Creating Screen-Reader Accessible Articulate Rise 360 Lessons

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Rise 360 is a responsive course authoring tool for elearning. Rise officially supports NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver, and TalkBack screen readers, however, content creators need to address core accessibility measures such as headers, color/contrast, hyperlinks, table structure, and alt text in all course builds. It is also import to note that not all interactive features in Rise are fully accessible at this time.

This Knowledge Base article will address how to make Rise content accessible to screenreaders. Since Rise is continually updating and improving accessibility of their product, recommendations may change. To learn more about the Rise accessibility roadmap visit Rise 360: Our Accessibility Journey.  

Accessible Images

Alt Text

Improve the accessibility for learners with screen readers by adding alternative text (alt text) to all images. This alt text should be concise and descriptive. Good alt text should address the following:

• Convey the same content and information presented by the object or image.
• Be concise without skimping on relevant information.
• Convey only information not already captured in other on‑screen text.
• Avoid the phrases “image of ” or “graphic of ” and just provide the information the learner needs.
• Avoid abbreviations and excessive punctuation. Don’t use punctuation such as ***, which screen readers will annoyingly read as “asterisk, asterisk, asterisk.”

To hide an image from screen readers when it’s decorative or doesn't add important context to your course, just add two double quotes ("") to the alternate text to make it null, and screen readers will skip it (don't worry about cover photos, screen readers will ignore these).

Once alt text has been added to an image, it will be marked with ALT. The file name will remain the same (stock-image.jpg) but the screen reader will read the descriptive text that was added.

Visit Rise 360: How to Add Alternative Text to Images to learn how to add alt text to your images in Rise.

Zooming images

Uncheck the 'Enable zoom on image click' for all images as this may cause issues with screen reader navigation.

Text on Images

When using text on images, set the opacity to 60% so that vision impaired students can differentiate between the text and the background image. This will also make the content more readable for all viewers.

Before (20% opacity):

After (60% opacity):

Interactive Elements

Use interactive elements cautiously. Our testing has shown that the following can be problematic with screen readers.

Check boxes

Consider using a bulleted list instead of the check box feature.

Content as bulleted list (not accessible):

The same content created as a bulleted list (accessible):

Drag and Drop Activity

Drag and drop activities with a screen reader may be possible, but it is challenging to master. Consider a multiple choice quiz instead.

Content as drag and drop (not accessible):

Content as multiple choice quiz (accessible)

Gallery Activity

Screenreaders are currently not able to navigate through gallery activities. You can create this content as a scrolling webpage instead.

Content as Gallery (not accessible)

Content as scrolling web page (accessible)

Scenario

Scenarios are a great visual way to present content. Unfortunately, they are not accessible when using a screen reader. Instead of a scenario, create a multiple choice quiz and provide feedback to each answer. If supplementing text with images, be sure to use meaningful images and descriptive alt text.

Content as Scenario (not accessible)

Content as Multiple Choice Quiz (accessible)

Learn More!

• Visit Browsers for Viewing Rise 360 Courses for information on which browsers support viewing Rise lessons, required browser settings, and the screen readers that are supported.
• Download the free ebook 6 Best Practices for Designing Accessible E-Learning.