Guide to Creating Accessible Courses

*IMPORTANT*: This is only a guide that can help make your course more accessible. To ensure that your course conforms to accessibility standards, you must consult with an accessibility expert.

This guide will help ensure that the courses generated from Dialogue Design are web accessible. Specific tips are included for each type of content supported by Dialogue Design.

Use the Check Accessibility feature in Dialogue Design to check for possible accessibility shortfalls. For more information, see the Session Properties Dialog Box and Accessibility Review. Note that this is a very basic test for the use of web accessibility features and does not in itself guarantee the accessibility of the course. For more information see http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/standards.htm.

• Section 508: Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, is a US law requiring electronic technology used by the government to be accessible to users with visual, auditory, motor and other disabilities. Specific requirements are maintained by the Access Board in the Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards (36 CFR Part 1194).
• Screen reader: A screen reader is a software program that uses a synthetic voice to read a computer screen out loud. Computer users who are visually impaired or blind often use screen readers to navigate the Web. Dialogue courses support the popular screen reader software JAWS.
• Alternate text: Alternate Text is a textual alternative to non-textual data such as images, which is read to the user of a screen reader. Such text may not be visible to a typical user, but is embedded in the content so that screen reader software can pick it up.
• Captions: Captions are textual alternatives to auditory content, primarily targeted at users with hearing disabilities. Unlike alternate text, captions are also visible to sighted users, since users with hearing disabilities are not likely to use a screen reader. Note that users with visual disabilities tend to disable audio in the content in preference to audio from screen reader software, and hence may also rely on the captions rather than the actual audio content.

General Guidelines

• Limit the volume of information displayed to only what is most relevant to the context. Always use the clearest and simplest language possible.
• Avoid blinking images. In particular, images that blink at rates between 2Hz and 55Hz should not be used.
• Avoid using color as the exclusive means of representing any information. For example, if rows in a table are shaded in different colors depending on their category, include another column that states this category for each row.
• Ensure that there is sufficient contrast between background and foreground colors.

Word

• Ensure that all images in the Word document have alternate text defined. To define alternate text for an image, right click on the image, choose Format picture, and click on the tab titled Web. If an image is purely decorative, either remove the image or give it blank alternate text.
• Avoid using drawing objects wherever possible. Use an image editing tool and import the image instead and then specify the alternate text. Images should be inline with text, rather than floating over or under text.
• Use clean formatting. Use Word styles to identify headings and sub-headings in the document. Avoid increasing the font size of text manually and making it bold to signify a heading. Use list styles rather than characters and tab spaces to create lists. For more information on Word styles and list styles, refer to the documentation that came with your version of Microsoft Word.
• When including tables, ensure that a title row is included. Tables should make sense when read from left to right, top to bottom.
• Avoid using tables for formatting.
• Include a table of contents for long documents. Use the built-in heading styles in Word and generate the table of contents from these instead of creating it manually.
• Avoid embedding other Microsoft Office content (such as Excel spreadsheets) in the document.
• Avoid using data tables, since such tables typically do not make much sense when read from left to right, top to bottom by a screen reader. Summarize the data in point form instead, where each line makes sense in itself.

  For example, instead of:

  Month	Days
  January	31
  March	31

  Use:

  • The month of January has 31 days.
  • The month of March has 31 days.

Excel

• Limit the number of images and other objects used in spread-sheets.
• Ensure that all images in the Excel file have alternate text defined. To define alternate text for an image, right click on the image, choose Format picture, and click on the tab titled Web.
• When including graphs or charts, summarize the key information demonstrated by the chart directly below the chart.
• Ensure that the fill and line style in charts and graphs are differentiated by fill style and line style rather than exclusively by fill and line color.
• Ensure that the spreadsheet is readable when read from left to right, top to bottom.
• Avoid using data tables, since such tables typically do not make much sense when read from left to right, top to bottom by a screen reader. Summarize the data in point form instead, where each line makes sense in itself.

