Forum Discussion
RISE - accessibility features
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
- SibaPrasadPadhi5 years agoCommunity Member
Good findings Ashley, in this area of accessibility this is one of the most important function to design a Training for specific audiences. Why is this taking more than 3 years to provide these important features as per the eLearning guidelines. Articulate should implement these on priority basis, as always the answer to this is not positive and the end user were suffering to consume the content designed with the tool. Can we have a specific guidelines how to use blocks supported for accessibility purpose. And why is its taking so much time to remove the lesson header/customization?
- MarvieYap-Mulde5 years agoFormer Staff
Hi Ashley!
Thanks so much for taking the time to post the accessibility check that was conducted on one of your Rise courses. This is very useful and helpful information to us.
While Rise 360 courses are not officially WCAG 2.1 compliant, we have been working hard in this direction. That being said, I'd like to follow through with your feedback, starting with items I can address:
- All pages are missing a page title
- We do have titles for each page (lesson). You can easily verify this by looking at your browser tab. It will say your `CourseTitle - Lesson Title | Rise 360`. Our title is dynamically handled. You can check this in your browser's element inspector.
- Sequence that screen readers read out content is often different from the visual presentation on the page
- Yes, you may find in places such as Course Overview banner, or the Lesson header region, the announcement order may differ from the visual order (top to bottom) you see on your screen. For example, in Course Overview, it is announced in the following order: Course Title -> Author -> Start / Details button.
This is intentional. The order of the elements in which it is announced is based on its importance, when it is applicable. We wanted it to be more intuitive for screen reader users and make the experience more optimal and at par with the experience of sighted users as much as we can. Aside from the course title being the most important information in the page, it is also the first thing that catches your eyes. We want to give the same experience for people who are dependent on screen readers.
If you are referring to other places that doesn't make sense to you, please do let me know. I'll be more than happy to look in to it.
- Yes, you may find in places such as Course Overview banner, or the Lesson header region, the announcement order may differ from the visual order (top to bottom) you see on your screen. For example, in Course Overview, it is announced in the following order: Course Title -> Author -> Start / Details button.
- Screen readers cannot select radio buttons in multiple choice knowledge checks (pressing the space bar or enter key triggers the course menu button)
Quiz results are read multiple times when using a screen reader (e.g. "Your score Your score 47% Your score 47% 47%")- We recently addressed all accessibility issues for Knowledge Check and Quiz. These shouldn't be a problem anymore.
- Radio buttons are too small
- Radio buttons we use in Multiple Choice (Quiz & Knowledge Check) are of web standard size. You can check and compare it against radio buttons found in accessibility-focused websites such as www.webaim.org or https://www.w3.org/
And here are my follow-up questions for the remaining items to help me identify the problem:
- Links for screen readers directing to the wrong location (e.g. 'skip to main content' link directs to course menu, not main content)
- `Skip to lesson` link when activated should throw your screen reader focus to the Lesson content main region, particularly the hamburger menu since it's the first interactive element in the page. Is this not the case? What are the other links that goes to the wrong location and what are the steps to repro?
- Repetition in reading out some headings when using a screen reader
- What are these headings? Are they Lesson titles, or particular blocks? If you can give me more information, I'd be more than happy to look in to it.
- 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)
- Toggle buttons such as the hamburger menu that expands & collapse the sidebar, the section headers found on the side bar, the state of the accordion interaction, as examples, are all communicated meaningfully through a screen reader. May I ask what particular buttons that doesn't describe their function? I'm guessing that you may have encountered this in interactive blocks that are not particularly accessible for the time being.
Cheers!
Marvie- AshleyHill5 years agoCommunity Member
Hi Marvie,
Thanks for responding to my post. It’s really great to see that Articulate is seriously addressing the community’s accessibility concerns. Other than the accessibility issues, we are really happy with Rise as an e-learning product. Our team had zero e-learning experience before we started working in Rise and yet it’s been so easy for us to build great looking e-learning courses.
One thing that would be really helpful in the interim, before you do comply with WCAG 2.1 AA, would be for you to provide a list of accessible and inaccessible block types. Sharon English provided a partial list, based on her experience, a couple of years ago: https://community.articulate.com/discussions/rise-360/rise-accessibility-features It would be incredibly useful if Rise could provide an updated list, based on your own testing. I know that we can build courses that are mostly accessible using Rise, we just need to know which block types to avoid. That said, we are really hoping to be able to use all block types in the future. The interactive block types are our favourites so we’re really hoping you can figure out a way to make them accessible.
I have sent an email with a detailed response to each of your responses above. Please email me directly if you have any questions/comments.
Kind regards,
Ashley
- All pages are missing a page title