Learn. Show. Repeat.

Tag: accessibility

  • The Essential Role of Alternative Text

    Alternative (alt) text provides a textual alternative to non-text content, such as photographs, logos and other images. Missing alt text on webpages was the second biggest WCAG failure from the WebAIM Million.

    Alt text serves several functions:

    • People who use a screen reader will hear the alt text in place of the image.
    • If an image fails to load or the user has blocked images, the browser will present the alternative text visually in place of the image.
    • Alt text helps search engines understand the content of images, contributing to better indexing and potentially improving search rankings.

    Alt text tips

    • Be descriptive and concise: Clearly describe the content and function of the image in a concise manner (2 or 3 sentences). Aim for a balance between being descriptive enough to convey the image’s purpose and concise enough to avoid unnecessary detail.
    • Context matters: The alt text should reflect the image’s role in the content. For example, if an image is used to complement a piece of text, the alt text should enhance the understanding of that text.
    • Avoid redundancies: Do not start alt text with phrases like “image of” or “picture of” since screen readers already announce it as an image. Jump straight into the description.
    • Include relevant information: Focus on the important aspects of the image. If the image contains text, include that text in the alt description if it’s essential for understanding.
    • Be mindful of function: If the image is a link, button, or serves a specific function, ensure the alt text describes the function rather than just the visual appearance. For example, “Search button” is more useful than “magnifying glass icon.”
    • Decorative images: For purely decorative images that do not add meaningful content, use an empty alt attribute (alt=””). This allows screen readers to skip over these images.
    • Avoid overloading with keywords: While it might be tempting to stuff alt text with keywords for SEO purposes, this can make the text less useful for users.
    • Test with screen readers: Whenever possible, test your alt text with screen readers to ensure it provides the intended information and enhances the user experience.

    This Alternative Text article from WebAIM, gives a good overview of alt text along with several best practice examples.

    Also, the Accessibility Checker Rules in Microsoft products (Word, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, and PowerPoint) identifies missing alt text as an ‘Error” meaning that it makes the document difficult or impossible to read and understand for people with disabilities.

    Data visualisations

    What about charts?

    When writing alt text for charts, it’s important to convey the key information and insights that the chart is meant to communicate.

    In this article, Writing Alt Text for Data Visualizations, Amy Cesal shares a simple formula (and examples) for writing alt text for data visualisations:

    Alt text = chart type of type of data where reason for including the chart.

    Adding alternative text to images helps to make digital content more inclusive. By thoughtfully crafting descriptions, we ensure that everyone can access and understand visual elements.

  • Keyboard accessibility

    Keyboard accessibility is crucial in ensuring that digital content and interfaces are usable by everyone, including individuals with disabilities. We must ensure that all content can be accessed with the keyboard alone.

    People who benefit from keyboard accessibility include:

    • those who use a screen reader
    • those with limited hand dexterity or strength
    • those with a hand or arm injury

    Additionally, keyboard accessibility can benefit users without disabilities who prefer using the keyboard for faster navigation or those who need to operate devices in environments where using a mouse is impractical.

    General navigation using the keyboard

    Tab to move to the next link, form element or button.
    Shift +Tab to move to the previous link, form element, or button.
    Enter or Space bar to activate the current link or button.
    Arrow keys to navigate within components like dropdown menus or tab lists.

    Visible focus indicator

    A focus indicator is a visual cue that helps users understand which element on a webpage or application is currently selected or “in focus.” When using the keyboard, the focus indicator should clearly highlight the active element (button, link, form field).

    Potential problems

    There are many ways that a webpage can introduce difficulties for users who rely on a keyboard for navigation. This Keyboard Accessibility article from WebAIM, outlines a few of the most common issues and how to test using the keyboard.

  • Looking Back at 2016

    tools for building

    Another year is almost over and it’s time to look back on the year that was. At the beginning of 2016 I chose a word for the year which was ‘Build’. Specifically, my aim was to build my skills in some different areas which I’ve listed here as well as some reflections on what I did and didn’t quite do:

    Coding

    I stared an online HTML 5 coding course via Code Academy which I began in earnest. There we small lesson that started with some simple programming and gradually built from there. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep up with it and it fell by the wayside but it’s still on my list of this to learn about for next year.

    Webinar Delivery

    My role at work changed and as a result I didn’t deliver as many webinars as I thought but before this happened I bought a copy of Donald Taylor’s ‘Webinar Master’ eBook. It’s got lots of practical tips and advice from someone who has delivered many webinars himself. It’ll be my go to resource when I start presenting more webinars.

    Screencasting

    Earlier this year, David Anderson ran a few screencasting challenges via E-Learning Heroes and the timing was just perfect as it gave me a chance to build some skills in this area. I wrote some initial reflections in a post Learning About Screencasting. I’ve also found that a good way to build skills in screencasting is to watch others do it and make notes – what works well, things to avoid etc.

    Since the challenges ended I’ve continued to record screencasts on using Storyline and I also discovered that if you have a Google account, you also have a YouTube channel which is where I upload all my recordings. You can take a look at what I’ve created at my YouTube Channel. I plan to record more next year but include other topic areas such as learning theory and design tips.

