accessibility
59 TopicsAll About Accessibility
General What Is Accessible E-Learning? Accessibility for E-Learning: Webinar Series 2023 4 Reasons Accessibility Is Important in E-Learning 6 Easy Ways to Make Your E-Learning More Accessible How To Write Alt Text for the 4 Most Common Types of Images in E-Learning All About Assistive Technologies Accessible E-Learning & Screen Readers: What You Need to Know How To Test Your E-Learning Course with a Screen Reader A Checklist for QA Testing Courses with a Screen Reader 9 Basic Screen Reader Commands to Know When Testing Your E-Learning Courses 5 Formatting Tips for Creating Dyslexia-Friendly E-Learning “But It’s to Code”: Thoughts on Accessibility in E-Learning What Is 508 Compliance for E-Learning and How Can You Achieve It? Our Top Section 508 Compliance Resources for E-Learning Understanding WCAG: A Quickstart Guide for E-Learning Developers Contrast Considerations for Accessible E-Learning 5 Ways to Convince Stakeholders to Create Accessible Courses Why I’m Prioritizing E-Learning Accessibility—and You Should Too Elevate Your E-Learning by Prioritizing Accessibility and Usability Accessibility Index Storyline 360 17 Storyline 360 Features That’ll Help You Design Accessible E-Learning 4 Things To Know About Storyline 360 Courses and Screen Readers 5 Common Questions About How Storyline 360 Courses Work with Screen Readers Accessible Text Features in Storyline 360 The Storyline 360 Player Just Got More Accessible Storyline 360: Adding Alternative Text for Screen Readers Storyline 360: Importing Closed Captions for Narration and Videos Storyline 360: Creating and Editing Closed Captions With the Built-in Editor Storyline 360: Customizing the Focus Order of Slide Objects Make Your Storyline 360 Courses More Accessible with These New Features 5 Big Accessibility Enhancements We Made to Storyline 360 in 2020 Storyline 360: Our Accessibility Journey Storyline 360: How to Design an Accessible Course Storyline 3 New in Storyline 3: A More Accessible Learning Experience Storyline 3: Adding Alternative Text for Screen Readers Storyline 3: Importing Closed Captions for Narration and Videos Storyline 3: Creating and Editing Closed Captions with the Built-In Editor Storyline 3: Customizing the Focus Order of Slide Objects Rise 360 3 Insights About How Rise 360 Courses Work with Screen Readers Rise 360: Our Accessibility Journey New in Rise 360: Add Closed Captions to Videos Rise 360: How to Design an Accessible Course878Views2likes0CommentsStoryline 360: Adding Alternative Text for Screen Readers
Storyline 360 supports alternative text (alt text) for slide objects so your courses are accessible to learners with screen readers and other assistive technologies. In this user guide, you'll learn best practices for writing alt text and three ways to add alt text in Storyline 360. Best Practices for Writing Alt Text Using the Media Library Using theFocus Order Window Using the Size and Position Window Best Practices for Writing Alt Text Non-text content needs alternative text (alt text)to describe its meaning to learners using assistive technologies. Add alt text to objects that convey meaning or context to the learner.Purely decorative images and shapes can be hidden from accessibility toolsto prevent unnecessary announcements that can fatigue screen reader users. Our on-demand webinar,How to Write Alt Text for E-Learning, offers more specific strategies. The following tips for writing good alt text can help you get started: Be descriptive and specific. Clearly describe the content, function, and context of the image. You should have enough detail that someone who cannot see the image will still understand its purpose. Don’t include repeating phrases like "image of" and "graphic of.” Screen readers announce this by default. Keep it short. Aim for brief descriptions that convey the essential information. We recommend that alt text be less than 150 characters. Write clearly. Abbreviations and excessive punctuation marks may confuse screen readers, so use complete words and limit punctuation to guarantee clarity. For example, *** will be read literally as “asterisk, asterisk, asterisk.” Using the Media Library The media library makes it super easy to add alt text to all the images, characters, and videos in your project. Open the media library by going to the View tab on the Storyline ribbon and clicking Media Library. Select an image, character pose, or video in the asset grid on the left side of the window. Enter alt text in the details pane on the right. Learn moreabout managing alt text in the media library. Using theFocus Order Window The Focus Order window lets you customize the order in which slide objects are navigated with a keyboard and read by a screen reader. You can also use the Focus Order window to manage alt text for all your slide objects. Here’s how: Open the slide you want to customize in Slide View. Go to the Home tab on the Storyline ribbon and click Focus Order. When theFocus Order window opens, enter text in the Alternative Textcolumn. Click Save when you’re finished. Here are some tips for working with alt text on the Focus Order window: All objects for the slide will appear in theFocus Order window, including objects from layers and slide masters. Although slide master objects appear in the focus order window, you'll need to switch to Slide Master View (press F4) to set their alt text. Right-click each object on the slide master, click each object on the slide master and choose Accessibility. If a non-text