Free 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.6 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.Before-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.13 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.Get 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.Expand 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.Elevate Your E-Learning by Prioritizing Accessibility and Usability
As an e-learning developer, you want to create content that engages learners and delivers on the learning objectives you worked hard to define. But what if that engagement and learning can't happen because of issues with accessibility or usability? In this article, you'll find out what accessibility and usability are and how you can apply the principles behind them to design courses that work better for all learners. Then, you'll get tips on reviewing and testing your courses to ensure they meet those standards. Let's get started! Understanding Accessibility Accessibility—also known as a11y—is the practice of making experiences work for everyone, regardless of their ability. In e-learning, accessible content means it's been designed for all learners to access—including those with auditory, visual, mobility, cognitive, or other disabilities. For example, using sufficient color contrast helps learners with low vision or color vision deficiency. Offering textual explanations for visual content is another common accessibility best practice. Focusing on web accessibility allows everyone to perceive, navigate, and interact with content. Guidelines—such as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)—and laws—like Section 508 (United States)—provide guidance and ensure all learners can access online materials equally. Understanding Usability Usability in e-learning measures how easy content is to use and examines how users experience it. Content should be user-friendly, intuitive, efficient, and effective. For example, if learners must complete a quiz, they should be able to test their knowledge without encountering confusing errors or getting stuck and feeling frustrated with the process. The Nielsen Norman Group is a firm focused on improving the everyday experience of using technology. They've defined five key components of usability that can also be applied when creating e-learning courses: Learnability. Accomplishing basic tasks should be easy, even the first time a learner encounters a course. Efficiency. Barriers that prevent learners from completing courses efficiently should be removed. Memorability. Learners who revisit content shouldn't have to start from scratch. Errors. Encountering errors—and recovering from them—shouldn't derail learning. Satisfaction. Engaging with the content should be enjoyable and pleasant for learners. Benefits of Combining Accessibility and Usability Accessible content enhances everyone's experience. For example, closed captions and transcripts for accessibility not only help learners who are deaf or hard of hearing. They also allow those in a loud environment where audio can't be heard or in a public space that requires silence to access content. Captions and transcripts improve understanding for foreign-language learners as well. However, ensuring that your e-learning content conforms to accessibility guidelines like captioning and transcripts doesn't mean your course automatically provides a usable learning experience for all. Conversely, while usability centers user experiences, usable content isn't necessarily accessible to people with disabilities. For example, a visually stunning course might be engaging for some learners. However, if it uses colors and other visuals alone to convey information or move the learner through, the content won't be accessible to those with low vision or color vision deficiency. To ensure truly equal access to digital content, apply accessibility and usability practices in tandem during the course development process. Testing for Accessibility and Usability The best way to find out if the content you're creating is accessible and usable is to test it. If you're new to this process, you might feel intimidated. But don't worry! We'll introduce you to some trusted accessibility testing tools and give you tips for usability testing to get you started in the next section. Accessibility Testing Accessibility testing can be done with automated tools or manually—both of which have advantages and disadvantages. For the most optimal results, combine both types of accessibility testing. Automated Testing Automated accessibility testing tools scan content for accessibility issues. They're easy to run and don't require in-depth accessibility knowledge to detect minor problems. Examples of automated accessibility testing tools include: Deque axe DevTools® WebAIM WAVE® TPGi ARC Toolkit ANDI (Accessible Name & Description Inspector) While automated accessibility testing tools boost speed and efficiency, they don't catch all accessibility issues. They also sometimes report false positives or misunderstand accessibility requirements. Additionally, your results might vary depending on the testing tool. Manual Testing Given the limitations described above, automated testing can be a practical place to start but usually won't finish the job. Manually reviewing your published course one slide at a time offers the most complete results. If that sounds overwhelming, don't panic. We've got you covered! Here's a checklist of universal design basics for text, multimedia, images, and interactivity elements in e-learning: Accessible E-Learning Checklist. Examples include: Check the accuracy of automated tests. Ensure learners can easily navigate content—such as hyperlinks, alternative text (alt text), menus, and closed captions—with a keyboard and screen reader. Make sure your course has plain and inclusive language appropriate for your audience and provides accessibility instructions wherever user input is required. While manual testing requires you to learn about accessibility requirements and standards, it's the best way to ensure everyone can access your content. Here are multiple resources to support you on your accessibility learning journey: Articulate 360 Accessibility Index of Support Articles Storyline 360: How to Design an Accessible Course Rise 360: How to Design an Accessible Course How To Test Your E-Learning Course with a Screen Reader My Course Isn’t Accessible! Now What? Usability Testing Usability testing is conducted by real people who scan content for usability problems. You can improve your usability testing and boost accessibility at the same time by including people with disabilities and those who use assistive devices and technology when you recruit and engage usability test participants. For example, organizations like Fable connect digital teams with people with disabilities to do usability testing. Wrap-Up We hope this article inspires you to provide accessible and usable e-learning experiences for all learners. What did you find most interesting? Is there anything we missed? Let's discuss! Share your thoughts in the comments below. For more help creating accessible courses, check out these helpful resources: All About Accessibility Articulate 360 Training Videos About AccessibilityWhat Should E-Learning Designers Know About Alt Text? #429