    Learning Theory

    This will continue to be an area to explore for me and I came across a presentation by Donald Clark called ‘2,500 Years of Learning Theory’ which has given me some avenues to pursue.

    Curation

    I keep seeing curation being mentioned as an L&D skill but at the time of writing this not being able to find many examples of curated content. I started to think about curation in this post: Getting Started with Content Curation.

    In a follow-up post Continuing with Content Curation I curated some posts on content curation.

    I’ve also curated some content via topic area in this case accessibility in eLearning for Everyone.

    I have been experimenting with some curation apps – Anders Pink, Pocket and Flipboard – they’re ok but I find that they filter the content they show so will keep playing with them because maybe I’m not using them properly?

    Build Connections

    This is something that I always want to do and while the number of my connections has grown I’d like to deepen those relationships by more face-to-face meet ups. I didn’t do much of this in 2016.

    Fitness

    My goal was to complete the City2Surf run in Sydney and while I didn’t train as hard as I should have I still completed the 14km run!

     

    So a mixed bag in terms of building in all areas but I’m happy with the progress I’ve made and having a focus does help. I already have a word in mind for next year.

    This year, I didn’t complete as many ELH challenges as I wanted to focus on other areas but here’s a couple of posts about ones that I did participate in:

    4 Ideas for Combining Text and Images in eLearning

    Sliding Along with the Force

    Looking Closer at Images

    How I created a custom Quiz style Interaction (not a challenge but Storyline related)

    I also started the year with a post called Happy Same Year!? and I wonder if much has really changed at all in the world of L&D…

    Thanks to everyone who has read or commented or liked or shared something from this site, I really appreciate it and I hope it was helpful. I’d like to wish you all the best for the festive season and I’ll catch you in 2017 🙂

  • eLearning for Everyone

    The guiding principles around accessible eLearning come from what’s known as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or WCAG (in the US the guidelines for accessibility are known as Section 508). Following these guidelines will make our content accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities but they’ll also often make our content more usable to everyone in general which is really what we need to be thinking about.

    As I travel around the country delivering Storyline 2 training, I usually ask whether people are factoring in accessibility in their eLearning module design. From the responses I get, those working in the corporate environment either don’t know much about accessibility or aren’t required to do anything about it and for those working in government it’s something they need to include as part of the design.

    WCAG 2.0 is a stable, referenceable technical standard comprising of 4 principles and to comply with WCAG, anyone producing online content must ensure that it is:

    Principle 1: Perceivable – This means that users must be able to perceive the information being presented – it can’t be invisible to all of their senses.

    Principle 2: Operable – This means that users must be able to operate the interface (the interface cannot require interaction that a user cannot perform).

    Principle 3: Understandable – This means that users must be able to understand the information as well as the operation of the user interface (the content or operation cannot be beyond their understanding).

    Principle 4: Robust – Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.

    To help remember these principles, think POUR.

    There’s also 12 guidelines that are organised under these principles and for each guideline, there are testable success criteria, which are at three levels: A (the minimum), AA (more enhanced), and AAA (advanced compliance). The guidelines and success criteria lay the foundation necessary for anyone to access and use Web content. They’ll help you to ensure that everyone can access your learning experience.

    There’s two factors that contribute to creating accessible eLearning. The first is the authoring tool itself and generally can do things like:

    • Allowing content to be navigated by using the keyboard
    • Allowing us to put alternative text on our images
    • Allowing for the screen objects to be read by a screen reader

     

    But in addition to that, and more importantly, our design decisions impact heavily on the level of accessibility (and therefore useability) of the module, for example:

    • The types interactions we include
    • Colour combinations we use
    • Fonts/typefaces we use
    • What we use for alternative text
    • The language we use and the way we write
    • The layout of our screens

    After all, authoring tools don’t build eLearning by themselves they require human input and design. So many of our decisions can impact on accessibility for our users.

    Accessibility is a big area and there’s lots to learn and I’ve certainly learnt a lot about it over the past 18 months. Here’s some resources that contain practical advice on incorporating accessibility into eLearning design (click on a title to view):

    Quick reference guide: How to Meet WCAG 2.0

    A guide showing all of the principles and guidelines and what you need to do to meet them.

    It’s Not Just About Compliance: Accessibility in eLearning by Jane Bozarth

    In this post from Learning Solutions Magazine, Jane points out that accessibility goes beyond those with disabilities.

    6 Best Practices for Designing Accessible eLearning (ebook)

    This ebook comes from Articulates E-Learning Heroes Community and provides some practical steps you can incorporate into your eLearning design.

    Do’s and Don’ts on Designing for Accessibility by Karwai Pun

    This post contains 6 posters developed by Karwai showing the dos and don’ts of designing for users with accessibility needs including autism, blindness, low vision, deaf or hard of hearing, mobility and dyslexia.

    Making eLearning Accessible for Everyone (video – 31mins)

    This was a presentation I gave at LearnX where I spoke about accessibility and some things you can do in Storyline 2.

     

    An organisation called WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind) has lots of useful articles and tools to help create accessible eLearning:

    Fonts

    Colour Contrast Checker

    Alternative text

    If you have any more useful resources or tips on creating accessible eLearning, please share them in the comments below.

    Crowd of people

    Image source: Shutterstock