object doesn’t have alt text, screen readers will read the name of that object as it appears in the timeline. The alt text for a text object defaults to the content within it. If you don’t want an object to be read by screen readers, select it in the list, then click the Remove button in the lower left corner of the window. (This doesn’t delete the object; it just hides it from screen readers.) If you’re using the modern player, you can add alt text to your course logo in your player settings. Learn more about using theFocus Order window. Using the Size and Position Window The Size and Position window lets you control an object’s height, width, rotation, scale, crop, and location. You can also use the Size and Position window to add alt text to the selected object. Right-click the object you want to edit, then choose Size and Position. When the Size and Position window opens, select the Accessibilitytab on the left side. Mark the box called Object is visible to accessibility tools. Enter text in the Alternativetext field. Click Close. Here are some tips for working with alt text on the Size and Position window: When writing alt text, you’ll see a dynamic character count and a tip not to exceed 150 characters. (While there isn't a character limit for alt text, it's best practice to keep it concise.) If the visibility box is checked for a non-text object without alt text, screen readers will read the name of that object as it appears in the timeline. If the visibility box is checked for a text object, screen readers will read the content within that text object. If you’d prefer to hide the selected object from screen readers altogether, uncheck the visibility box. If you’re using the modern player, you can add alt text to your course logo in yourplayer settings. Learn more about using the Size and Position window.729Views0likes0CommentsFree Webinar: How Articulate Uses a Prioritization Framework to Drive Accessibility Maturity
Accessibility is a journey, not a destination. Join us on September 26 from 2-3 p.m. ET for a conversation with Simon Taghioff, Senior Product Manager, Leslie McKerchie, Accessibility Program Manager, and Robert Pearce, Senior Software Engineer II, in a free webinar hosted by Deque: “How Articulate Uses a Prioritization Framework to Drive Accessibility Maturity.” Join us for a discussion on the Accessibility Maturity Model and how Articulate is using ours to operationalize accessibility across our organization. In this panel discussion, we’ll explore lessons learned from putting our maturity model into practice, including: The five levels of maturity Creating a prioritization framework Applying the framework in practice Measuring the impact on accessibility maturity Register for free now.339Views0likes1Comment6 Best Practices for Designing Accessible E-Learning
If you’re struggling with creating e-learning that meets the highest standards of accessibility, we’ve got the e-book for you. In this free guide, we’ll walk you through the many choices you’ll need to make to design courses that meet popular accessibility standards, such as Section 508 and WCAG. You’ll learn: What accessibility means in the e-learning setting How to make sure your course can be navigated with keyboards What needs to be included in your alt text How to order images and text on screen for clarity The best way to create highly-usable course navigation What to consider when you’re including audio and video in your course Great ways to make sure your screencasts are totally accessible And you’ll get a handy list of do’s and don’ts you can can refer to any time.1KViews2likes0CommentsBefore-After: Accessibility Makeovers in E-Learning #466
E-Learning Accessibility Makeovers#466: Challenge | Recap Pop quiz: What do you think is the most asked question by course designers in our weekly trainings? Okay, other than "Is this session being recorded?" If you guessed anything aboutaccessibility, you're correct. Anytime we show a feature, demo, or example, one of the first questions is usually about how it meets accessibility guidelines. Ideally, accessibility should be considered right from the start of the course design process. However, many courses, examples, and demos were initially built with more focus on design and interaction than accessibility. That's okay because you can always return and ensure those older projects meet accessibility guidelines. And that's what this week's challenge is all about. 🏆 Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to share a before-after example that reworks a short project to make it more accessible. If you’re just getting started with accessibility, start with something simple like making text accessible with alt text or ensuring a color contrast ratio of 4.5:1. You can work on a single slide or multiple slides. If you don't have your own projects, you can use slides from the Content Library or our downloads hub. The goal is to practice making courses more accessible. Inspiration Check out last year's accessibility makeover challenge for examples: Accessibility Makeovers#417:Challenge|Recap 🧰 Resources Looking for more information on designing accessible e-learning? The following resources are chock full of practical tips for getting started with the accessible features in Storyline 360 and Rise 360. Webinars What is Accessible E-Learning? 