Articulate Studio and Section 508 Accessibility
Article Last Updated
This article applies to:
It’s our goal to help people with disabilities interact as fully as possible with the interactive e-learning courses you create in Articulate Studio (Presenter, Quizmaker, and Engage).
The following table outlines the many ways we’ve optimized Studio to meet the requirements of Section 508 accessibility of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
| Section 508 Accessibility Requirement | Studio Support |
| Keyboard Support | You can execute most Studio functions using a keyboard. Exceptions include drag-and-drop and hotspot interactions. |
| Content Focus | Studio displays a yellow box around the shape that’s the current focus and reports it to assistive technology. |
| Flicker Reduction | Studio does not use flashing or blinking text, objects, or other elements with a frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz. (Note: Video imported by course authors should also conform to this standard.) |
| Non-Visual Operation and Information Retrieval | Studio supports the JAWS screen reader. |
| Large Text | Studio supports the JAWS screen reader and makes it easy for course authors to create large text versions of slides. |
| Text Equivalents | Studio provides text equivalents for every non-text element. |
| Assistive Technology—Ready UI | Studio reports an object’s or image’s type, state, and description to the accessibility interface. |
| Assistive Technology—Ready Forms | When forms are used, Studio provides the type, description, and state information for field elements. (Note: Course authors must include clear written directions for completing the form.) |
| Assistive Technology—Ready Scripts | All content elements in Studio include functional text that can be read by assistive technology. |
Course author’s role in Section 508 Accessibility compliance
As you build a course in Studio, you’ll make design decisions that impact Section 508 accessibility compliance. The following table outlines how you can create courses that are more accessible to people with disabilities.
| Section 508 Accessibility Requirement | Author-Controlled Compliance |
| Image Consistency | When you use bitmap images to identify controls, status indicators, or other programmatic elements, assign a consistent meaning to those images throughout your course. |
| Animation (Alternative) | When you convey information in an animation, provide an alternate, non-animated slide for the content. |
| Keyboard | If you include drag-and-drop or hotspot interactions, provide an alternate, keyboard-controlled interaction. |
| Color Coding (Alternative) | Don’t use color coding as the only means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element. |
| Multimedia (Alternative Synchronization) | When using multimedia, provide text captions that are synchronized with audio and video. |
| Text-Only (Alternative) | Make a text-only version of the course available to learners. |
| Skip Links | Give learners a way to skip repetitive navigation links. |
| Open/Closed Captions | Provide open or closed captions for all informational video, multimedia, and audio. |
| Audio Descriptions | Provide audio descriptions for all content. |
| User-Selectable Audio and Text Descriptions | Make all display of alternate text and audio descriptions user-selectable. |
| Support for Hearing Impaired | Add notes or captions to slides containing audio and video. |