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accessible authoring tool for online tutorials

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From: deblist
Date: Jun 29, 2010 1:48PM

Good afternoon, brilliant accessibility hive mind. My coworkers
in an academic environment are looking for an authoring tool
which will help administrative staff in the University produced
interactive tutorials. It needs to be an accessible tool, and it
needs to produce accessible tutorials. Currently, content is all
text-based multiple choice questions, with different feedback for
each answer. They want an authoring tool that doesn't require any
particular technical skills besides basic computer use.

The tools they've looked at so far all produce Flash, which seems
kind of overkill to me, but hey, if it's accessible Flash, at
least.

The department has defined accessibility as "the need for people
to be able to complete the tutorial via a screen reader,
keystrokes, or voice-activation software as a baseline level of
functionality."

They looked at Articulate, but apparently Articulate could not
meet that basic level of accessibility. Now they are looking at
Adobe Presenter, which at least on paper seems to meet the basic
requirements. I worry, of course, because Flash needs to have
effort put into it in order to be accessible, and if Presenter
doesn't do those accessibility steps automatically I'm not sure
how much the tutorial-creating staff will remember to go the
extra step.

Do all y'all have any opinions about any other tools which might
meet this need? Or, for that matter, about Adobe Presenter. I
assume Andrew has opinions about Presenter. :-)

Thank you so much,

-deborah