WebAIM: Alternative Text
Longer guide to writing alt text, paying attention to the differences in the context for the image
Storyline 360: Adding Accessibility to 360° Images - E-Learning Heroes
360 images can be accessible in Articulate Storyline, according to the documentation (but I'd want to test this with a screen reader to make sure everything was clear in the flow of the activity)
Accessible color palette builder
While there are lots of tools for creating color palettes, this is the first one I have seen that so clearly notes the accessibility of different combinations. Even if you create the palette using another tool, you could check it with this free tool to note which colors have sufficient contrast when used together.
Disability Pride Month — Qi Creative Inc.
A good starting point for understanding disability and ableism (with a summary of the medical vs. social models of disability). This has notes on language and links to people in the disability community to follow.
Does Text Alignment Matter for Accessibility and Usability?
Centering text makes it harder to read, especially for longer paragraphs. This hurts accessibility and usability.
The reason why center text alignment is horrible for user experience is that with each new line the user reads, there is a brief moment where the user has to find where the next line begins – decreasing the users reading speed.
In my opinion centered paragraphs are only acceptable up to a point, 3 lines of text to be specific. Anymore, it becomes too displeasing to read each line after.
Primary page titles should be okay centered as they tend to not have as many words and therefore lines of text. Most page titles aren’t long enough that text alignment becomes an issue with usability. However, with secondary titles (h2’s) and anything under should always be left-aligned to match its paragraph text.
Left text alignment should be used in 95% of cases to help your readers read at an optimal, undiminished reading speed.
You can use center alignment in small doses like main page headings without detracting from the user’s experience.
Only use justified text for mediums where its commonplace like material books or e-books.
The only commonplace acceptable use of right alignment is navigations on websites.
Stark: The suite of integrated accessibility tools
Plugins for checking for accessibility. Check for color contrast, alt text, typography and more. The tools also include a vision simulator so you can see how a site will look to people with color blindness. h/t Tracy Parish
Recordings - IDEAL22: The Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility for Learning Conference
All recordings from the IDEAL 2022 conference by the TLDC. Hear Bela Gaytan, Kayleen Holt, Bridget Brown, Devin Torres and others speak about inclusive learning. This was a free conference, and the recordings are available even if you didn't attend live.
The Inclusive Learning Pledge - inclusiveLXD
Interested in making learning inclusive for everyone? Sign the Inclusive Learning Pledge. Worried you have to be perfect and 100% accessible and diverse in everything you create to sign it? See principle 9: "We won't let pursuit of perfection get in the way of progress."
WebAIM: Captioning and Sign Language Interpretation in Zoom: Features and Pitfalls
Thorough guide on using captions and sign language interpreters in Zoom. If you are moving beyond automatic captions to provide additional accessibility options in meetings and training with Zoom, read this article to find out what's possible and what pitfalls to watch for.
The Audio Issue
"Against Access" by John Lee Clark is a very different view of accessibility than you might find in more prominent channels like disability Twitter. The author is DeafBlind, and he talks about how many efforts at accessibility fall short of meaningful experiences. This article is worth reading just for the DeafBlind perspective, which isn't typically included in most accessibility discussions. For example, how would you make a version of the game UNO usable to DeafBlind players? Not just accessible with Braille that references colors they can't see--but an enjoyable game, tailored to their experiences?
Verbit Smart Player - Verbit
Video player with interactive transcripts and accessibility features like high contrast and audio description tracks.
Standard or Extended Audio Description: Which Do You Need?
Explanation of the difference between standard and extended audio description for making videos accessible. Extended audio descriptions pause the original content to allow more time for description, extending the overall time of the video.
Videos that lack natural pauses or contain a lot of important visual information can be tricky to describe without interrupting the original audio. In these cases, extended audio description is necessary.
Transcripts | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C
I have been creating both basic and descriptive transcripts for a project with animated microlearning videos with a lot of visual information. However, I didn't know the name for that descriptive transcript until now. Most people I have talked to have been unsure how to handle transcripts for animated videos, but this page explains it.
<p><strong><em>Descriptive transcripts</em></strong> for videos also include visual information needed to understand the content.</p>
<p><img src="/WAI/content-images/wai-media-guide/braille.jpg" alt="" class=" normal right"></p>
<p><em>Who:</em> Descriptive transcripts are needed to provide audio and video content to people who are both Deaf and blind. They are also used by people who process text information better than audio and visual/pictorial information.</p>
Accurate AI Transcriptions in Minutes | Powered by Riverside
Free transcriptions and SRT closed captions of audio and video files. My quick test from a Zoom recording looked pretty accurate (maybe more accurate than Zoom's built-in transcription).
How to Add Closed Captions to Your Videos – Build Capable
Step-by-step directions on how to add CC to videos with Descript and Handbrake
Twine Screen Reader: A Browser Extension for Improving the Accessibility of Twine Stories for People with Visual Impairments | Interactive Storytelling
Twine exports stories to HTML, so in theory the content should be reasonably accessible to screen readers (as long as you add alt text for images etc.). In practice, some of the Twine-specific HTML elements don't always work well with screen readers. This paper discusses how the authors created a screen reader browser extension to improve the accessibility of Twine stories built with Harlowe and Sugarcube (the two most common story formats).
10 Rules You Need to Create Great Captioned Videos – Meryl.net home
Meryl Evans shares rules for creating great closed captions. While these are described as rules for videos, this applies to other elearning too.
10 guidelines for accessible captions: Readable, accurate, synchronized, length, position, sound, credits, voice changes, speaker identification, and motion with one or two sentences describing each one.