8 Accessibility
What about Accessibility?
Accessibility allows for all people to be able to learn and interact with content. It benefits all people, disabled and non-disabled, to use the content.
Our team developed the “accompanying document” method to add accessibility alongside the Captivate projects. Currently, Adobe has not made 360 elements 508 Compliant, meaning that there is no accessibility once 360 items are inserted. The accompanying document includes alternate text and video/audio transcriptions and can be used as a substitute for the whole module.
Captioning Videos
Videos need to have a form of captions to allow students to read what is being said and the sounds included in the video. Captions the viewer can choose to be visible are called “closed captions.” “Open captions” are captions that the viewer cannot control.
2D – Youtube
YouTube has automatic captioning for some videos, but these need to be examined before being published. The following are the steps to get through the process:
- Open the YouTube creator studio.
- On the left side, go to the subtitles/closed caption button.
- If available, navigate to the auto-caption and duplicate before editinG. If not available, select to create captions.
- Caption the videos by
- Using the YouTube Caption Editor
- Uploading a Transcript
- Using an SRT or other acceptable file such as:
- SubRip
- SubViewer
- MPsub
- LRC
- Videotron Lambda
- SAMI (Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange)
In case of an error, be sure to save a copy of the caption document and any other files used to caption the video. A useful tip for uploading a captioned video to Adobe Captivate is to practice embedding youtube links with captions enabled. To do this, simply:
- Copy the HTML code from the Share feature on YouTube
- At the end of the URL add ?cc_load_policy=1
- Then, copy and paste the code into Adobe Captivate!
360 videos – YouTube
For many videos, captioning is the same process. One item to note is that the captions may appear in different spots when turned into a 360 video which might mean that the student may have to change caption position, font, and size.
Uploaded into Captivate
When a video is uploaded to Captivate, such as a pop-up, include a transcript in the accompanying document.
Audio Hotspots
Text-to-Speech and Closed Captions Video
Text-to-Speech is a system to allow auditory learners to hear the words instead of reading them. This might be similar to closed captions.
How to Add Text-to-Speech on a Captivate Slide:
- Window-> Slide Notes
- Text-to-Speech button
- Select voice/agent
- Select Plus Sign
- Generate audio by clicking on the plus sign
For Closed Captions follow the following instructions:
- Click on the check box
- Adjust the location of the play head to fix the audio
Alt Text
For 360 images, describe left to right, primarily up to down. Make sure to be accurate and describe major items. This may change per picture, but describe the location of objects. The left edge wraps around the user to connect to the right in VR. Make sure to explain this within the accompanying document.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
- What is and is not accessible within Captivate?
- Within Responsive projects, almost everything besides custom quizzes and 360 items can be made accessible.
- Within VR projects, an accompanying document is a requirement due to a lack of 508 compliance.
- What do you need to know about Captivate to make the modules as accessible as possible?
- You will definitely want to know how to assign keystrokes to buttons. Alt text, text to speech, and some basic renaming of items are helpful skills. Captions are often outside of Captivate via YouTube.
- What about the Captivate modules are NOT accessible, and how did you determine that for sure?
- Modules are NOT accessible once 360 elements are introduced. I’ve reached out to Adobe’s Captivate team to confirm that, as is, VR is not 508 compliant. Hopefully, my team’s work will change that or show why we need compliance or VR accessibility standard discussion.
- What did you decide to do as a workaround to meet accessibility requirements?
- We use the “Accompanying Accessibility Document.” This allows us to link to YouTube, type transcripts, provide text-to-speech options, and have alt text for all images. We tested with Google Docs, but it did not work with the same function, so we decided to do sharing via Office Sharepoint.
- What all is included in an accessibility doc?
- Alt-text is attached to each image.
- 360 is left to right, up to down
- Under each image, any text is provided in a transcribed version as well as in the alt-text.
- Videos are hyperlinked with text.
- Transcriptions for videos/audio not uploaded elsewhere.
- Clear color and shape indications are provided to describe the links. Hot spots are blue circles, while additional linking is shown via yellow squares
- “Exit Module” spots are excluded from the linking descriptions.
- Label each link to where it goes.
- For Artworks:
- Provide alt text
- Provide art description audio
- Transcribe above audio
- Headings – use them to hyperlink around the document
- Alt-text is attached to each image.
- Are there any extra tips or considerations they should be aware of?
- As Adobe/VR tech hopefully improves, consider adding it straight in. Consider the students as well. Make sure you don’t try to use Google Docs; it won’t work. PDF has not been tested.
Example Accessibility Documents