Imagine that you have hearing loss and have to take an e-learning course for work. Then, when you open the course up, you find it contains several audio clips and no transcripts. How, then, are you supposed to complete the course?
Section 508 compliance is all about accessibility, ensuring that everyone—regardless of abilities—can benefit from e-learning. Let’s dive in a little deeper to learn more about Section 508, why it’s important, and how you can achieve it with Articulate apps.
What Is 508 Compliance?
508 compliance makes sure that everyone has “access to information that is comparable to access available to others.” The standards for compliance were set by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and require federal agencies to provide software and website accessibility to people with disabilities.
Making your e-learning accessible and 508 compliant means that you’re enabling employees with disabilities to receive the same access to the training materials used by their peers. This need has given rise to software optimized to meet 508 requirements, like Storyline 3/360, which is compatible with assistive technology.
Why Is 508 Compliance Important?
All federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding are required to be 508 compliant. This means that government agencies, federal-funded nonprofits, public higher education institutions, and public K-12 schools must use software and web tools (including e-learning) that are accessible to people who have disabilities and might use supporting tools such as screen readers.
And this doesn’t just go for the public sector. Many large private companies are 508 compliant, including ones that create accessibility software, like Microsoft. As an e-learning developer, it’s likely that at some point in your career you’ll be asked to create e-learning that complies with these guidelines.
How Can You Make Your E-Learning 508 Compliant?
As you might imagine, the checklist for 508 compliance is pretty lengthy. Thankfully, e-learning tools like Storyline 3/360 make it easy to ensure that your courses are optimized to meet requirements.
For example, one of the most important features of a 508-compliant course is its compatibility with screen readers. With Articulate apps, you can enable alt-text, which means you can customize how each slide object is described via a screen reader.
Storyline 3/360 also allows you to specify the order in which the user’s keyboard navigates and screen reader accesses slide objects. This customization is crucial because, by default, screen readers announce each object on the slide according to its name in the timeline panel, which can easily cause confusion when you have multiple, similarly named objects. For a step-by-step explanation of how to modify what screen readers announce, check out this helpful how-to.
Screen reader integration is just one way Storyline 3/360 helps you create more accessible e-learning that’s 508 compliant. Eager to learn more? Check out these helpful resources:
Accessibility in General
- What Is Accessible E-Learning?
- Four Reasons Accessibility Is Important
- 6 Best Practices for Designing Accessible E-Learning
- Our Top Section 508 Compliance Resources for E-Learning
- Understanding WCAG: A Quickstart Guide for E-Learning Developers
- “But It’s to Code”: Thoughts on Accessibility in E-Learning
Articulate 360 & Accessibility
- Articulate 360 FAQs: Accessibility
- Storyline 360: How to Design an Accessible Course
- What You Need to Know About Designing Accessible E-Learning with Storyline 360
- Storyline 360 Accessibility Conformance Report
- Storyline 360 Supports Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
- Storyline 360 Is Compliant with Section 508 Accessibility Guidelines
- Studio 360 Supports Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
- Studio 360 Is Compliant with Section 508 Accessibility Guidelines
- Rise 360: Keyboard-Accessible Navigation
Storyline 3 & Accessibility
- Storyline 3: How to Design an Accessible Course
- Storyline 3 Accessibility Conformance Report
- Storyline 3 Is Compliant with Section 508 Accessibility Guidelines
- Make Courses More Accessible with Closed Captioning and Tables in Storyline 3
If you’ve still got questions after digging into the above articles, leave us a comment below or start a discussion in the Building Better Courses forum to find out what other e-learning pros are doing to achieve 508 compliance.
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Published 10 years ago
Version 1.0
