ACCESSIBILITY SERVICES
The universality of learning is what makes it powerful. Making learning accessible to everyone regardless of a disability is the core aspect that can allow us to tap into the true potential of learning.
At Conscience, making learning accessible to all is a core principle that guides our teams as they create learning solutions. For our teams, compliances and standards form the backbone of all our processes spanning design, development and testing as well.
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We invest in continuous research on the latest developments in the WCAG 2.0, UAAG 2.0 and WAI-ARIA standards and compliances to keep abreast in these areas. Our Accessibility team is well-equipped with members that are responsible for the identification of the different types of interactions and activities as well as how their inclusion is supported by the latest guidelines and assistive technologies, and to subsequently update the UI widget library accordingly. The team makes special efforts to collate developer notes on all components under development with careful mention of the level of accessibility that these components support along with any known issues. These serve as instrumental in the smooth implementation of all designs.
​We base our recommendation about the choice of tool based on not just your desired business and learning objectives but also your internal team’s skills, target audience, your preferred delivery modes, level of interactivities sought, compatibility with existing infrastructure and the requirement for trackability of learner’s data and performance.
We, thus, weigh the various pros and cons of each tool against your specific requirements to zero-in on a tool that caters to your organization’s specific learning needs.
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Bring the best out of your learning content.
OUR ACCESSIBILITY PROCESSES
We use Bootstrap to design and build responsive web applications, sites and courseware. For this purpose, we have created UI widget library which is developed and tested according to WCAG 2.0 design principles and guidelines for web accessibility [Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust (POUR)].
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This UI widget library readily lends itself for reuse in composing templates. Built on common web frameworks and technologies such as HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap, jQuery, these templates find ready incorporation within design webpages or digital learning courseware content using ARIA Roles and Attributes, Semantic Mark-up and Source Order, Keyboard Focus Order, and Visual Reading Order. In addition, they also ensure that the testable success criteria that is essential to verify accessibility for a web application/website/eLearning courseware is fulfilled for the WCAG guidelines.
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Our Accessibility and Content teams are well-versed with implementing accessibility standards for learning products and comply by WCAG, Section508, UK Disabilities Act, AODA, and other prevalent accessibility standards.
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Conscience’ R&D team is continuously researching latest developments in all standards and compliances that an eLearning course program should conform to. Our team has stayed abreast of the latest changes in the Section 508 compliance guidelines and have already familiarized themselves with the new guidelines. Our research team are aligning themselves to the latest WCAG AA 2.0 for Web, Software and Electronic Documents that covers all native apps, applications, LMS, websites & webpages, and digital content for both desktops and mobile devices.
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In addition, both our Instructional Design & Course Production teams, in line with the research inputs from the Accessibility team, ensure that greater reliance is placed on ensuring that all content and/or course templates designed and developed are accessible and in line with the WCAG 2.0 AA guidelines. Our research team is also focused on finding better digital accessibility strategies, implementations, and testing tools that would best serve the new learning and accessibility requirements identified for disability groups with “cognitive disabilities, limited manipulation, and limited strength” as part of the changes in the 508 compliance guidelines.
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To better equip our team members with these changes, Conscience conducts on-demand accessibility training for all developers and testers. Our teams train on the latest trends and developments in not just Section 508 and WCAG 2.0 AA but also other guidelines and standard compliances such as UAAG 2.0 and WAI-ARIA.
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Our QA and Testing teams further conduct tests around these WCAG guidelines to ensure that all online courseware is in sync and conforms to all WCAG compliances.
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A noteworthy aspect of our workflow is the involvement of our Accessibility Design team in all phases of the design, development, and testing to ensure absolute compliance with the standards and compliances guidelines agreed upon at the time of the project initiation and contract.
ACCESSIBILITY SERVICES
AT CONSCIENCE
Accessibility Compliance Implementations
Follow accessibility best practices for designing accessible digital learning solutions
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Develop according to the designs and best practices and populate tab order, alt text and all aria attributes for a variety of formats — HTML, PDF, PowerPoint, Word documents, video, audio, etc.
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Implement audio/video accessibility requirements such as inclusion of transcripts for audios and videos
Application of accessibility requirements within learning applications and platforms
(portals and LMS)
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Inclusion of Accessibility standards such as ALT-Text, keyboard navigation and color contrast
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Visual alerts to provide visual indication where audio was used to indicate status within the courseware
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Support for assistive technologies such as JAWS or magnifying software
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Closed captioning for your narrations and videos
Accessibility Compliance Implementations
Implementation of ALT-Text tags for all images, animated videos and audio assets within online courseware developed using rapid authoring tools such as Articulate Storyline, Rise and Adapt
Implementation of ALT-Text tags for all images, animated videos and audio assets within custom courseware development projects developed in HTML5
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Adding ALT-Text short and long descriptions for interactive courseware
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Supplementation of all images including those used as controls and/or links, videos and audios with appropriate ALT-Text descriptions (both regular, short and long text descriptions) to support impaired learners. ​
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​ALT-Text for:
all images used in image-based questions, including for Math equations, tables, charts, graphs and diagrams
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audio description for audio-supported questions
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interactive activities where transitions are triggered by user action
all navigational components including buttons and links within the assessment application
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video animations, background music and images included within these animations/simulations
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important auditory information to support synchronized visuals and sound
​Accessibility Audits ​
Performing accessibility audits on all learning output to identify accessibility gaps
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Prepare a log of gaps and provide remediation, where possible. ​
​Accessibility Testing
Prepare guidelines checklists for both manual & automated test based on prevalent accessibility standards and guidelines
Conduct accessibility testing around WCAG guidelines to ensure that all online courseware is in sync and conforms to all WCAG compliances ​
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Conduct rigorous testing of all ALT-TEXT attributes to ensure effectiveness and appropriateness of the alt-texts used
ACCESSIBILITY COMPLIANCES R&D
Training to teams on the checklist, tools and techniques
Maintenance and updating of the checklists and tools for development and testing
Maintenance of reusable components and templates repository
Research on latest HTML5 interactions and WCAG and Section 508 standards
Creation and testing of new templates and components
