Accessibility Issues

Hey Steve -

The rules normally have some room for interpretation and user testing is the best way to see if you've hit the mark. That said, your country may have specific requirements for some industries (government, for example) that have specific guidelines.

Here's my rule of thumb for accessibility, keeping mind that you can get close to perfect accessibility with effort and planning. But 100% accessibility is one of those things that might be really difficult given the current state of technology and the broad array of abilities, disabilities, and environment factors currently affecting how folks use tech and access information. Everything we do has a cost and we've got to weigh that cost against resource availability. At the very least, we can't leave folks with access challenges hanging with nowhere to go or at an unfair disadvantage to other folks. 

• Take some time to map out access challenges (1) to different types of information display, interactions, and navigation (2).
  • (1) Vision, partial vision, color vision, hearing, partial hearing, motor challenges, learning disabilities, etc.. Some of these are more common in some audiences than others and some strategies will help with multiple challenges.
  • (2) Audio, images, video, interactions, structure, navigation, status, assessments, feedback. 
• Once you've mapped out basic strategies for helping to make stuff accessible across your matrix, detail options within each category and score these strategies for cost / benefit. Some strategies will be easier to accomplish, some more difficult. The difficult stuff may be worth the effort. Your mileage may vary.
• Test with real users whenever you can.
• Test by simulating the challenge when you can't test with folks that have access challenges (not just disabilities but environmental or techological challenges.) Turn off your monitor, take your glasses off if you have poor vision without correction, wear ear plugs, unplug your mouse, turn up the music in your room to the point it's distracting, Take a screenshot and run colors through a color changer for color vision issues, and check contrast etc... Anything you can do to emulate the challenge will help you to see the problem. It's a troubleshooting exercise. If you can't finish or get lost in testing, these are the issues that should take priority.

You'll find a few posts on the forums and there's likely some stuff available for universal accessibility for Aus. Once you identify the requirement, there are methods you can use in Storyline to improve access (stuff that, if ignored, will make it hard for folks to participate in your event.)

https://community.articulate.com/discussions/building-better-courses/accessibility-4a9104e0-6fde-44b5-b452-f6f8a83b3397

Another quick note. There are LOTS of things you can do that will help everyone. Not just those that encounter access challenges. Transcripts and captions are helpful to everyone. A common set of shortcut keys (choice selection, navigation, start / stop) really speed up the way everyone can get through a module and improves the overall experience. So when you make your cost / benefit calculation, the improvements to the overall experience can definitely influence things.

Mr Flowers! Thanks for that answer, very, very, very helpful!