Forum Discussion
Rise 360 Accessibility Updates
We are excited to share our Rise 360 Accessibility Collection!
In this collection, you'll find the Rise 360 Accessibility Conformance Report (VPAT®) used to describe how Rise 360 conforms to WCAG 2.1 Level AA criteria.
You'll also find updates on our Accessibility Journey that includes details on screen reader support!
Finally, we updated our roadmap to include Rise 360 features we’re continuing to develop to better support WCAG.
Please share your questions and experiences building accessible courses for all in the comments below!
42 Replies
Hi there - I am really excited to hear about the new accessibility features. Can someone please let me know if we need to "re-SCORM" our existing courses to benefit from them? It's unclear what we need to "do" next with existing courses. Thanks!
Hi there,
With the new release of the accessibility AA rating, could you please confirm if all blocks within Rise are to this standard or only certain blocks. I suspect some of the activity drag/drop blocks may not comply? If not all blocks are to AA rating, could you please confirm which ones are not?
Thanks!
My understanding is although Rise is accessible, it is just a partial accessible. Many of the blocks are still in planning stage of accessibility:
https://articulate.com/support/article/Articulate-360-Feature-Roadmap
I am assuming if not on this list, the rest 'may' be accessible now? I have not tested myself.
Hi Jeff,
Yes that is correct. The rest of the blocks are WCAG 2.1 compliant.Cheers!
Marvie
Can folks from Articulate confirm what is actually compliant, is the list above accurate? Thx.
Please can someone from Articulate confirm that the new features will apply to an existing course if I re-publish it.
Hello,
Could Articulate confirm that Rise 360 courses simply need to be republished to have the new accessibility features available? (At least for all the blocks currently supported at the time of publishing.)
Thank you! Stephanie
Hi Stephanie! Yes, to take full advantage of the accessibility changes we have made over the past several months, you'll want to republish your Rise 360 content.
Request for Team Articulate:
As I was reading through the Rise accessibility-related pages on your site, I noticed that there are quite a few text contrast issues on the site itself. I understand that muted/pastel colors have been part of the "look" of Articulate and its products for a long time, but I'm wondering if Articulate would consider rebranding/re-coloring your customer-facing website to meet WCAG standards? Particularly on pages discussing accessibility features (but on all pages, really). Thank you in advance for considering this request.
Hi there, Liz. We're working on making the entire Articulate web experience accessible. Check out our statement here.
We are committed to continually improving access to all of our services -- thanks for keeping us accountable!
Hi Alyssa. For the Text on Image image type, can you tell me if the screenreader will read the text? Or should I provide alt text? Thanks!
Hi Claire! Great questions!
Yes, the screen reader will read the text of a Text on Image block.
Please note:- The positioning of the text will affect the order if it's read first or last depending on if it's on the left or right of the image, respectively.
- Even with text content, the screen reader will still look for alt text for the image.
- If there are images in these blocks that don’t have alt text, screen readers ignore the tag and just announce them as images or read the file name.
If you don't want them to be announced as just "Image" or the "filename", please provide alt text to describe the image properly.
Hope that helps!
Thanks Renz. That's very helpful. And if I want the screen reader to ignore an image (or, e.g., a gif) I just enter "" into the alt text field right? Two double quotes, no spaces?
Correct Claire, that should make the screenreader ignore the image and not read any alt text or the image name.
I get feedback from Rise course participants that the elements and text in blocks are hard to see because there isn't enough contrast. Some blocks, like the matching knowledge check, do not allow us to change color or contrast. Maybe this could be a future enhancement.
Hi Loren, thanks for letting us know that you need a setting to adjust the contrast of some blocks. I will share this with the team and if we make any updates to this, we'll let you know!
