Storyline 360 not compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility guidelines

Hi Leslie,

Firstly, I understand which page John was referring to. The issue I raised is that the outdated page is still live on the web, claiming that "Storyline 360 supports WCAG 2.1 Level AA" which is untrue. Therefore it’s misleading for users who stumble on this outdated page when they do a web search for 'Storyline' and 'WCAG 2.1 Level AA'. Can you please confirm if this misleading page will be unpublished?

Secondly, could you please clarify how you came to the conclusion that criterion 1.3.5 does not apply to text entry fields requiring the user to enter their name? When you say “a text entry field is not considered programmatic or auto-filling”, this doesn’t really make sense to me, and it seems you may be misunderstanding what criterion 1.3.5 is about. So I’ll try to explain my understanding of criterion 1.3.5, and if your interpretation of it is different to mine, would you mind clearly explaining to me what you believe it is referring to instead?

I interpret criterion 1.3.5 as requiring that a text entry field be programmed so that its purpose is specified (for example, a name field, an email field, an address field etc), such that when the user double clicks on the field, the browser knows exactly what information is being requested by the field and can therefore autofill their name, email address or address, as appropriate. As an example of text entry fields that meet this criterion, think of an online store where you like to make purchases. When you reach the checkout page, you can double click in each text entry field to auto-fill your name, email address and delivery address. How does this magic occur, you may ask? How does a user’s browser know to put their name in the name field, and their address in their address field, and not the other way around? The answer is because the text entry fields have been programmed with their specific purpose. This tells the browser exactly what kind of data should be autofilled into each field. And this is what makes the form compliant with criterion 1.3.5.

Yes, as you mentioned, the instructions can be included on the slide in the form of text, such as ‘Enter your name here’. However, this is unrelated to criterion 1.3.5 in terms of accessibility, as per my explanation above. You can also learn more about this criterion by reading the information at this link: Understanding Success Criterion 1.3.5: Identify Input Purpose | WAI | W3C

As you’re aware, Storyline 360 does not have the capacity to declare the purpose of a text entry field, therefore browsers will not be able to automatically identify the purpose of the field and enable auto-filling. As such, my understanding is that any course that includes an ’enter your name’ text entry field in Storyline is not compliant with criterion 1.3.5.

As per my previous post, could you please confirm whether or not Articulate is planning to:

A) prioritise a feature to declare a purpose for text entry fields to enable compliance with criterion 1.3.5; and

B) include advice for users regarding the current not compliance of text entry fields on your webpage entitled 'Storyline 360: How to design an Accessible course', and

C) include the disclaimer regarding Criterion 1.3.5 not being supported—which is currently quite difficult to find—on your webpages that are promoting the use of the name field to personalise courses for learners, i.e. this page and this page, and

D) unpublish this webpage with the false claim that "Storyline 360 supports WCAG 2.1 Level AA" or redirect the link to the correct page.