5 Things You Need to Know About Accessibility How to Create Accessible Courses with Articulate 360 Articles For even more on accessibility in e-learning, you can find all our best content in this series: All About Accessibility User Guides Articulate 360 FAQs: Accessibility How to Test Storyline 360 Content with a Screenreader Storyline 360: How to Design an Accessible Course 🙌 Last Week’s Challenge: Before you get started on your accessibility makeovers, check out the creative ways your fellow course designers reworked classroom activities for e-learning: Converting Classroom Activities to E-Learning#465:Challenge|Recap 👋 New to the E-Learning Challenges? Theweekly e-learning challengesare ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of theprevious challengesanytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. Learn more about the challenges in thisQ&A postand why and how to participate in thishelpful article. 📆 Upcoming Challenges Challenge #467(06.28): Using 360° images. Seechallenge #337for examples. Challenge #468(07.05): Drag-and-drop interactions. This will be a general drag-drop challenge, so you can share anything you like.240Views0likes51Comments13 Examples of Accessibility Makeovers in E-Learning #466
E-Learning Accessibility Makeovers RECAP #466: Challenge | Recap This week’s challenge asked course designers to show how they update e-learning projects to meet accessibility guidelines. Jonathan Hill Example | Jonathan Hill | Website | @DevByPowerPoint Jodi M. Sansone Example | Download | Jodi M. Sansone | Website | @jodimsansone Thierry EMMANUEL Example | Thierry EMMANUEL | Website Jesse Wu Example | Jesse Wu | Website Samuel Apata Example | Samuel Apata | Website | @afrostem Jared Speight Example | Jared Speight Jayashree Ravi Example | Jayashree Ravi | LinkedIn Angela Thomas Example | Angela Thomas Ron Katz Examples: Before and After | Ron Katz | Website Ashi (Neha) Tandon Examples: Before and After | Ashi (Neha) Tandon | Website | @ashi_tandon Chloe Okura Examples: Before and After | Chloe Okura | LinkedIn Kate Golomshtok Examples: Before and After | Kate Golomshtok | Website Ange CM Example | Ange CM New to the E-Learning Challenges? The weekly challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I'll update the recap posts to include your demos. If you have a blog, please write about your challenge example. I'll add links to your blog post so your examples get even more exposure. And for those who share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, please include #ELHChallenge so your network (and Articulate!) can track your e-learning coolness. Share Your Accessibility Makeover E-Learning Examples! The 2024 accessibility makeover challenge is still open! If you have one or more ideas you'd like to share, please jump over to the original challenge and post your links in the comments section. I'll update this recap page to include your examples.146Views0likes0CommentsGet More Insight Into How Articulate 360 Apps Meet Accessibility Standards
When you want to ensure your e-learning works well for every learner, accessibility standards give you benchmarks to aim for. That said, it’s not always easy to know how these general guidelines map to actual app features and settings. That’s where the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) comes in. Companies use this document to share how their apps meet specific accessibility standards. And the practical insights in VPATs can help you explore the capabilities of the apps you use now and those you’re considering using in the future. VPATs have been available for Storyline 360, Rise 360, and Reach 360 for some time. Our recent updates, though, have made these documents even more useful for you! Here’s a peek at what’s new: EU guidelines: We originally developed our VPATs with US accessibility standards in mind. But to meet the needs of more customers outside the US, we’ve expanded these reports so they also align with EN 301 549 guidelines—the European standard for digital accessibility. WCAG AAA criteria: This is the highest level of accessibility conformance in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). In a previous update, we added the AAA criteria to the Storyline 360 VPAT. And we’re now delighted to include this information in the Rise 360 and Reach 360 VPATs too. WCAG 2.2 criteria: A recent update to the WCAG standards added exciting new success criteria. As a result, we've updated our Rise 360, Storyline 360, and Reach 360 VPATs with this information as well. That way, it's easier for you to understand how to use our apps to address these accessibility expanded recommendations. VPAT accessibility: We’ve also enhanced the accessibility of the VPATs themselves by shifting to more readable font sizes and colors. Whether you’re aiming to meet US or EU accessibility guidelines or are just looking for more insights into how our apps can help you craft truly accessible e-learning, these updates have a wealth of information to offer. Want to create accessible e-learning but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial. And subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest product updates, e-learning examples, and expert advice sent directly to your inbox. If you have questions, please share them in the comments.44Views0likes2CommentsExpand Your Possibilities With These New Articulate 360 Features
