RISE - accessibility features

I just got my testing results back and I'm happy to share them with the community. 

My approach: 

I created a course and basically inserted one of every type of block there is in Rise. I applied as many accessibility considerations as I could in terms of contrast, alt text on images etc.

I shared the course with a colleague who is blind and uses  JAWS screen reading technology, and here's what we discovered:

What to avoid:

• image galleries and carousels  
• fill in the blank questions
• continue divider - the block seem to add a lot of  'noisy' script
• labelled diagrams - tab order just keeps looping between labels
• quiz block - hard to navigate,  each question is announced twice (use knowledge check instead) 
• quiz maker inserted as storyline block - 'noisy' script that could not be navigated
• step order process interaction
• timeline interaction - headings 'style' is a problem
• flashcard interaction
• any drag and drop - eg card sort interaction and question type
• multiple response questions

What worked well:

• buttons with links (but they 'appear' below in a screen reader announcement, not right as visually displayed)
• accordion - however, headings are problematic as often not in sequence
• single response radio button questions (but this is very limiting for non-vision impaired learners)
• Text, statement, quote, list functions
• file downloader
• two column text function
• image function - using alt text (alt text space not limited which is good)
• embedded video (provided video has closed captions)

Hopefully, this helps those of you who are keen to use Rise but still need to provide accessible eLearning. 

I'd welcome the chance to continue a best practice dialogue in this space and look forward to hearing about the approach that you are taking.

Is there a consolidated VPAT or other documentation that discusses the degree to which RISE is accessible in it's current iteration?  Trying to find this answer across multiple threads and product release notes is difficult, at best.  

Hello everyone! I’m happy to share our Rise 360 Accessibility Collection, which includes the VPAT to describe how Rise 360 conforms to WCAG 2.1 Level AA criteria.

We also updated our roadmap to include Rise 360 features we’re continuing to develop to better support WCAG.

Let me know your questions and experiences building accessible courses for all!

Back in December I was so happy to see that there had finally seemed to be a lot of progress made in making Rise accessible and up to WCAG standards. Even though it seemed to only be partially there, I had a lot of hope in that it wouldn't be long before the outstanding components were addressed (based on the messaging I had saw)... It's now almost July and the last updated date on any of the Rise Accessibility docs remain as December 2020. I took a look at the roadmap link that was shared and was super disappointed to see that all Rise-related accessibility items that are outstanding are just listed as "planned", not even "in development"! These aren't just nice to have features, these are crucial features to ensuring proper access to Rise courses. I had thought Accessibility was a priority, but that seems to no longer be the case. Is there really nothing else currently in development for Rise other than quiz question banks?! Sure doesn't seem to be a whole lot to look forward to for the future of this product...

Hi  Beth - I'm in the process of doing some extensive testing in this space using JAWS screen reader. I've created a sample course that basically includes all of the available RISE functionality and we're testing to see which functions are problematic. I know that, for example, the multi-response questions are not but the multiple choice are. Happy to share the results once I get them - hopefully, next week.

Good morning,

In September, we had an accessibility check conducted on one of our Rise courses. A number of issues were flagged, including in relation to colour contrast which I thought had been addressed. Some other issues include:

- colour contrast is fine for main text but is insufficient when it changes on mouse hover

- all pages are missing a page title

- sequence that screen readers read out content is often different from the visual presentation on the page

- links for screen readers directing to the wrong location (e.g. 'skip to main content' link directs to course menu, not main content)

- repetition in reading out some headings when using a screen reader

- screen reader links do not adequately describe their function (e.g. show/hide button reads out show/hide but does not explain what will be shown/hidden)

- no option to add alt text to logos

- screen readers cannot select radio buttons in multiple choice knowledge checks (pressing the space bar or enter key triggers the course menu button)

- radio buttons are too small

- quiz results are read multiple times when using a screen reader (e.g. "Your score Your score 47% Your score 47% 47%")

We love how simple it is to build beautiful, interactive courses in Rise, but like many others, if accessibility guidelines aren't met by the end of the year as promised, we're going to have to start using something like H5P instead. 

I'd be happy to share the full accessibility report if that would be helpful. Our consultants have even explained how each issue can be fixed.

At some stage it would also be really useful if you could provide a list of which block types are accessible and which aren't (like H5P does: https://h5p.org/documentation/installation/content-type-accessibility)

Thank you.

Kind regards,

Ashley

I wanted to share my win of the week. I work with a disability organisation and like Jim Larsen above, we are required to meet WCAG standards, and to do that we use a number of different authoring tools in our web and eLearning development. Despite Rise not being considered WCAG compliant, our accessibility testing has consistently returned a really low number of accessibility issues, which generally have come about as a result of design flaws.

The only slight challenges we've had to date has been the use of the Accordion interaction, labelled graphics and multi-select quiz questions (radio buttons are fine). 

Clever, thoughtful design ahead of any development taking place, i.e. designing for accessibility first, really helps us avoid any potential issues (eg no drag and drop activities etc) - an approach we use regardless of tool.

Hello,

One option I am having to do is to have an accessible PDF version of the RISE course.

The document only had a few errors in Acrobats Accessibility testing, so I'm correcting some of those issues.

Has anyone else done this for their course in order to stay compliant?

Second Option:

Another option that seems to work well is to copy all text content into a .txt file. Screen reader seems to work very well with it.

Can someone else test this and confirm?

We've just started working on increasing the accessibility of our courses. Following this conversation over the past two years has:

1. Been discouraging regarding the amount of improvement coming from Articulate.

2. Been phenomenal in the amount of suggestions from USERS!

Hi there, everyone! Our team is working on a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) that details how Rise 360 aligns with every WCAG 2.1 standard. This document will be ready to share by the end of this month, and we'll post it here in this discussion first!