Guideline 4.1 - Compatible

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 4.1.1

Parsing Level A In content implemented using markup languages, elements have complete start and end tags, elements are nested according to their specifications, elements do not contain duplicate attributes, and any IDs are unique, except where the specifications allow these features.

Explanation

This is where the guidelines start to refer to technical standards. This first point requires all code to be set up correctly and that pages are set up correctly, for example.

What does this mean for your content in Evolve?

Evolve is obviously a robust tool that has been built by expert developers and meets these criteria. There’s nothing an end-user needs to consider with regard to this point.

Guideline 4.1.2

Name, Role, Value Level A For all user interface components (including but not limited to: form elements, links, and components generated by scripts), the name and role can be programmatically determined; states, properties, and values that can be set by the user can be programmatically set; and notification of changes to these items is available to user agents, including assistive technologies.

Explanation

This refers to technical standards within web pages to ensure they have been set up and labeled correctly, and that elements on screen can correctly be recognized by assistive technologies such as screen readers.

What does this mean for your content in Evolve?

All the development work for Evolve ensures that the output meets these standards. There is nothing an end-user needs to do to meet this requirement.

Guideline 4.1.3

Status Messages Level AA In content implemented using markup languages, status messages can be programmatically determined through role or properties such that they can be presented to the user by assistive technologies without receiving focus.

Explanation

A status message can take a number of different forms, but most of them don’t apply to eLearning content. An example of a status message would be when you upload a photo to social media and a message informs you it was unsuccessful.

What does this mean for your content in Evolve?

A status message is used to alert the learner to a change or that an action was unsuccessful. There aren’t many circumstances where the learner needs to be notified like this. Let’s take an example of a situation like this in Evolve: a learner using a screen reader tries to answer a multiple-choice question, but they haven’t selected an answer option.

When they arrive at the Submit button, the screen reader will tell them what the button is, and the fact it’s unavailable. When they go back through the answer options, the screen reader will tell them each one is unselected. The information is there for the learner to alert them to the status of any interaction they are navigating through.

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