Rise 360 Accessibility Updates

Dec 03, 2020

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
Rebecca Evens

Hi! Please could you advise me on the following? we have a number of users who rely on clip board readers and read aloud functions to navigate content. In my latest rise course I have used a carousel of images with alt text/captions, but the alt text is not read out by the read aloud function in Edge - any idea why, or how I can fix it?

Alyssa Gomez

Hi Rebecca! Thanks for your question! Do you know which screen reader was used when your users noticed this problem? These screen readers are supported for Rise 360:

Windows

NVDA (latest version)

JAWS (latest version)

Mac

VoiceOver

Mobile

VoiceOver in Apple iOS

VoiceOver in Apple iPadOS

TalkBack (latest version) for Android OS

Rebecca Evens

Hi! I have checked it in VoiceOver on my Mac, and the alt text for the images in the carousel do not work here either. It is also reading out the body text line by line rather than as a paragraph, so it stops mid sentence and resumes as if there is a full stop at the end of every line.

 

Marvie Mulder

Hi Rebecca!

I was wondering how you are navigating to the content body using Voice Over. Here's a short recording I made to demonstrate that Voice over reads all the elements it focuses on, as well as the alternative text for the image in my carousel:

https://360.articulate.com/review/content/6c818006-298f-499f-bda3-5d5c4ea0e6a5/review

In regards to MS Edge's `Read Aloud` feature, as far as I understand, it is designed to only read text out loud, so it will never announce the alternative text of the images. On the other hand, it should announce the caption that you set. It works pretty well with other image blocks, but it seems to skip the caption in an image carousel. 

That being said, all carousel interaction types, such as image carousel, process, and quote carousels, are not 100% WCAG 2.1 compliant yet. Accessibility support is not currently optimal but this will be worked on. While we are officially supporting Voice Over + Safari, JAWS + Edge/Chrome, and NVDA + Firefox, I don't see a reason why `Read Aloud` wouldn't read the caption text. Will keep this in mind as we continue optimising accessibility in our carousel interactions.

Rebecca Evens

Hi Marvie,

Thanks for the video - I was testing my course using preview rather than publishing it to review... the alt text is now read out by Voice Over, and also by the Speak Aloud function on my mac.   
It would be great if the text on the carousel could be made selectable so that it can be read by a clip board reader like Edge. Is this something that will happen quickly? Or is there a different PC compatible clip board reader we could recommend?

I didn't realise that the carousel interactions were not accessible (and I can hear on my Voice Over test that there is no audible prompt to scroll through the carousel). Do you have a handy list of supported and unsupported interactions in Rise? 

Whilst I was testing using the Speak Aloud function, I also tried it with a Storyline course. None of the text in Storyline is read aloud, unless I use Voice Over. Are there any plans to make the on screen text in Storyline accessible by a clip board reader? (we have users with issues like dyslexia who do not need a screen reader, but need the on screen text read out to them)

Marvie Mulder

Hi Rebecca,

You can also just use the course share link to quickly test the course on a screen reader or Speak aloud, vs. doing it in Preview or publishing to Review. I'm glad to hear that your alternative text are now being read. I'm afraid I couldn't give a timeframe on carousel works though. 

For interactions that are not 100% WCAG compliant, Drag & Drop interaction type, carousel types are what comes to mind, but our feature roadmap should have the list. Our VPAT should also have the information how our interactions supports the success criteria. 

For Storyline, I would recommend reaching out to our tech support so they can have a look.

cheers!

Carol Dawson

Hello! I received this comment from a JAWS tester after completing a Rise knowledge check question. "After answering a question, the response "Correct" appears on the screen. However, focus is not set to it, and if I hit the arrow down key, focus is at the bottom of the page. I have to use the arrow up key to get to the new content that appears after answering a question." There is a fair amount of content below this question that I'm not at liberty to rearrange. Can anyone help?

Tash Wagner

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!

Jeff Forrer

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.