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Thread: accessible authoring tool for online tutorials

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Number of posts in this thread: 6 (In chronological order)

From: deblist@suberic.net
Date: Tue, Jun 29 2010 1:48PM
Subject: accessible authoring tool for online tutorials
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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

From: ckrugman@sbcglobal.net
Date: Wed, Jun 30 2010 8:33AM
Subject: Re: accessible authoring tool for online tutorials
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Some of the Internet survey sites present questions in a multiple choice
format along with Interactive materials. An example of such a site to
explore and determine its relevance would be surveymonkey.com. I don't know
about the technical operation of the site but many organizations use it to
design surveys and I have found it to be totally accdessible with JAWS
unless there is an error on the part of the posting the survey.
Chuck
----- Original Message -----
From: < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 11:49 AM
Subject: [WebAIM] accessible authoring tool for online tutorials


> 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
>

From: Langum, Michael J
Date: Wed, Jun 30 2010 8:57AM
Subject: Re: accessible authoring tool for online tutorials
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Deborah,

You might try contacting Jon Gunderson ( = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ) at the University of Illinois. He has a group dedicated to making content at U. of I. accessible. They have reviewed a number of products.

-- Mike Langum
Asst. Webmaster, WWW.OPM.GOV
U.S. Office of Personnel Management


-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 2:49 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: [WebAIM] accessible authoring tool for online tutorials


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

From: Michael Boam
Date: Wed, Jun 30 2010 11:51AM
Subject: Re: accessible authoring tool for online tutorials
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Deborah

Have you seen S5 Reloaded?
It is a HTML presentation tool with audio and effects.
Effects could be enhanced easily with a JavaScript library like jQuery.

While it is HTML I don't know how well it reads for screen readers, I
suspect OK because without a style sheet its just a big document. Perhaps
seasoned screen readers could comment. There are demos on the website.

Also because it is HTML it wont need any plugins and it will degrade to
text.
http://www.netzgesta.de/S5/features.php

Mike








On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 7:49 PM, < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> 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
>

From: ckrugman@sbcglobal.net
Date: Thu, Jul 01 2010 12:54PM
Subject: Re: accessible authoring tool for online tutorials
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I briefly checked out the demos on the site using JAWS 11 and IE8 and had o
pproblems with it.
Chuck
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Boam" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 9:52 AM
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] accessible authoring tool for online tutorials


> Deborah
>
> Have you seen S5 Reloaded?
> It is a HTML presentation tool with audio and effects.
> Effects could be enhanced easily with a JavaScript library like jQuery.
>
> While it is HTML I don't know how well it reads for screen readers, I
> suspect OK because without a style sheet its just a big document. Perhaps
> seasoned screen readers could comment. There are demos on the website.
>
> Also because it is HTML it wont need any plugins and it will degrade to
> text.
> http://www.netzgesta.de/S5/features.php
>
> Mike
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 7:49 PM, < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
>> 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
>>

From: deblist@suberic.net
Date: Fri, Jul 02 2010 9:21AM
Subject: Re: accessible authoring tool for online tutorials
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Thank you so much, everyone. I will forward this information on to the people making the decision.

-Deborah