The Articulate Rise web-based authoring tool has been a boon to course creators looking to build interactive, mobile-friendly online courses without deep technical skills.

Rise already does so many things well—from allowing for responsive design to incorporating interactive content blocks—but there are clear opportunities to improve accessibility, flexibility, and engagement. We’ve taken Rise to the next level by creating an add-on that lets users listen to the content immersively as they engage with media and interactive content, while allowing course managers to easily update content on an ongoing basis.

Trust us, it’s cool. Get a feel for Rise & Shine.

Let’s explore what Shine is and how it can provide a better user experience for your learners.

Shine makes every Rise course more engaging and accessible

No question, Rise is a great tool for course creators, but there are a number of out-of-the-box constraints for learners. The model of Rise courses is a slide-show style standard that’s augmented by an overreliance on animation that isn’t as immersive, flexible, or comfortable for every learner as it should be.

To address this, we created an immersive read-along narration that works with all standard Rise elements across a course. Easy to setup and seamless to update, courses become more immersive, flexible, and accessible for every learner.

Here’s how it works.

Automatic integration into existing content

Shine automatically syncs its narration—not only with text-based content, but with interactive Rise blocks too—as learners are guided through the course. This includes headings, quotes, images, lists, and more. The add-on requires no additional technical set-up—making enhancing existing courses quick and simple, and easy to update if you need to make any changes to course content.

Customization options

Learners have different preferences as to how they engage with course content. Shine empowers every learner to choose the path that best suits them. Each learner can control and adjust the speed of spoken content, while automatically scrolling through the text to create an immersive, hands-free learner experience.

You get to choose from multiple voices to match the tone of the course and adjust settings for more accessible text sizes, voice integration, and animations.

Enhanced interactivity

Shine makes spoken playback more engaging by automatically incorporating visual elements like tabs, accordions, and flash cards provided by standard Rise blocks.

Learners can also follow the narrated content while simultaneously interacting with multimedia elements, such as videos, quizzes, and clickable scenarios.

And audio prompts remind learners when their input is needed for assessments or other types of engagements, ensuring everyone gets to experience the full, expanded, and immersive learning experience of Rise & Shine.

Try out the latest demo at https://shine.sayyeah.courses

Compatibility

Shine is compatible across all devices and platforms. Whether learners access a course on a desktop, tablet, or mobile device, the narration will function smoothly, providing a consistent and seamless learning experience. Simply put: Shine works where Rise works, augmenting your Rise courses wherever they’re accessed.

Let’s highlight Shine’s benefits for learners

Improved accessibility

Shine makes Rise courses even more accessible by allowing learners with visual impairments, reading difficulties, or other specific learning needs more options for how they access and engage with the course content.

Increased engagement

Shine not only adds greater interactivity to courses, it also creates a multi-sensory experience that can help clarify complex ideas and reinforce key points.

A more flexible learning experience

Shine makes it easy for learners to access their online courses on any device, whether at home, work, class, or on a commute, while tailoring the learning experience to their preferences.

How does Rise & Shine work?

Unlocking these benefits couldn’t be easier.

You simply take your Rise course package, drop it into Shine, choose a voice, and let the magic happen. You then take your Shined Rise package, publish it as you usually do, and you’re done!

Need to make changes?

No trouble! Update your course content in Rise and drop the latest version back into Shine. Shine will automatically update all the audio based on the latest course content and you’ll get your latest Shined Rise package back.

Shine for Rise courses is available now!

Get in touch today to get started or for a personalized Shine demo.

Get in touch for a custom demo

See Shine in action

The post Introducing Rise & Shine, an automated and immersive voice add-on for Rise courses appeared first on Say Yeah!.

Looking to explore accessibility best practices across team functions in your organizations? Find answers to all your questions about accessible digital products and more at Axe-con 2023.

Axe-con provides insights into the critical role key players across functions like legal, design, management, product, etc., play in building accessible digital experiences.

