essential data collection tool as well as a set of automated tools. The study concluded that accessibility was not a matter of interest and focus when designing and building those educational platforms Sample study, all the platforms sample study did not meet the level (AA) accessibility, the level (A) has met seven foreign platforms (Edx, coursera, udacity, khan academy, cognative class, future learn, w3schools) and four Arab platforms (Moltaka al-dareen, Star, Edrak, Coursat), the rest of the platforms did not meet the "A" level of accessibility. The results also indicated the low level of educational platform support for the study sample for usability criteria. For the efficiency of the study sample platform sites and their conformity with the evaluation criteria contained in the checklist, Edx ranked first with a good rating of 70%. Sadeem was last with a low rating of 36%. The study recommended that laws and legislation should be developed that require open educational platform sites and websites in general to apply global accessibility standards so that they can provide services to all groups regardless of their type of disability without barriers to access and obstacles to use. The study also recommends a field study to identify disabled persons' impediments to the use of open educational platforms from their perspective.