Outline
This article details a point in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and what the implications are for creating accessible course content in Evolve and is part of a larger path.
To view the full guidelines, please visit the Accessibility: WCAG 2.1 and Evolve path.
Guideline 3.1.1
Language of Page Level A The default human language of each Web page can be programmatically determined.
Explanation
The language (e.g. English) can be determined by such things as screen readers.
What does this mean for your content in Evolve?
Everything in Evolve output by default has the language property set as English. While other languages cannot currently be identified programmatically, we currently have this functionality planned as part of our upcoming development roadmap.
Guideline 3.1.2
Language of Parts Level AA The human language of each passage or phrase in the content can be programmatically determined except for proper names, technical terms, words of indeterminate language, and words or phrases that have become part of the vernacular of the immediately surrounding text.
Explanation
Expanding upon the previous point, this states that if you include multiple languages in your pages, that the switch in language can be detected by screen readers and other assistive technologies.
What does this mean for your content in Evolve?
This will only be an issue if your course is required to have a passage of text in a completely different language. Currently, Evolve can’t set the language attribute for a passage of text that differentiates from the rest of the course.
If it’s absolutely necessary to include a passage of text in a different language, this can be tempered by including a native language translation of the text, and for screen readers including an aria-label that precedes the text alerting the learner to what they are about to hear.
Guideline 3.1.3
Unusual Words Level AAA A mechanism is available for identifying specific definitions of words or phrases used in an unusual or restricted way, including idioms and jargon.
Explanation
This refers to providing learners with a way to access a definition for jargon or obscure terms.
What does this mean for your content in Evolve?
You can use the Glossary Extension to create a glossary for your course for any terms that may need defining. You can also use the Links Component to set an internal link to your glossary at an appropriate point in your course to direct the learner to the glossary to define a particular term.
Guideline 3.1.4
Abbreviations Level AAA A mechanism for identifying the expanded form or meaning of abbreviations is available.
Explanation
This refers to providing users with a way to access a definition for acronyms or initialisms.
What does this mean for your content in Evolve?
You can define any of these in full by using the Glossary Extension. In terms of content, it’s always best practice to include the full definition of an acronym the first time you refer to it. As an example, you would write WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) in the first mention, then WCAG thereafter. If your course contains lots of acronyms, a glossary is a good idea, regardless of any accessibility requirements.
Guideline 3.1.5
Reading Level Level AAA When text requires reading ability more advanced than the lower secondary education level after removal of proper names and titles, supplemental content, or a version that does not require reading ability more advanced than the lower secondary education level, is available.
Explanation
This refers to providing a second version of content if your language requires a higher reading ability than a lower secondary education.
What does this mean for your content in Evolve?
This is purely down to your content choices, rather than anything technical in Evolve. It goes without saying, eLearning creators will always strive to make their content understandable by the whole audience.
Your audience may contain people (for example) who have English as a second language and would benefit from as plain English as possible, so it’s always going to be beneficial to know as much as possible about your audience’s requirements. If you did need to include a simplified version of the text content there are various ways you could do this in Evolve - via the Additional Content Extension, for example.
Guideline 3.1.6
Pronunciation Level AAA A mechanism is available for identifying specific pronunciation of words where meaning of the words, in context, is ambiguous without knowing the pronunciation.
Explanation
This refers to providing a means to determine how to pronounce certain words.
What does this mean for your content in Evolve?
You could provide phonetic spellings of difficult words in your glossary as well as definitions. You could also use the Audio Component to add audio files of difficult words being pronounced in the correct way. You could add the Audio Component either directly before or after a component that has any relevant words in it to alert learners to the correct pronunciation.
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