Talks at the conference will feature case studies from enterprise companies leading in large-scale accessibility efforts and best practices and updates from technology leaders worldwide.

Attendance at the conference is free, and you can use your attendance towards continuing education (CE) towards IAAP certification.

Talks we’re excited about

• Ageism in Interfaces with Alex Tait
• Redesigning for Cognitive Ease with Alyssa Panetta
• Accessibility Maturity Models with Jonathan Thurston and James Thurston

Full program schedule

Join the free virtual conference

Registration is free! Sign up to access the live sessions and on-demand recordings of 60 sessions.

Save your seat

Ready to make your digital products more accessible to your audience?

We provide inclusive website design solutions that welcome your audiences to engage with your content, products, and services. Bring the best of front-end development to your projects with our web standards-based, usable, accessible, and inclusive work.

Get in touch

The post Axe-con, March 15-16, 2023 event invite appeared first on Say Yeah!.

In this video, I explore the three primary ways the accessibility and inclusion landscape has advanced over the last three decades, and why we’ve never been closer to access for all than we are today.

Are you ready to try out VoiceOver on iPhone or TalkBack on Android?

I mentioned in the video two different screen reading technologies: VoiceOver and TalkBack, for iPhone and Android respectively.

Looking at your website and the content you promote through these services is an excellent way to understand how capable these services are and if you have any gaps in how you’re sharing content that may be limiting your access to market.

Here’s how to enable these accessibility tools:

How to enable screen reading on an iPhone (VoiceOver)

VoiceOver is a screen reading accessibility feature on iOS that reads content on the screen aloud and enables gesture control of the device.

You can turn on VoiceOver on an iPhone using the following steps:

1. In your phone’s settings, tap on the accessibility section

2. Once in the accessibility menu, VoiceOver is the first option under “Vision”

3. In the settings for VoiceOver, there is a toggle switch to turn on/off VoiceOver, and other options to customize things like reading speed, speech, and commands.

How to enable screen reading on an Android device (TalkBack)

Similar to VoiceOver on the iPhone, Android devices on the newer editions of the Android operating system have a screen reading feature called TalkBack.

You can turn on TalkBack using these steps:

1. In the phone’s settings, tap on the “Accessibility” option

2. Once in the accessibility menu, tap on the “TalkBack” option

3. From there, you should get a pop-up window asking if you want to enable TalkBack on the device. Once you confirm, TalkBack will be turned on and activated.

Whether it’s apps, websites, or web apps, determining the accessibility of these digital products is best done through real testing with accessibility tools and the people who use them.

From there, you can embed accessible research, design, and testing processes into your team’s workflow from the start, saving time and money by avoiding future reworks to meet usability and compliance requirements.

Need help improving accessibility and inclusion in your products and services?

Our approach to inclusive design can help your team executive more usable, accessible, and inclusive products and services.

It really is easier than ever to access content when we design for access. And it’s easier than ever to design for access because the tools are available to all of us. Let’s work together to realize the impact of this inflection point and ensure access for all.

Learn more about inclusive design

The post We’re at an exciting inflection point for accessibility and inclusion appeared first on Say Yeah!.

No judgement. Most websites are, so you’re not alone.

That’s because, when people are making a website, they typically focus on a combination of creating engaging content and a great look and feel. Even if you also focus on code alongside these areas, you’re likely missing out on issues that make your site more challenging to use for many people.

This standard way of working isn’t conducive to considering all the ways people interact with websites. It’s assumed that everyone uses a mouse or touch, when many other people use a screen reader or keyboard. We simply weren’t taught with this in mind, and most organizations—whether you’re building a website in-house or working at an agency—simply don’t fill in the gaps in this learning.

In general, there are three typical ways people interact with your website:
1. mouse/touch;
2. voice (such as listening to the content of a website using VoiceOver); and,
3. keyboard.

If you’re like most digital professionals, you primarily think through interactions with mouse and touch. However, without considering these other interaction models, your site will be broken for those people who rely on assistive technology or a keyboard-only way of navigating the web.

Why do these issues matter?

