Engineering Journal: Storyline Accessibility Survey Summary

Hello everyone,

I'm Ronnie Pilman, Senior QA Engineer II and Accessibility Lead for Storyline at Articulate. Our Storyline team wanted to learn more about your accessibility needs, so we conducted a survey in April 2024. We really wanted to know the accessibility areas that you think require our attention and what we could do better to help you and your learners. We received 139 insightful and helpful responses! Thank you so much for taking the time to respond.

Many respondents shared positive experiences and noted the significant improvements that have been made over the years. The introduction of accessible styles and other enhancements has been well-received, and users appreciate our ongoing commitment to accessibility. Your detailed feedback is invaluable, and I'm excited to share the findings and our next steps.

Survey Results

Accessible Course Creation

Our survey revealed that over 96% of respondents are required to create accessible courses, either due to legal requirements or personal commitment to inclusive design. This underscores the critical importance of accessibility in e-learning.

• 101 (73%) respondents answered yes
• 33 (23.9%) respondents answered, “Not really, but I care about creating accessibility courses.”
• 4 (2.9%) respondents answered no

We were curious to find out what accessibility guidelines you use to validate your courses, and we learned that:

• 117 (86.7%) are using the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
• 61 (45.2%) are using Section 508
• 21 (15.6%) answered with other options
• 13 (9.6%) are using the European Standard for Digital Accessibility (EN 301 549)

We also asked where you go to find help or information about creating accessible courses:

• 80 (60.2%) go to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
• 70 (58.6%) come to our E-Learning Heroes Community
• 60 (45.1%) check out our Support Knowledge Base
• 53 (39.8%) responded with other options
• 40 (30.1%) watch webinars from our Articulate 360 Training team
• 25 (18.8%) get help from Deque

We asked if you work with third-party accessibility vendors to certify that your courses comply with accessibility standards:

• 109 (79%) responded no
• 19 (13.8%) respondents said yes
• 10 (7.2%) use internal resources or other options

Storyline and Accessibility

Our first set of questions were designed to help us better understand how you create accessible courses. Next, we turned our focus to Storyline and your thoughts on using it to create accessible courses.

When asked how you would describe the accessibility features in Storyline:

• 100 (73.5%) respondents answered “Average”
• 21 (15.4%) respondents answered “Excellent”
• 11 (8.1%) respondents answered “Unacceptable”
• 4 (2.9%) respondents answered “Other,” with most replies saying they rank it between “Excellent” and “Average”

On a scale of 5 being very easy and 0 being very difficult, we asked you to rate your experience using Storyline to create accessible courses:

With 5 being above average and 0 being below average, we asked how Storyline's commitment to accessibility compared to that of other e-learning products:

Diving a bit deeper, we asked if Storyline’s ability to create accessible courses met your expectations:

• 74 (54.4%) said no
• 62 (45.6%) said yes

While we found that many of you appreciate the accessibility features currently available in Storyline, we did see a strong call for further improvements and simplifications. You expressed the need for a more streamlined process for creating accessible content and for additional educational resources to better understand the available settings and their impact.

What You Asked For

Here are the most commonly asked for features and improvements:

• Accessibility Checker: Authors emphasized the importance of having a built-in tool that identifies missing alt text, captions, and other common accessibility issues. This tool should also provide suggestions for improvements and ensure compliance with WCAG standards and help authors ensure their content meets accessibility standards before publishing.
• Color Contrast Tools: A built-in color contrast checker that evaluates color combinations to meet accessibility guidelines was frequently requested.
• Inaccessible Interactions: Interactions such as drag-and-drop and Likert scale questions were frequently mentioned as problematic. Authors want these features to be inherently accessible or to have accessible alternatives available.
• Focus Order Management: The current focus order tool is seen as cumbersome, especially for complex designs. Improvements in this area would significantly enhance the user experience, making it easier to create accessible content efficiently. Authors want an improved interface that allows for easier reordering and customization of the focus sequence. Suggestions included making the focus order panel resizable and allowing for batch editing.
• Automated Features: Automatic generation of subtitles, alt text, and audio descriptions for videos were highly requested. Authors also want better tools for managing captions and transcripts, including the ability to place captions at the top or bottom of a slide on a slide-by-slide basis.

Updates Since April

In Update 90, we released Screen Reader Support for Tables. Tables now have built-in screen reader support, so learners with visual disabilities can easily explore them and know exactly where they are.

We’ve added a new Accessibility group in our E-Learning Heroes community where e-learning professionals can discuss all things accessibility.

Check out the Storyline 360 Version History for more accessibility fixes and enhancements.

What’s Next

We’ve already started work on an Accessibility Checker for Storyline, check out the Articulate 360 Roadmap!

We are committed to continuous improvement and making Storyline a more accessible and user-friendly tool for all. Your feedback is crucial in guiding our efforts, and we are dedicated to addressing the areas highlighted in this survey.

And make sure to join us in our E-Learning Heroes Accessibility group as we continue this conversation!