Accessibility in Rise

Hm, I keep coming back here to see if there's been any progress, as I really hoped to be able to use this. We're now approaching Q4, basic accessibility was promised in Q2... at this point, even if it does arrive I've all but lost confidence in this product. I get the impression that this is a minor project of Articulate's, and doesn't have enough developers assigned to it to keep projects on track. Unless anything significant happens by the end of this month, We'll be falling back to Appitierre's fully-compliant Evolve product, based on Adapt; it's certainly not as visually pleasing as Rise out-of-the-box, but comes with ARIA tags etc. which we'll be needing for our course units. 

Agreed, being able to add even basic additional info such as alt text for images and transcripts for video would be a step in the right direction.

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your patience on Rise accessibility support. I apologize for the delay. To be candid, we underestimated how long it would take to research, design, and develop accessibility features.

I can assure you that it IS a priority. We’ve improved accessibility for learners with screen readers by adding alternate text to images and are evaluating ARIA tag support. However, the more complex features are taking longer than we’d hoped. Here’s latest on where we’re at:

1. We’ve completed research and design for appropriate text contrast. Developers begin work on it on August 21. We’ll ship it as soon as it’s ready.
2. We’ve verified that Rise text can safely zoom to 200% without breaking the design, a key accessibility need.
3. Developers are currently working on keyboard navigation and we’ll ship it as soon as it’s ready. We’re hoping for the end of September, but that’s an estimate.
4. We’re currently working on documenting WCAG AA compliance and developing a VPAT. Stay tuned.

Please continue to provide feedback on where Rise is falling short in accessibility. That definitely helps guide our efforts.

Thanks,

Brian

Brian,

Thank you for the message.  I am hoping that you can continue to use this space to provide us with regular updates like this.  Even if things are not yet completed, it is reassuring to hear that they are in development, and at what estimated dates.

Ok I am trying to build a lesson that will be helpful to screenreaders using Rise. 

Hi Helena, 

Have you looked at adding alternate text to images? What other issues are you seeing while building these courses?

It's all good information to get into the hands of our team as they continue to work on improvements for accessibility! 

Hi Karen,

Please view my post from last week for the latest on our accessibility efforts:

https://community.articulate.com/discussions/rise/accessibility-in-rise?page=3#reply-456265

No problem! And please do share any input you may have on this topic. I'll gladly share it with our development team.

Hi Brian

RE your statement welcoming feedback to send to development team on recommendations for accessibility enhancements:

This may already be covered as part of enhancing the contrast of text, however, my recommendation is, on the Hotspot diagram lesson type, make the arrows on the pop-up boxes more emphasized.  Presently the arrows change to the accent colour on mouse over, however, the normal grey is not necessarily very evident to start.    

Whilst the arrows aren't needed for navigation, the attached example shows a situation where learners will probably need to > through the markers as in this case it makes sense to do them in order, however, the next marker is hidden behind the pop-up box.  In this case, a more evident arrow would be useful.  

https://rise.articulate.com/share/1vO6U4Oq1pxUPQfT4t1jGGPSUWmgnGDI 

Thanks Christine

Christine, I totally agree regarding the color contrast.

This is very similar to the issue with the side menu, currently none of the links are compliant.  

Brian, in technical terms, the CSS color has .25 Alpha, for those links to be accessible that would need to be boosted to .8

While we can edit the CSS, that means having to do this for every export... 

Hi Brian,

I'm glad to see that you are working on keyboard navigation.

Keyboard accessibility is a very important feature for us, for navigation and interactions. Our courses need to work well for anyone using a screen reader and depending on keyboard access, and for anyone who has difficulty using a mouse.

Thank you Karen, Christine, and John for the detailed feedback! We really appreciate it.

Brian, are you able to comment on the progress of text contrast or keyboard navigation?

Hi John,

We actually just shipped the text contrast enhancement. Now the contrast ratio used throughout Rise courses is WCAG compliant. To make the change take effect simply refresh your browser. To update a previously exported course, simply export it again. 

We’re currently working on keyboard navigation. That is an extensive effort which requires thorough testing so our ETA is less firm than usual. Our current target is to ship it next quarter. At that point I expect our first Rise VPAT and WCAG support document to be available as well.

Hope that helps!
Brian

Hi Brian (and team), thanks for enhancing the colour contrast items.  FYI - I am loving all of the new text features from both an accessibility and design view point (especially text colour, size, indent/outdent, plain text bullets, etc). 

Really appreciate all of the enhancements that have been released lately, and can only imagine all of the work that must have gone into them.  Thank you!

Regards Christine

Thanks Christine! I've passed the kudos along. Much appreciated!

Hi Brian, Great news about keyboard navigation! We are so glad to hear that it is currently in development. Will stay tuned for a release date.

Thanks for the news about text contrast enhancement, we'll check it out. So wonderful to see accessibility features come to life!

Karen

Thanks, Brian! Great progress. I can see Rise being the preferred tool around these parts once all the accessibility kinks are worked out. The ability to add closed captions for video/audio and keyboard navigation will scratch most of the remaining itches. 

Please can you give an update on these developments, thank you.

Any current accessibility status updates? Will tab order be updated and available soon?

Hello! also looking for an update here on Accessibility in Rise.