There are several impacts on your users if your site doesn’t consider accessibility, especially these alternative modes of navigation.

Limiting access

If your site is only optimized for touch and mouse/trackpad interaction, you’re limiting the potential users of your website before people even get the chance to decide if your content or product will meet their needs.

Frustrating users

Often these issues make the experience more difficult or frustrating to use, even if users can get around them. If users get stuck inside a modal or have to listen to repeated content over and over again, they will quickly give up on trying to use your site, regardless of how great your content might be.

Violating accessibility compliance legislation

In addition to issues for users accessing your site, not implementing these changes can also pose a problem if you or your organization are required to meet accessibility standards.

Your site needs to accommodate and be fully functional for screen readers, keyboard-only users, and other accessibility needs to meet standards like AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act).

Complying with this legislation is especially crucial for larger organizations and public sector organizations.

What can you do to fix these issues?

There are two key areas to tackle to fix these accessibility and usability issues:

1. Test your site yourself/with your team

2. Test your site with a diverse group of users that reflects your market

User testing photo shot by UX Indonesia

1. Test your site yourself/with your team

To find and improve these issues, you must go through your website using accessibility tools like VoiceOver to see how a screen reader reads the site, and to see where this functionality might be broken or difficult to use.

This testing process should also include using your site with the keyboard ‘tab’ key and seeing if you can jump from element to element without using your mouse/trackpad.

Pro tip: it’s much easier to understand how your website is broken by using VoiceOver and your keyboard yourself, rather than looking through your code to try to find issues.

By actually using these modes of navigation on your site, you’ll be able to identify several issues before ever even putting your website in front of users.

2. Test your site with a diverse group of users that reflects your market

In addition to testing your website amongst you and your team, making a genuinely user-centred and accessible site necessitates testing with real users.

Especially important is testing with users who require accessibility accommodations and who use these tools on a day to day basis, as well as testing with a diverse population that represents your market.

Some great organizations that focus on accessible and inclusive user testing are Fable Tech Lab’s accessibility user testing and GRIT Toronto’s inclusive user testing. These organizations can help you work with a wide variety of users who interact with websites in different ways and who come from a wide variety of backgrounds.

To get the research insights you need and to design websites that are delightful for all of your potential users, being aware of and testing for these accessibility and usability issues with real assistive technology and live users, is critical to understanding how to make your website as usable and enjoyable as it can be.

Here’s the thing: it’s not hard to do better.

And if you bake it into your process from the beginning, it’s much easier.

Here’s a three step guide to becoming an expert:

1. Start with knowing there’s something wrong by testing the website yourself.

This will make it clear what’s happening and why it sucks, instead of relying on a tool that might not get it or a person who has to explain it to you.

2. Learn more about what’s causing the issue and what you can do to improve it.

To learn more about key tools and requirements like keyboard navigation, landmarks, alt tags, headings, screen readers, and more, check out our web accessibility glossary.

3. Figure out how to fix those issues.

A good reference for that would be the official WCAG accessibility guidelines or you can ask for our help!

Looking for a quick way to get started fixing your website?

Getting all of this right from the start is tough. Knowing there’s something wrong doesn’t necessarily help you in understanding what the specific issue is and what you can do about it. That’s why we launched the Inclusive Website Audit service.

With the audit service, we’ll help you take next steps by identifying the key issues on your website that are impacting usability, accessibility, and inclusivity, including speech and keyboard navigation, and much more.

Learn more about the Inclusive Website Audit service

The post Your website is broken: a look at the accessibility issues you probably forgot to test for appeared first on Say Yeah!.

However, accessibility checkers have a significant gap: they are focused on code and strict technical compliance, not on usability, design, and content, and can’t truly identify how real people understand and interact with your website.

Accessibility checkers aren’t able to mimic how real people will interact with your website and content.

Here are some areas where automated tools will let you down.

