I would love (love!) to see a tutorial on how to use the 508 features in the new Storyline software. All the video tutorials you folks post are really helpful and since Storyline is said to be 508 compliant, you would be doing some of us a big favor if you showed us how to use it in making 508-compliant e-learning courses, from interactivity, accessibility tags, quizzes, etc. This is a really important topic for those of us who provide e-learning to federal agencies or would like to do so. I think the trend will be for other agencies, state, private, etc, to move toward accessibility for users in the future. I don't agree with the regulations, i.e., everybody has to be able to use all training materials even if they would be unable to perform the job for which the training is provided. But I, and others, have to live with them. Tutorials would be a huge, huge help. (Did I state that strongly enough?)

Great idea, Jon - I work for the government. We take a relatively sensible approach to accessibility. It's about respect and not leaving anyone out in the cold if we can help it. The most common assumption about accessibility is that it's about making sure those with sight or hearing impairments are accommodated. This is a really narrow focus - common but not quite accurate. Accessibility is about so much more than that. From learning disabilities (quite common) to a range of devices universal accessibility is a good thing for everyone. We have another level of accessibility in addition to universal called authentic access. This means that if an activity is critical for practice to acquire a skill and requires an ability, don't short circuit the activity. However, don't leave folks with a disability or device that can't see it in the cold. Lett'em know what the activity requires. The law supports this, as the federal requirement upon which it was built was never intended to change the nature of the service. Just to give everyone as fair a shot as possible On the plus side, most of these requirements also improve the experience for everyone.

Hi everyone, Storyline’s Flash-based output is 508 compliant. However, content published for HTML5 and the Articulate Mobile Player is not. Please review the following article for more information: http://articulate.com/support/kb_article.php?product=st1&id=te6jcgjd47yv You can also include alt text that will be read by the screen reading software: https://player.vimeo.com/video/145579313 Although Storyline content is 508 compliant, you can take your content a step farther by adding on-demand Closed Captioning by using layers and triggers: http://www.articulate.com/support/kb_article.php?product=st1&id=1keancorydu4 If you really want to understand accessibility, my advice is to install JAWS and take the content for a test drive: http://www.freedomscientific.com/downloads/jaws/jaws-downloads.asp Once you get a feel for how a person will actually use the content in a screen reader or JAWS environment, you'll be able to develop better courses.

Coming into this discussion late, but I recently saw a great presentation at ASTD TechKnowledge conference. For slides like drag and drop that just don't work with assistive technology, the presenter put an invisible hyperlink at the top of the slide that said "screen readers click here" and branched it to a screen with a simplified equivalent. Only screen readers or people tabbing would even be aware of it. That said, I too would love a tutorial or webinar on best practices when anticipating a course will be read by screen readers. Any update on that?

Thanks, Steve. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on the how "sensible" the approach is. This isn't the forum to discuss it but I'll explain what I meant and then drop it. Let's say I'm creating e-learning training for a specific task which requires good eyesight and excellent hand-eye coordination. I can see making the training accessible for those with certain disabilities, such as deafness, epilepsy triggered by bright lights, etc., but not for those with blindness or low-vision or for those with physical impairments which would render a person unable to ever perform the task for which the training is being provided. If the guidelines were written so that accessibility requirements were related to job requirements, I'd agree. It's easy to make a blanket rule...everything must be accessible to everyone...but to have to follow this in all instances takes more time and therefore costs more money, when no one with those disabilities will ever be able to perform the task in the real world. This imposes an unnecessary burden on those offering e-learning and those who create it. Drawing the guidelines with a finer focus would be beneficial, in my opinion. and...I'm off my soapbox. Anyway, I do hope Jeanettte or Tom or one of the other Articulate gurus takes up the baton and offers us some tutorials on using Storyline to create accessible training.

Jon, I'm glad you made this request! I have high hopes that Storyline published content is accessible by all. I love the Articulate products, but never could purchase because most of the e-learning content I've created had to be accessible. Hopefully one of the Articulate folks can provide a tutorial and/or provide some sample projects that are accessible. Sue

tutorial on 508 compliance? | Articulate

JeanetteBrooks
Community Member
13 years ago
Hey Deborah, can you say a little more about your requirements? What specifically do you need to label on your slides? What kind of behavior are you looking for?
JonDeMartino
Community Member
13 years ago

Well, I'm back. ...and still looking for that elusive tutorial on 508 compliance. I've been working on some non-compliant projects so haven't been able to do much more in investigating ways to use storyline...I'm using Articuate for my current project.