Articulate 360 is constantly evolving to better meet your needs. Our latest collection of features is full of exciting new ways for you to design, develop, and share your e-learning courses. From new resources to enhance the learning experiences you build, expanded options for distributing courses, and one of our most requested enhancements to Storyline 360, there’s so much that can make your work easier and more effective! Check out this video for some of the highlights. And keep reading to dig in to the details. Create exciting and engaging e-learning 64-bit Storyline If you create large, media-rich courses, you’ll experience a noticeably speedier authoring experience with this release. The new 64-bit Storyline 360 takes full advantage of the power of modern computers, giving you increased stability and faster performance—even with your most complex projects. Learn more about this highly requested feature here: Storyline 360: 64-bit App. Improved Text-to-Speech Voice Quality The more natural text-to-speech voices sound, the less likely they are to distract from your course content. That’s why we’ve upgraded many of the voices included in Storyline 360 using new neural voice technology. They sound better than ever, and they’re still incredibly easy to use! Check out this link for the current list of neural voices in Storyline 360. Background Audio Triggers Building on the Storyline 360 background audio feature from earlier this year, this update gives you even more options for controlling the experience. With it, you can use triggers to play, pause, or stop the playlist on each slide. So you and your learners have more ways to customize course audio. Find out more here. Trans-inclusivity Microlearning Need to get much-needed training out fast, but don’t have the time research, write, and build it yourself? Our library of Rise 360 real content templates has you covered! Our latest addition—4 Ways To Build a Trans-inclusive Workplace—helps define key terms and gives learners concrete steps they can take to make their organization more inclusive. We’ve taken care of the hard work of researching and building the experience. You can either launch it to your learners exactly as written or tweak it to fit your company’s needs. It’s your call! New Illustrated Characters Finding just the right character can help your courses connect with learners and make scenarios ring true. That’s why we’re excited to add three new illustrated characters wearing casual outfits to Content Library 360: Shanae, Wren, and Don. Template Accessibility Updates We’re always looking for ways to make it easier to build accessible e-learning—and this latest update is a real timesaver! We’ve reworked many of our Storyline 360 and Rise 360 templates so they’re even more accessible right out of the box. The former now has updates to the focus order and video controls. And the most popular templates for the latter feature the removal of italicized content, as well as broader improvements to their content and design. With the templates taking on more work for you, it’s faster than ever to create courses that all learners can access. Collaborate with team members and stakeholders Share Link Permissions Want more control over who can and can’t see an item in Review 360? You’ll love this new feature. With it, you’ll be able to make a Review 360 item invitation-only—so it’s only visible to the specific reviewers you’ve chosen. Distribute courses to all your learners Custom Certificates From branding your course completion certificates to including important accreditation requirements on them, this feature is here to help. With our simple certificate editor, you can include company information like logos and learner performance details like course duration, quiz scores, and more. Plus, you can save time by creating a library of certificate templates to use in any course in Reach 360. SSO for Learners Make taking training in Reach 360 even simpler with Single Sign-On (SSO). Since this method allows people to securely access multiple applications with just one set of log-in credentials, your learners don’t have to remember yet another password to check out all the training you share with them in Reach 360. Learn more about how to use this feature to manage groups and users here. Microsoft Teams Integration - COMING SOON Weave training into the flow of work with this upcoming Reach 360 integration. With it, learners can get due date and enrollment notifications and also see previews of training right in Microsoft Teams. And by including that information in a tool they already use for work all the time, you’ll make it easier for them to stay on top of training deadlines and explore what courses you’re offering. Reporter Role Want to streamline reporting for different groups in Reach 360? Try assigning users to the new reporting role. With this feature, you can grant someone access to the analytics from just one or more specific groups, so they don’t have to wade through the training data for all your learners to get access to the targeted information they’re looking for. Wrap-Up If you want to get your hands on everything these new features have to offer, you’ll be glad to know most of them are available right now! Just log in to your account, make sure you’re running the latest version of Storyline 360, and you’ll be all set. And keep an eye out for the features labeled “coming soon”; they’ll be available to you in no time at all. But not to worry if you don’t currently have an Articulate 360 subscription. Just start a 30-day free trial to try out all these helpful features and more. And you can also subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest product updates, e-learning examples, and expert advice sent directly to your inbox. If you have questions, please share them in the comments.48Views0likes39Comments