They’re incomplete

Even for some technical items, these tools are not sufficient to be compliant. That’s because many of the standards set by the WCAG can only be evaluated manually, or are up to the discretion of an expert. Things like whether focus states function, or whether carousels are accessible, are difficult or impossible to evaluate with an automated tool due to their complexity.

Although you can meet many accessibility objectives with automated tools, a full manual review will take you much further. Through a manual review, you can build a site that can be enjoyed by a much wider audience than just those whose needs are covered by compliance standards.

They can be inaccurate

Some of the tests run by automated accessibility testing tools can be inaccurate, or give you false positives, which may make you think your site is more accessible than it is. With our site, we scored 100 (perfect score) on Google Lighthouse well before our website was genuinely accessible, especially with regard to screen readers.

Automated tools may flag issues taken care of in an alternate way—for example, for our forms, input elements like text boxes don’t have a focus state, because, in Javascript, we focus on the element surrounding the input. This implementation causes the checker to fail on that element, but the accessibility requirement is still being met based on WCAG criteria.

They can’t make choices

Many accessibility items are—even in WCAG’s official documentation—up to the discretion of the designer or developer. For instance, there might be many different ways to do the same thing, such as navigating a menu with a keyboard.

On our site, we’ve made it so that the menu uses the tab key to move to each of the top-level items, and arrow keys to access the sub-menus. Still, WCAG also provides examples where the tab key only accesses the first menu item, and arrow keys to move left/right between the other elements.

Both of these ways are technically accessible, but one or the other might make your site or specific design more or less usable.

Automated accessibility checkers aren’t able to help you make a judgement call.

Another example of this is adding labels to items to supplement what screen readers say out loud. For instance, adding a page header label to banner landmarks in order to be more descriptive and clear.

Automated accessibility checkers aren’t able to help you make this judgement call. You’ll need real users to test to see which one is more intuitive to use. Or an expert to take a look and evaluate your design.

They can’t see

Another area where accessibility checkers often fall short is in understanding the images and graphics on your site. If you use automated checkers often, you might notice that no matter what you do, warnings about text in images or clear alt tags never disappear.

This gap is because automated checkers can’t see your images and designs to determine whether you’ve met these requirements or not. In essence, they can’t know the context and content to make this judgement call.

So, instead, a manual review of images is necessary to make sure that text is not in any of your images, and alt tags explain the content of an image in a way that provides proper context.

Additionally, an accessibility checker can’t tell you how screen readers are reading out your content in real life beyond a simple “is it reading something” check.

For instance, if SVG settings aren’t set up for screen readers by setting the inline SVGs to have a role=“img” tag, the screen reader will try to announce the tags inside it, which results in announcing repetitive “IMAGE” tags over and over. This example is a terrible experience for people who use screen readers, and it’s unlikely an automated checker would let you know that this is occurring.

They can’t read

As far as the written content on your site, this is where automated accessibility checkers are the most limited.

Automated accessibility tools do not consider an inclusive lens, which can leave your site open to alienating potential users or inadvertently making content that excludes people. No automated tool can determine how your site makes users feel, or if they are feeling excluded by your content or the feel of your website.

The words and images you use on your website impact how a user feels, and an accessibility checker can’t analyze those words and images.

The combination of the words and imagery you use have context associated with them that makes users feel a certain way, from a spectrum of delighted to offended. A purely-automated accessibility tool can never understand this.

A more suitable process

So, if automated accessibility testing tools won’t get your site to where it needs to be, what should you do?

The best process is a comprehensive design, code, and content process, where you and your team work to ensure your site is as usable, accessible, and inclusive as possible. Then plan to review, improve, and test these items continually (internally or, preferably, with users). Using this process will help you holistically improve not just your site’s accessibility, but the general usability and performance of your website.

Most importantly, moving beyond automatically checking code—and embracing design, interaction, and usability considerations, alongside inclusive content—will open up your site to more potential users and help convert more of the users who are currently visiting.

Go beyond automated accessibility checkers with the Inclusive Website Audit

Make your website more usable, accessible, and inclusive for all with the Inclusive Website Audit. Don’t miss out on expanding your reach and engagement!

