Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Looking for advice on building online courses (self.Blind)
submitted by WellThatsRich
I need some help. My company builds a lot of online courses and training. I'm pushing to make our accessible courses better for anyone who is visually impaired. We can meet the technical requirements of what W3C asks for A or AA, as well 508 compliance. My problem is that I don't know what's enjoyable if you are only using audio and a keyboard. So I have a few questions if anyone on here has a bit of time:
1) Is navigation while running screen readers easy and intuitive?
2) Is it annoying if you have to turn off a screen reader if it is picking up closed captioning on top of audio?
3) What kind of interactive media do you enjoy?
4) Have you taken any courses online that you thought were well done? What did they do right?
5) What are the most common issues when trying to use software?
6) Have you ever used eLearning Software, if so, what was done right/wrong? If not, what what used as an alternative?
Thanks for any info or opinions you can offer.
1) Is navigation while running screen readers easy and intuitive?
2) Is it annoying if you have to turn off a screen reader if it is picking up closed captioning on top of audio?
3) What kind of interactive media do you enjoy?
4) Have you taken any courses online that you thought were well done? What did they do right?
5) What are the most common issues when trying to use software?
6) Have you ever used eLearning Software, if so, what was done right/wrong? If not, what what used as an alternative?
Thanks for any info or opinions you can offer.
fastfinge 1 points 7y ago
> 1) Is navigation while running screen readers easy and intuitive?
Well, I've been using them for 20 years. So I'd say yes. But I think that's an answer that's going to change from person to person.
> 2) Is it annoying if you have to turn off a screen reader if it is picking up closed captioning on top of audio?
Not really. My screen-reader has a single keypress that can mute speech. But again, that's going to depend what screen-reader is used, what features it has, and if the user knows about the mute hotkey if they have one.
> 3) What kind of interactive media do you enjoy?
Not sure what you mean by interactive media. Most of the media I consume these days comes from Youtube, Google Music, and Netflix if that helps.
> 4) Have you taken any courses online that you thought were well done? What did they do right?
I've taken a couple courses put out by the ARRL, and they were pretty good, other than a few images that needed description.
> 5) What are the most common issues when trying to use software?
Unlabeled buttons and controls, and no alt-text on images. In education, image descriptions can be especially important, because a quiz or exam question found later on may well depend on information that was only shown in an image.
> 6) Have you ever used eLearning Software, if so, what was done right/wrong?
Blackboard. It does everything wrong, all the time. There is no way to read any comments on marked assignments, or read your final mark. It uses frames. It doesn't support audio description of video content. It generates inaccessible PDFs.
Well, I've been using them for 20 years. So I'd say yes. But I think that's an answer that's going to change from person to person.
> 2) Is it annoying if you have to turn off a screen reader if it is picking up closed captioning on top of audio?
Not really. My screen-reader has a single keypress that can mute speech. But again, that's going to depend what screen-reader is used, what features it has, and if the user knows about the mute hotkey if they have one.
> 3) What kind of interactive media do you enjoy?
Not sure what you mean by interactive media. Most of the media I consume these days comes from Youtube, Google Music, and Netflix if that helps.
> 4) Have you taken any courses online that you thought were well done? What did they do right?
I've taken a couple courses put out by the ARRL, and they were pretty good, other than a few images that needed description.
> 5) What are the most common issues when trying to use software?
Unlabeled buttons and controls, and no alt-text on images. In education, image descriptions can be especially important, because a quiz or exam question found later on may well depend on information that was only shown in an image.
> 6) Have you ever used eLearning Software, if so, what was done right/wrong?
Blackboard. It does everything wrong, all the time. There is no way to read any comments on marked assignments, or read your final mark. It uses frames. It doesn't support audio description of video content. It generates inaccessible PDFs.
WellThatsRich [OP] 1 points 7y ago
Sorry, for interactive media, netflix and youtube were the kinds of things I was talking about. Thanks for going through these.
WellThatsRich [OP] 0 points 7y ago
Oh! You're Canadian! What province are you from? I'm in Alberta and provincially, accessibility does not seem like it's a priority. We tend to use guidelines that Ontario uses as they're the most strict.
fastfinge 1 points 7y ago
I'm in Ontario. But back when I was in university, the ODA hadn't been past yet. So I really don't know if blackboard and the various other e-learning platforms have been updated to be usable. Hopefully our current federal government will come through on there promise to pass a Canadian's With Disabilities act. Standardizing accessibility at a federal level is the only way it's actually going to happen, IMHO.
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