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-paletteCreating 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.Group Guidelines
Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with our community guidelines. These guidelines ensure that we maintain a friendly and welcoming space, which allows a positive experience for everyone. Key points include: Be Respectful: Treat all members with kindness and respect. Stay On Topic: Keep discussions relevant to accessibility. Be Helpful: When providing feedback, be constructive and helpful. No Spam: Avoid posting spam or self-promotion. If you encounter any technical issues, please post them in theDiscuss Forum. Thank you for being a part of our community. Let’s work together to create a supportive and engaging environment for all.Accessibility: Frameworks, Prioritization, and Maturity
How Articulate uses a prioritization framework to drive accessibility maturity Thanks to everyone who joined us for this webinar with Deque. We had a great time, a great turnout, and some great questions. I wanted to share some resources with you: Webinar recording: How Articulate uses a prioritization framework to drive accessibility maturity Presentation slides Webinar takeaway - Accessibility Maturity: A Guide to Getting Started with Your Organizational Model In addition, I'm evaluating all the questions that came in, and I'll select the ones related to this topic that we did not discuss during the live Q&A. Let's continue the conversation right here in the comments! Original Post: Join Articulate for this free webinar with Deque on September 26, 2024. How Articulate Uses a Prioritization Framework to Drive Accessibility Maturity I'd love to hear about the processes your organization is using for accessibility maturity.Articulate User Conference at DevLearn 2024
Two of our E-Learning Heroes Events are quickly approaching! Articulate User Conference at DevLearn 2024 DevLearn 2024 There are a few accessibility sessions during the Articulate User Conference, and they are perfectly timed to fill your day if that's your preference Tuesday, November 5, 2024 (the event is in Las Vegas - all times are PST) Accessibility Insights: How an Injury Transformed My E-Learning Design Approach 9:30 AM with JodiSansone The Art of Access: Designing Accessible Courses in Rise 360 10:45 AM with TaniaFlagg and ChristinaMay Mastering Focus Order: The Key to Truly Accessible E-Learning in Storyline 360 1:00 PM with JoeWaddington1 Accessibility & Usability: Intent vs. Impact 2:15 PM with LeslieMcKerchie If you're attending the DevLearn Expo, visit me in the Articulate Experience Room! Will I see you there? Let me know in the comments.Accessibility Best Practices in eLearning
There are many ways that you can create an accessible eLearning course. Feel free to share any resources or knowledge that you have! I'll go first: Here are some resources from that describe what you can do to make sure that your content is accessible by people from all walks of life: All About Accessibility | Articulate - Community A Quick Reference Guide On eLearning Accessibility Standards (elearningindustry.com) eLearning Accessibility: Best Practices, Tips, And Tricks - eLearning IndustryRecent Accessibility Upgrades in Storyline
Happy release day, everyone! Storyline update 94 includes the following accessibility improvements for a better experience: Fixed: Keyboard navigation worked inconsistently when interacting with 360° images. Fixed: Screen readers didn't always announce layer content. Click the Update button for your Storyline app to check out all the latest goodness.In Case You Missed It: Accessibility Updates Since July
Since our accessibility group launched in August, it has grown to 342 members! To keep you informed, we’re taking it back to July as a starting point for our updates. Since then, we’ve released important product updates, shared upcoming features, and published new and updated articles. We’ll keep sharing these “In Case You Missed It” posts as more improvements roll out. Stay tuned for more updates! Where are accessibility updates posted normally? Our version history pages—Rise 360 Version History, Storyline 360 Version History, and Reach 360 Version History—showcase all product updates. Our accessibility journey articles—Rise 360: Our Accessibility Journey and Storyline 360: Our Accessibility Journey—contain accessibility-specific updates. What features are underway, and where can I find them? You can see what our team is working on in the Articulate 360 Feature Roadmap. Current accessibility items on our feature roadmap include: Rise Accessible Drag-and-Drop Questions Storyline Accessibility Checker Storyline Math Equations What about accessibility updates in articles and documentation? We refreshed a few Rise and Storyline articles to include new accessibility sections: Rise 360: How to Use Scenario Blocks Rise 360: Using Heading Levels Storyline 360: How to Design an Accessible Course Storyline 360: Adding Pictures Storyline 360: Adding Audio Storyline 360: Adding Videos Storyline 360: Adding Content Library 360 Icons Storyline 360: Adding Tables We launched a new resource center that includes accessibility: The Importance of Accessibility in E-Learning Accessible E‑Learning Checklist What We Learned at axe-con 2024 What is WCAG? A Quick Guide to Web Accessibility Conformance We shared articles related to activities in our community as well as product updates: How Articulate Uses a Prioritization Framework to Drive Accessibility Maturity Check out this post for all the resources: Accessibility: Frameworks, Prioritization, and Maturity Announcing Our All-New Accessibility Group Oodles of Features to Improve Design Flexibility, Accessibility, and Course Distribution Breaking Language Barriers: How the Reach 360 Learner Interface Now Supports Multiple Languages That’s a lot. Could you summarize the most important product updates? Sure! Let’s break it down by product. Rise New: Immerse all learners in customizable interactive experiences with accessible scenario blocks that offer alternative text, screen reader support, and a visible focus indicator. New: Improve screen-reader navigation and readability for all learners with adjustable heading levels. New: Select the source course language when exporting your training for translation. Enhanced: Select the text of a hyperlink to apply formatting, including changing the color of the text. Storyline Enhanced: Enhance table accessibility with built-in screen reader support. Enhanced: When writing alt text in Storyline 360, you’ll now see a dynamic character count and a tip not to exceed 150 characters. Enhanced: We added a new Czech neural voice, Jitka, and a new German (Swiss) neural voice, Sabrina, for text-to-speech conversion. Reach 360 New: Make Reach 360 more inclusive by letting learners choose English, Spanish, French, or German as their preferred interface language, with more options coming soon.Storyline custom focus control
There have many been times, when using Storyline to develop content, it has not been possible to get the kind of screen reader focus control that I have needed. Using layers for this can only get you so far. I developed a JavaScript function that allows you to send the screen reader focus to the text field that you want, via any trigger. Adding the following JavaScript to your projects Slide Master will make it available throughout your module: // Check if function has been defined already if (typeof window.setFocus === "undefined") { // Get reference to the Storyline Player var $player = GetPlayer(); // Set the amount of time to delay before attempting to send focus to the target element (milliseconds) 1000 = 1 second. var $interval = 100; // window.setFocus = function ($target) { // Get the target element, based on the passed argument var $target = document.querySelector('[data-acc-text^="' + $target + '"]'); var $id = "acc-" + $target.dataset.modelId $target = document.getElementById($id); // Send focus to target, after defined $interval setTimeout(function () { $target.focus(); }, $interval); } } Once the function is defined in your Slide Master, you can then call the function on the page using a JavaScript function, which can be triggered by any Storyline trigger such as timeline start, timeline end, button click etc. window.setFocus("Customer in the queue"); The argument, which is passed in the "" quotes, is the text contents of the text field you are targeting. You do not have to include all the text, just enough to ensure it is unique. For example, if you have two text fields: "Customer in the queue talking on their phone." "Customer in the shop staring into space." Passing the words "Customer in the" would not be specific enough, as there would be two text fields found. However, passing "Customer in the queue" would send the focus to the text field that contains the text "Customer in the queue talking on their phone."