Get started from $999

The post Why automated accessibility checkers can’t make your website accessible appeared first on Say Yeah!.

Let’s take a look at the accessibility standards you should consider for your website.

WCAG 2.0 / WCAG 2.1

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the standards that the majority of national and sub-national (provincial, state, etc) legislation is based on. These standards include guidelines for content, code, and technical guidelines for how colour, interactivity, and more are handled on a website.

AODA

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), is Ontario’s version of accessibility legislation. Based on requiring compliance with WCAG 2.0, AODA has general compliance requirements that many organizations must meet by January 2021.

However, it is strongly recommended that all organizations in Ontario work towards WCAG 2.0 AA compliance to meet AODA legislation in the future in order to ensure future compliance requirements and simply to improve the user experience for all users.

If you’re based in Ontario, learn more about AODA timelines and accessibility standards in our three-part series:

Accessibility matters – Part 1: Leading by doing

Accessibility matters – Part 2: The countdown is on in Ontario

Accessibility Matters – Part 3: Making sense of accessibility standards

ADA

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the legislation that defines accessibility standards at the federal level in the United States. ADA is also based on WCAG 2.0 standards. If you’re an organization based in the United States, it’s important to comply with these accessibility standards to avoid legal action under ADA or section 508 (defined below).

Section 508

Section 508 is American legislation that mandates all federal entities—and any private corporations that do business with federal agencies—make their digital platforms accessible to people with disabilities. This includes healthcare, legal, financial, and numerous other private sector organizations, in addition to public sector organizations.

Not sure where to start?

No matter where you’re based, or what web accessibility standards you need to meet, we can help you ensure you not only comply with standards, but ensure you’re not losing out on a wider audience due to usability, accessibility, or inclusion issues on your site with  The Inclusive Website Audit.

The Inclusive Website Audit

Get started today with making your website more usable, accessible, and inclusive for all. Don’t miss out on expanding your reach and engagement!

Get started from $999

The post What accessibility standards should you consider for your website? appeared first on Say Yeah!.

United States ??

For those in the United States, enforcement of accessibility compliance can fall under both ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) and Section 508. As these compliance standards are established as legislation, civic action groups and individuals have already taken companies to court over accessibility issues. It is critical that your site’s accessibility issues be resolved as soon as possible.

Canada ??

For those with organizations in Ontario, Canada, requirements fall under AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act).
AODA compliance can have the biggest consequences for any public sector organization, any non-profit, and any private sector organizations with more than 50 employees. For private sector organizations, the timeline for complying is the end of 2020 for full website compliance with AA standards.

If you don’t comply with these timelines and requirements, your organization could be subject to legal action, from either the government itself or from users who could file a case against your organization in the Human Rights Tribunal.

Although Canada-wide requirements vary across provinces, federal legislation is in progress, so it’s ideal to get a head start on compliance before future deadlines are set.

United Kingdom ??

For organizations in the United Kingdom, accessibility compliance is covered by the Equality Act of 2010. This act requires all organizations to take reasonable actions to make their websites and communications accessible.

This is especially critical for public sector organizations, as additional requirements clarifying the need for accessibility came into law in 2018 for the public sector, and compliance must be met by September 23rd, 2020. If these regulations aren’t followed, after this date, organizations may be subject to legal action and fines.

Although private sector organizations are not yet explicitly required to comply, only to make reasonable accommodations, this legislation is expected to follow shortly after, so it’s ideal to get a head start on compliance before those deadlines are set.

In all of these cases, not complying with accessibility legislation can have legal, financial, and brand implications, and can cause you to lose out on potential customers when they are unable to access or use your website. As a result, it’s key to get ahead on fixing these issues, before it becomes a major problem for your organization.

The Inclusive Website Audit is here to help ?

Get started today on your path to accessibility compliance with the Essential Website Audit. Our audit will provide you with actionable recommendations to make your site more usable, accessible, and inclusive. Don’t miss out on expanding your reach and engagement!