Using Alt Text in E-Learning#429: Challenge | Recap On the surface, writing alt text seems simple enough: Add text to on-screen images to verbally describe what's depicted in an image. Easy enough, right? But the more you learn about accessibility guidelines, the more you recognize potential challenges with "getting it right." For example, some terms and concepts that often confuse designers include: Functional vs. decorative images "Image of" or "Picture of" Captions vs. alt text Complex images Changing context of visuals Limited space If you're like most course designers, you're on your own accessibility journey and learning incrementally. One of the best ways to learn something is to teach it to others. This holds true whether you have years of experience or you’re just getting started. Tom calls that a 5-minute expert, and that’s what this week’s challenge is all about. Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to share an instructional example to help course designers learn more about alt text. Your example can be static or interactive. You can also consider combining this week’s challenge with an earlier challenge topic. I’ll update both recap posts with your entries this week. Here are some topics that would work for this week’s challenge: Creating Tabs Interactions in E-Learning #401: Challenge | Recap Microlearning in Rise 360 #407: Challenge | Recap Interactive Video in E-Learning #414: Challenge | Recap UsingGlossary Interactions in E-Learning #396: Challenge | Recap Interactive Audio in E-Learning #405: Challenge | Recap Using Accordion Interactions in E-Learning #403: Challenge | Recap Upcoming Webinar Want to learn more about alt text? Check out the webinar Ginger is hosting next week on how to write effective alt text for e-learning. I’ll see if I can also nudge Ginger to reference your examples and include them in her session's resources. How To Write Alt Text for E-Learning More Resources Storyline 360: Adding Alternate Text for Screen Readers Rise 360: How to Add Alternative Text to Images All About Accessibility Share Your E-Learning Work Comments: Use the comments section below to link your published example and blog post. Forums: Start a new thread and share a link to your published example. Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We'll link to your posts so your great work gets even more exposure. Social media: If you share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can follow your e-learning coolness. Last Week’s Challenge: Before you share your tips on alt text, check out the creative ways course designers use cinemagraphs and looping videos in e-learning: Cinemagraph & Looping Video ExamplesRECAP#428:Challenge|Recap New to the E-Learning Challenges? The weekly e-learning 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. Learn more about the challenges in this Q&A post and why and how to participate in this helpful article. Got an idea for a challenge? Are you interested in doing a webinar showcasing how you made one or more challenge demos? Or do you have some comments for your humble challenge host? Use this anonymous form to share your feedback:https://bit.ly/ElearningChallengeForm.10 Most Popular E-Learning Heroes Articles of 2023
As we wrap up 2023 and look ahead to all the things to come in 2024, now is the perfect time to catch up on the most popular content shared in the E-Learning Heroes Community in 2023. To save you time, we’ve rounded up the best of the best for your review. Check them out: 4 AI Basics Every E-Learning Creator Needs To Know in 2023. Get up to speed on artificial intelligence with this quick introductory article. Introducing the Articulate Beta Program. Learn about this new opportunity to share your feedback on our latest features. 4 Impactful E-Learning Trends for 2023. See how you can shape the future of learning by following these strategies in your workplace. 8 Business Use Cases for Microlearning. Discover how to leverage short-form courses for these common workplace situations (and get creating faster with customizable examples!). 4 Ways To Choose an E-Learning Color Palette. Check out these tips for curating the perfect hues for your next project. How To Write Alt Text for the 4 Most Common Types of Images in E-Learning. Explore alternative text best practices for handling the most common image types in e-learning. 6 Ways the E-Learning Heroes Community Makes Your Job Easier. Learn more about all the resources, discussions, articles, and connections this site offers to help you work faster and create more innovative projects. 4 Advantages of Microlearning. Discover the main reasons e-learning designers and learners are loving this bite-size approach to training. 3 Ways To Boost Your Articulate 360 Skills. Whether you’re a total newbie or you’ve dabbled in our apps before, these tips will help you get to the next level. 3 Things That Can Make or Break Your E-Learning Design. Craft beautiful and effective online training from the start with these helpful ideas. We hope you find these articles helpful! If we missed any other E-Learning Heroes articles you liked in 2023, comment below and let us know. Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest e-learning inspiration and insights directly in your inbox. You can also find us on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter). And if you have questions, please share them in the comments.Share Your E-Learning Accessibility Makeovers #417
Accessibility Makeovers in E-Learning #417: Challenge | Recap Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to rework a short project to make it more accessible. Bonus First,THANK YOUfor writing overviews of your AI-inspired examples last week. Those were super helpful. I included your descriptions in the recap post to help viewers better understand the tools and techniques you used. To help others understand your approach, please share some insights into your design choices. For example, what features did you use? What challenges did you encounter? 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 Share Your E-Learning Work Comments: Use the comments section below to link your published example and blog post. Forums: Start a new thread and share a link to your published example. Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We'll link to your posts so your great work gets even more exposure. Social media: If you share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can follow your e-learning coolness. Last Week’s Challenge: Before you get started on your makeovers, check out the creative ways course designers are using AI to help them build better e-learning: Using AI in E-LearningRECAP#416:Challenge|Recap New to the E-Learning Challenges? The weekly e-learning 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. Learn more about the challenges in this Q&A post and why and how to participate in this helpful article. Next Week’s Challenge & Webinar Next week's challenge #418 (May 26): Motion Graphics and Animated Intros for E-Learning. Got an idea for a challenge? Are you interested in doing a webinar showcasing how you made one or more challenge demos? Or do you have some comments for your humble challenge host? Use this anonymous form to share your feedback:https://bit.ly/ElearningChallengeForm.
