Real talk about accessibility shortcomings in Storyline and Rise

Sep 02, 2022

Joel Lesko
By Joel Lesko
I am posting my experience about the accessibility gaps in Storyline and Rise in hopes that there can be a real conversation and that Articulate will take action. I am not an expert in accessibility or in Storyline and Rise. I use these two programs, rely on the tools, and for a while, believed they were helping me with tools and templates to make accessible courses. Unfortunately, that’s not the reality. 
 
Before this summer, I've been modestly committed to accessibility - add captions, alt text, maybe a few other things. But recently a client held my feet to the fire, and withheld purchasing a license for 2 of my courses until I could show they were truly accessible. Unfortunately, accomplishing that in Storyline and Rise seems to be impossible. 
 
I paid for a VPAT and a WCAG audit. The results of the audit were hard to understand because they were about website performance and things like that. At first it didn’t make sense because I was creating a course, not a website. But they pointed out that they evaluate the course according to web standards because the course is experienced by a learner on a browser. Reading through all the issues they noted, I couldn’t imagine how I would fix the html to make the course work… And upon further conversation with experts who’ve tried - I learned that these issues cannot be remediated because they are issues that Storyline and Rise create when a course is published! And furthermore, Articulate has done nothing about it.  
 
For example, from my audit report on a Storyline course: "The search field is missing both visible and programmatic labels. The only current feature acting as a label is the placeholder, but this can cause confusion to users with cognitive disabilities as the placeholder doesn't remain constant on the screen. For others, the purpose of the input field may not be determinable without labels being present.”

The auditor even suggested this remediation: "Include <label> elements adjacent to the fields with for attributes that point to the field's id like so: <label for="search">Search:</label> <input type="text" name="search" id="search" /> Similarly, since a submit button is required, a button with the text 'Search" can be placed near the field. The field itself would need to be labeled using aria-label="search" or aria-labelled by with the value being the id of the search submit button. https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Techniques/html/H44” 

Well, I don’t understand the remediation, and checking with experts, it's not possible in Storyline without serious monkeying around in a published course. That’s beyond me. 
 
Another example, adding Audio Descriptions to videos uploaded to Rise and Storyline. I am not an expert, so maybe there is a solution (please share).  I contacted support and they suggested I read two conformance reports. A quick search revealed that Rise 360 doesn't support 1.2.5 Audio Description. Workarounds are needed. 
 
The support agent wrote, "Audio descriptions must be created in a separate app, then imported into Rise 360. For example, sync audio descriptions with a video in Storyline 360, and then publish the slide as a video file. But in Storyline 360, you can use text boxes or slide notes for text-based descriptions. Record narration or import audio files for audio descriptions, then synchronize them with the video content.” 
 
Hmm, is that what I’m paying a hefty subscription for? Workarounds? In 2022? While Articulate proclaims it is at the forefront of accessibility? Why don't they build a player that supports Audio Descriptions? Especially extended AD? 
 
I think there are solutions out there that could be integrated if Articulate would consider creating an integration path. For example, 3PlayMedia.com offers a player. I have spoken with their director for strategic alliances and she’d love to talk. I mentioned this to the support agent but they were dismissive about even meeting to discuss an integration possibility. “We don't do that kind of collaboration.” Maybe there are other business reasons, but hey, we need tools that work. 
 
To wrap up this long post, just want to say that I’ve committed time and money to making my courses accessible. I didn't know anything, and still don't understand much… But my general impression is that Articulate is falling way short of their claims and is failing to give us developers the tools and support we need. And some of our clients are being excluded, which is the worst outcome - especially for me. I focus on Diversity Equity and Inclusion - and my courses aren't inclusive. I'm working to fix that. And now, I'm exploring other apps to find one that has built-in accessibility features. 
 
Thanks for reading and for your thoughts and solutions. At the end of the day, just want to have tools and templates that deliver inclusive, accessible courses. For too long I've ignored accessibility and I think the general e-Learning industry has, too. 
 
#accessibility
 
 
4 Replies
Leslie McKerchie
over 1 year ago09/06/22 at 9:00 pm (UTC)

Hello Joel!

Thank you for taking the time to share more details about the audit report that you received. We appreciate you being vulnerable about where you are in your accessibility journey. We are also on an accessibility journey as a company for Storyline 360 and Rise 360. 

We want to work with you one on one to understand better the audit you received. The labeled search field and audio descriptions are two items mentioned in the audit. We're happy to address those questions and work further with you in your support case.

  • The search field in Storyline 360 and Rise 360 is labeled programmatically, as required, and provides descriptive placeholder text. The magnifying glass icon is a universal indicator for searching—for example, check out accessible websites like Deque and the UK government. It sounds like a visible label would benefit your learners, so we sent this idea to our engineers to take a closer look.
  • An easier way to create audio descriptions for both Storyline 360 and Rise 360 is on our radar, and, good news, it's already on our public roadmap for Storyline 360.

While no tool or template can automatically conform to all WCAG criteria, we look forward to the opportunity to make it easier for you to add accessibility features to your courses. Some accessibility accommodations will always require you to make design decisions (workarounds), especially with highly customizable and flexible tools like Storyline 360. 

Since you already have a support case with our team (created from your chat), we will reach out to you directly to look at your project files for Rise 360 and Storyline 360. We'd also like to work with you on your audit report.

Erich Renken
over 1 year ago09/09/22 at 1:29 pm (UTC)

I understand your frustration, Joel. It's been a long journey getting Storyline accessible, but I've definitely seen progress in the last few years. There are a lot less "does not support" in my recent VPATs than there used to be. 

At my company, we recently started including audio descriptions and here's how we handle it. From the original video, we create a copy and add the audio descriptions to the audio track using Adobe Creative Cloud tools. We were originally trying to keep the two videos the same length, but we found that we were really trying to cram some of the descriptions into a tight space and so we extended the audio track as much as necessary and froze the video track while the descriptions were playing. 

Once the new video was created, we created a separate slide for the audio description video. Then, at the beginning of the course, we present the learners with a checkbox explaining audio descriptions and asking if they'd like them turned on/off throughout the course. After that, it's a matter of routing to the correct video using that variable. It's not as elegant as being able to switch between audio tracks while watching the video, but it works for us.

Oh, we found this and it's been helpful when creating the audio description track: https://partnerhelp.netflixstudios.com/hc/en-us/articles/215510667-Audio-Description-Style-Guide-v2-3

Let me know if you have any questions about our approach.

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