Get started from $999

The post What can happen if your organization doesn’t comply with accessibility legislation? appeared first on Say Yeah!.

History shows that organizations who invest in their future when the economy is struggling set themselves up to become market leaders during the ensuing economic growth period.

That’s why we’re thrilled today to be launching a new way to evaluate and improve your site’s usability, accessibility, and inclusion: The Inclusive Website Audit.

This audit guides your team to optimize your website for all audiences and to improve your use of accessibility standards like WCAG 2.1, all reviewed by our expert team.

Learn more about the Inclusive Website Audit

Why is this process so important?

These three factors (usability, accessibility, & inclusion) are key to reaching a wider audience, and retaining and embracing the diverse audience you already have. By improving these factors, your site can be used and loved by even more people, and you can avoid alienating or excluding potential customers.

No two users have the exact same needs and context for which they use your site. As a result, these three factors must be at the forefront of the design, development, and content of your website to be able to capture the widest breadth of your addressable market.

How the audit works

You can choose between an Essential, Starter, and Custom audit package, each providing actionable next steps you can take to improve your website.

No matter which one you choose, we’ll look at a range of factors for usability, accessibility, and inclusion, from mobile responsiveness, to screen-reader tagging, to the language used in your site’s content and the images you share throughout your site.

This range of criteria ensures that you’ll get a comprehensive overview of how your site is doing in these areas, and a more detailed breakdown of the issues on your site.

Learn more about our comprehensive audit process.

Your path to a more inclusive website begins here

Get started today with improving your website to be usable, accessible, and inclusive for all of your potential customers. Don’t miss out on expanding your reach and engagement!

Get started from $999

The post Introducing the Inclusive Website Audit from Say Yeah! appeared first on Say Yeah!.

Here’s a quick primer on what you need to know about accessibility standards and how you can take next steps.

What accessibility standards do you need to meet and what must you do to meet them?

The best start is identifying what category your business falls into, which determines the strictness of the compliance levels you need to meet. These are split into A, AA, and AAA, with AAA representing the strictest compliance standard. Each level has its own guidelines, which are designed to correspond with WCAG, AODA, and other regional guidelines.

With colour contrast, the required contrast ratio to meet AA standards is 4.5, where AAA is 7.0. So the level of contrast with the background and text colours you use must be much higher to meet the requirement.

How do you determine what compliance level your business should aim for?

Ontario, Canada, which has a set of standards under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) determines compliance primarily by the size of the business, and whether the business is private or public sector.

If your business is a private sector or non-profit organization with 50 or more employees, you must comply with level AA by 2021 if you operate in Ontario. This AA stipulation is also a requirement of any public sector organization of any size. For companies that are private sector, with fewer than 50 employees, we strongly recommend that your organization move towards meeting AA standards, although there is no expected compliance timeline.

AA standards are Say Yeah’s chosen level of compliance given that the standards are rigorous enough to accommodate the vast majority of users who have a disability, whether temporary, situational, or permanent, while improving user experience for all people. The main difference between AA and AAA is taking into account legacy accessibility technology, as well as stricter standards for certain types of content, such as live captions.

For many websites, it is extremely difficult to meet some of these criteria, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)—which define the standards most regions adhere to—do not require this level of compliance for most organizations. However, many of the criteria will make your site much more accessible and usable for all, and we recommend that you aim to meet as many of these criteria as possible.

By complying with AA or AAA standards, your site will better meet the needs of users with screen readers, low-vision, reduced motor capability, and many other disabilities.

However, when you consider that these standards improve the experience for all users, with improved readability, more convenient ways of accessing your content, and a more structured and intuitive site design and navigation, there is significant value in taking these steps.

Check out our previous post in this series on accessibility compliance timelines, to find out when your organization needs to comply with these standards.

Get started with an Inclusive Website Audit

Make your website more usable, accessible, and inclusive for all with the Inclusive Website Audit. Don’t miss out on expanding your reach and engagement!

Get started from $999

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