  For example, instead of:

  Month	Days
  January	31
  March	31

  Use:

  • The month of January has 31 days.
  • The month of March has 31 days.

PowerPoint

• Dialogue Design publishes PowerPoint slides to an image format. All content in the PowerPoint slide, including alternate text, is included in the alternate text for the composite slide image. Please verify that this alternate text is readable by using the Slide Properties dialog in Dialogue Design. For more information see Working with Slides. You may edit this text manually, but Dialogue Design will cease to reflect subsequent editing of the slide in PowerPoint to the composite alternate text. If you edit the alternate text for the slide manually, please ensure that the alternate text is up to date each time you edit the PowerPoint slide.
• Ensure that all images in the PowerPoint presentation have alternate text defined. To define alternate text for an image, right click on the image, choose Format picture, and click on the tab titled Web. For purely decorative images, either remove the image altogether or give it blank alternate text.
• The slide should make sense when read left to right, top to bottom. Please check the alternate text in the Slide Properties dialog box for the slide in Design to ensure that the read order is accurate.
• When including tables, ensure that a title row is included. Tables should make sense when read from left to right, top to bottom.
• Avoid using drawing objects wherever possible. Use an image editing tool and import the image instead, specifying alternate text. Images should be inline with text, rather than floating over or under text.
• Avoid using links in PowerPoint slides, since these are generally inaccessible to users of screen readers. If links are essential, ensure that the target is clearly identified in the text and include the URL of the target in the body of the slide.

Images

• Ensure that alternate text is defined for the image in Dialogue Design. The alternate text for an image slide can be entered using the Slide Properties dialog box. For more information, see Working with Slides.
• Avoid screen shots of textual content as image slides. Include the textual content as Word documents instead.

PDF Documents

• Use tags in the Adobe Writer to define reading order and document structure. Refer to the product documentation for your version of Adobe Writer to understand how to use the accessibility features.
• Use the Accessibility Check in the Adobe Writer to identify accessibility shortfalls in the document.
• Ensure that 'Accessibility' is enabled in the document properties for the PDF document. If your version of PDF does not support this property, avoid setting encryption or copy protection for the document.
• Ensure that the PDF document is compatible with reasonably older versions of the PDF reader.

Recorded Movies

Note: The following information only applies to Desktop only (.prs) courses, since recorded movies are not available for Mobile and Desktop (.mprs) courses.

• Recorded movies come with a custom navigation control with which users can navigate to custom points in the movie. Currently, focus is not explicitly displayed when the user tabs into this control, making the control difficult to operate with a keyboard alone, though normal viewing of the movie is possible. Further, there is no mechanism to synchronize audio captions with the recording for hearing impaired users. For these reasons, you are advised to avoid using recorded movies when creating accessible courses.

External Flash Movies

• Ensure that the Flash movies maintain correct keyboard tab order.
• Ensure that all images, buttons and graphic objects in the movie have meaningful accessibility tags defined.
• Test the movie with a screen reader such as JAWS to ensure that all objects in the movie are correctly read.
• Where accessibility tags cannot be specified for individual objects in the Flash movie, include alternate text for the entire movie in Dialogue Design, using the slide properties dialog. For more information, see Working with Slides.
• Ensure that the Flash movie is compatible with reasonably older versions of the Flash player.
• The audience captions will likely be read to/by a user after the content in the slide, rather than alongside the content in the slide. Please keep this lack of synchronization in mind, and if necessary, break down the slide into smaller slides and audio to ensure that the two are more synchronous.
• Avoid using animations in Flash movies.

Audio

Note: The following information only applies to Desktop only (.prs) courses, since audience captions are not available for Mobile and Desktop (.mprs) courses.

• Use the audience captions in Dialogue Design to enter the captions for the slide audio, for all slides that contain audio.
• The audience captions will likely be read to, or by, a user after the content in the slide, rather than alongside the content in the slide. Please keep this lack of synchronization in mind and, if necessary, break down the slide into smaller slides and audio to ensure that the two are more synchronous.