How To Make Your Courses Accessible Compliant For Everyone

Audio Transcription

Hello and welcome back to the fifth section of Articulate Storyline training series.

In the previous session, we have seen how to use grids and guides. In this video we will see, how to make the courses accessible compliant for the learners with visual disability. The learners with visual disability cannot use mouse to operate the courses. They need to rely on the keyboard to navigate the course.

The Tab key is used to shift the focus from one object to another in the order specified in the course. When an object gets the focus, the screen reader narrate the content of that object.

In an eLearning course, we need to define the Tab order for each object on the screen to make the course accessible compliant. Storyline simplifies this process for us with its built-in tab ordering functionality. So let’s see how to optimize a course for screen readers using the tab order option in Storyline.

• To access the tab order option, go to the home tab and click this tab-order option.
• This will open the Tab order window which shows all the objects placed on the current slide. It will also show the objects present in the master slide.
• We can add alternative text to these objects from this window.
• Alternative text doesn’t appear on the screen but it will be narrated by the screen readers.

For instance, let’s say we have an image on the slide. Since the learner is visually disable, we need to add alternative text describing the image so that learn can visualize it.

On this screen, we have a picture of Obama – President of United States. We can add an alternative text for this image saying, “Photograph of Obama, President of United States”.

• Here we can change the tab order using these arrows at the bottom right corner. Alternatively we can use the default tab-order by selecting this option.
• Although the objects from the master slide are visible here, we cannot add alternative text from here. We must go to master slide in-order to add alternative text for these objects.
• There can be objects on the slide which are merely cosmetic and doesn’t convey any meaning. Like these lines here. They can be removed from the tab-order by clicking on this trash can icon. This will only remove them from the tab order list but not from the slide. Once deleted, you can again add them back using this drop down.
• And finally, if we need to reset to original order then click this button.
• Once done, click Save to confirm the changes.

We can also add alternative text to individual objects from the Size and Position window. To do so, select an object and then click this down arrow in the Home tab. Alternatively, use the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl + Shift + Enter.

Here you will see the “Accessibility” tab for the selected object. Under this tab, disable this option if you want screen readers to ignore this object.

Next, in this box add the alternative text for the selected object.

In this way we can make our e-learning courses accessible compliant and optimize them for the learners using screen readers.

Hope you have enjoyed this lecture.

In the next video, we will learn how to add and edit media files like audio and video.