Converting Courses for Screen Readers

Hi there Brandon! 

Thanks for posting your question here in the community. 

When you publish a Storyline course to Word it creates a document that has screenshots of every slide. Screen readers can't "read" the text and content that's inside these screenshots. It can read the Notes text, so if you were to use this approach you would need to ensure that every piece of text content on your slide is included in the notes so that it could be read by a screen reader. The Word doc will also include other text such as scene titles, slide titles, the word "Notes" and other text artifacts that you might not want to have read aloud by the screen reader. Also, if there are images and videos or artifacts on the slides, you'd need to explain those in the notes. 

My suggestion to you is to download the free trial of JAWS and use the screen reader to see how that experience is. If you've never used a screen reader before I think doing this will be a huge revelation and give you some really important insights into how that experience feels. 

It's hard to give an estimate on time and cost without knowing the amount and type of content in your course. Is it rich in imagery and or videos? Is it mostly text based? Are all the activities accessibility-friendly or do you use activities like drag-and-drops that you would need to create alternatives for? These will all impact the time it will take to create an accessibility friendly version. Is there a specific reason you've decided to go with making a separate document version for accessibility, instead of creating an accessible storyline course? 

Thank you for the thoughtful response, Nicole.

Much of what you've pointed out is information I'm already aware of, in terms of the manner in which Storyline 360 publishes/converts a course to Word. I guess I was just inquiring as to the amount of effort needed to clean up that version of the course once it was actually published. In this case, I'm thinking it would be a 20- to 30-minute e-Learning course.

In terms of why I would go this route as opposed to creating an accessible course in Storyline, well, the latter appears to be awfully difficult. That is, I created some test courses for a non-sighted learner in Storyline 360 and watched them with him. It was truly a struggle for him to go through the course using his screen reader. It just seems to me that there is no easy way to create an accessible course for non-sighted learners, as you need to consider tab order, alt text, etc., not to mention language and instructions specific to a non-sighted learner. Ultimately, I would like to create a course that is usable for both sighted and non-sighted learners as opposed to creating two separate courses, but it would appear that it's not so easy.

Are there any existing documents/manuals, by Articulate or otherwise, that actually walk you through the process of creating accessible/508-compliant courses from start to finish?

Thanks!

Just a quick clarification on the "Free Trial of JAWS."  I believe you are referring to the 40-minute mode.  Per the JAWS EULA ,"The 40 Minute Mode is not intended for commercial use other than use while waiting for an active license to use the Program or an associated key to arrive or be installed. "

So assuming the course creator is being paid to create the course then the JAWS 40 minute mode would not apply.

Thanks for pointing that out, Erin.

Thank you for your thoughtful and helpful comment Matthew. Thank you for sharing that information! Good points and great idea about using the translation feature. 

In addition to making a course work well with screen readers, e-learning developers who want to create accessible courses also should consider users with

• auditory disabilities (provide captions for all audio)
• motor skill problems (avoid timed quizzes, make courses fully keyboard accessible)
• partially sighted users (use high contrast, clear fonts, avoid using colors only to convey information such as right/wrong) 

and more...

From what I know so far (and I still have much to learn) the key to creating accessible courses is to plan for and think about accessibility before you even start building in your authoring tool. You want to write content and select activities that are accessibility friendly.

Brandon > with regards to your question: Are there any existing documents/manuals, by Articulate or otherwise, that actually walk you through the process of creating accessible/508-compliant courses from start to finish?

There is quite a bit of existing documentation regarding WCAG, 508, and general accessibility tips and guidelines available to you:

• Articulate Storyline and Section 508 Accessibility
• Storyline 360: How to Design an Accessible Course
• Storyline and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
• But it’s to Code: Thoughts on Accessibility in E-Learning
• E-Book: 6 Best Practices for Designing Accessible Learning
• 5 Reasons Accessibility is Important

Here are a few additional links that I've found useful 

• http://accessibility.arl.org/standards-best-practices/
• https://webaim.org/standards/508/checklist

Additionally, stay tuned to the community because I've got a whole series of articles related to accessibility in the works that will tackle many topics including instructional design tips for accessible courses. 

These resources will teach you many of the key things you need to do to make your courses accessible, but it's more than just adding ALT text and fixing tab order. There are instructional design decisions you need to consider along the way to ensure it's successful and to make it a positive/pleasant experience for all disabled learners. It's hard to give ONE prescriptive way to create accessible e-learning because it depends on many factors and variables. 

Thank you all for your feedback and clarification. I intend to look into the links/information you provided in the hopes that they address my needs. If not, I'm sure I'll be back for even more assistance.