Useful Tools and Resources
Hi everyone, I'd like to share some accessibility (a11y) resources. I hope these will be helpful in making your content more inclusive and accessible to everyone. Whether you're new to accessibility or looking to deepen your understanding, these resources provide valuable insights, and best practices to ensure your work is accessible to all users, regardless of their abilities. Thanks. Understood: Understood is the leading nonprofit empowering the 70 million people with learning and thinking differences in the United States. https://www.understood.org/ Funkify: A disability simulator that helps you experience the web and interfaces through the eyes of extreme users. https://www.funkify.org/ Accessible Numbers: Presenting numbers and data clearly. https://accessiblenumbers.com/ Neurodiversity Design System: A set of standards and principles that combine neurodiversity and UX design for Learning Management Systems. https://neurodiversity.design/ WhoCanUse: A tool that brings attention and understanding to how colour contrast can affect people with different visual impairments. https://www.whocanuse.com/ Viz Palette: Colors in action. https://projects.susielu.com/viz-paletteNew Matching lay-out
Last week we received the updated lay-out of the matching knowledge check. The moment I discovered it was a bit unlucky (during a presentation, got me a bit confused) but today I had some time to look into it. The changelog as following on the articulate website: Enhanced: Matching knowledge check blocks have been upgraded with intuitive navigation, full keyboard support, and comprehensive screen reader integration. Now, I think it's great that Articulate is improving it's software's accessibility, however, I don't see anything intuitive about the new design. A lot of new things have been added which for me only make the assignment more confusing. On the left side the hamburger icon and number suggest some sort of clickability, which is not there. The drop downs on the right give the assignment a new layer of intractability which only wouldn't want for the student. Overall the lay-out is a lot less clean and drains focus away from the content towards the design. Maybe a simple solution would be to add a slider which let's us choose between this lay-out and the previous one (or this one without the rings and bells). That's just my opinion, I was wondering what other think of the new lay-out!Creating alt text for complex images easier
Hey folks, I'm really glad to see this new accessibility Group on E-Learning heroes. Right now in my own line of work, I'm pushing for really accessible courses and it's quite crazy how trainers are missing fundamental things such as alternative text on images. Which I would end up having to do to ensure a project gets done in time. Anyway, I made a video tutorial very recently on how you can speed up creating alternative text for graphics using Microsoft Copilot. It can also be done with other tools such as ChatGPT. I hope it helps and more importantly, gets more people to make sure that all their graphics have alternative descriptions. Enhancing Accessibility in Instructional Design with Microsoft CopilotIntroduction
Welcome to our Accessibility Group! We're excited to have you join this collaborative space, where you can find inspiration and connect with like-minded individuals. We're all human and learning on this accessibility journey. Use this group to ask questions, share ideas, support each other, and learn about the latest guidelines and laws. Together, we'll grow in accessibility maturity and create a supportive community through this safe and inclusive space.Rise: Matching Knowledge Check Block update from Jan 7, 2025
This is regarding the update now including numbered dropdowns to match the answers. My team often uses them for process steps so the duplication of numbers is not a good experience. We have existing content that will now lose the old aesthetic if we make any updates and republish. Please tell me there are plans to offer turning off the numbered feature. At a minimum, we should be able to choose if it's numeric or alpha, but the fields are locked.Translation / localization
Hi, We currently have our course in English only, but more and more we get requests to translate the content. The content is mostly text and speech (generated with the text to speech feature). I know about the feature on how to export, translate and import again, but now with AI and LLM and translation tools like DeepL is there a smarter and easier way to do it than duplicating slides and courses in different languages? Anyone with ideas, experience or suggestions? I am happy to hear what you think.Dark mode for Storyline 360
Hi there Just wondering if there is a way now (or will be...) in SL360 settings to have the build tool adjustable to a dark grey background and tool bars like in the MS Office suite and Adobe CC programs. I jump from those with a nice dark grey to Storyline 360 and it's bright white window is a bit of a jolt on the eyes... Cheers SimonLooking for examples of alt text for math equations
Hi everyone, the Storyline team is currently exploring ways to support math equations and we've heard from several customers that accessibility, specifically screen reader support, is very important. But we would like to hear from more users to make sure we deliver something that's actually usable and valuable to you. If you use equations, could you share how you approach alt text for accessibility? Do you use short descriptions, long descriptions, or both? We'd also love to see examples of how you describe specific equations to better understand your process and needs. Your feedback will help shape this feature! Annie Kim Product Manager, StorylineRise 360 Theme update
With accessibility being critical could there be some future enhancements for changing theme colors for fonts and buttons? We have brand color requirements and there are too many limitations for setting theme colors for fonts and buttons. This would be a huge help to ensure course designers are meeting accessibility requirements. It would be an amazing upgrade if users had options to edit buttons and title fonts that don't carry through and change the entire course.