I had downloaded a free trial of Lectora, which seems to be a popular software with 508 folks, but never got time to try it out. But I am somehow still on their email list and got an invitation to a free webinar this week on some 508-compliance tricks of the trade using that software. It wasn't a lot of help but I was impressed that Lectora is at least putting out some info for those who have to work under the 508 constraints.

I understand that different agencies interpret the rules differently and some prefer certain ways of doing things while others have a different preference. (Things like captioning in various ways, I think.) So it would be difficult for the gurus to do a complete tutorial on all the options the federal agencies may prefer.

But couldn't a series be put together that shows how to do the basics to meet 508 requirements. Just having some tutorials all under the heading of 508 would be very helpful to a lot of us. We would know to start with what we had to do and could work right through a project. Storyline was advertised to be 508 compliant and some of us purchased it with that in mind.

So where does the tutorial stand at this point? You folks are really good at this stuff and I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Thanks-

Jon
JeanetteBrooks
Community Member
13 years ago
Hi Jon, we hear you and the accessibility resources are definitely on the list. Thanks for your patience! The ability to create accessible content is important to us, because we know it is important to you. Stay tuned.
JonDeMartino
Community Member
13 years ago

Thanks, Jeanette-

We appreciate it.

The downside of having such cool, user-friendly products is that they're attractive to people like me, who have no background in instructional design or Information technology but still need to create e-learning.

In public health, for instance, 508 requirements are becoming more common since federal funding is many times involved and this adds another layer of complexity for us "non-techies" when we are askd to create e-learning for this audience. Actually, I guess I am a "techie" but only when it comes to blood tests and bacteria...not software.

Again, thanks for your continued interest in this issue.

Jon

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RebeccaFleischC
Community Member
13 years ago

Hi,

I've been watching this thread and others in the community around the accessibility topic. I also am hoping for a tutorial that helps SL developers to understand how to make the output accessible to a diverse audience.

As I read through various threads here, I do see many developers struggling to make courses compliant. Some of this may be due to difficulty finding the right SL tweak to make it all good. Some of it may be due to something currently lacking in SL. Tutorials would helps us parse the difference.
Nagasivaji
Community Member
13 years ago
could any one please help i have an image in storyline story view in some position i want move that image that position to another position for instance(img x and y(200,200) after moving (150,200) i want move that image please help how we do in articulate storyline please help me regarding on this issue.....
JeanetteBrooks
Community Member
13 years ago

Hi Naga, to move an image to a different place in Storyline, you'll need to be in Normal View. If you're in Story View, just double-click the slide that contains the image, and this will switch you to Normal View.

Once you're in Normal View, you can either click and drag the image to a different location on your slide ...OR ... select the image, click the Format, tab, then click in the corner of the "Size" area of the menu. This opens the Size and Position window, where you can click the Position tab at the left to set an exact location for the object, as shown below:
Nagasivaji
Community Member
12 years ago
Sorry jeannete not changing position of an image what i mean to say is when we are previewing I want animate image from starting point some other place either 50 pixel left or right as like fly in .In fly in we have options either fly in from left,right,top,bottom and corners but i wish to animate image from particular position to some other position.Is it possible please help me.
JeanetteBrooks
Community Member
12 years ago
Naga, it sounds like what you are interested in is a motion-path animation which animates an object from one place to another on the slide. Currently, Storyline doesn't offer a motion path animation, but I encourage you to submit a feature request for that. In the meantime, check out the ideas shared in this post; perhaps that approach can come close to what you want.
AliciaPennin888
Community Member
12 years ago

Kris,

Thanks for the tip. I have an interactive Storyline e-learning course about answering common interview questions that I'm working on making a little more accessible. I have already started working on a "hidden" place that only screen readers can "see," but I had not thought about putting a button for an alternative activity.

Make it a great day!