508/AODA compliance question
May 10, 2019
So I'm having trouble wrapping my head around a compliance concept and I'm hoping you folks out there who are more experienced than I can help. I have a course that has audio and what is on screen is either pictures that compliment the audio, or text "highlights" as the audio goes along. In terms of making this compliant to someone who is using a screen reader, I know about excluding non-essential elements, and fixing the tab order/keyboard short cuts for efficient navigation...but my question is regarding the audio. Do I assume that someone using a screen reader will actually want to turn my voice-over off and rely exclusively on their screen reader (which I've heard they may prefer as it reads faster than typical audio)? If I assume this then I'm guessing the information that I am conveying in my voice-over have to go in the alt text somehow? What is standard best practice when it comes to a course like this and screen readers? Thanks in advance for the help!
1 Reply
Hi Heather!
I deal a lot with section 508 compliance as well, although I'm new to applying it to online courses. I would think that as long as there is a note at the beginning of the course that there's audio/narration, the user will tune into your voice-over when it's going and only use the screen reader when there's not a voice-over. Otherwise, they may miss important pieces in the voice-over.
I'm interested to see what others think, too since I'm developing a course that needs to be 508 compliant and has lots of narration.
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