Accessibility best practices

The most important aspect of creating accessible demonstrations and simulations with Adobe® Captivate® software is understanding the audience's varying needs; a demonstration is helpful only if it is consistent with the way the end user works with his or her computer. People who primarily use the keyboard will not be able to perform techniques that rely on the mouse, so demonstrations that describe such actions will be of little use to them.

As an example, consider a demonstration that illustrates how to print a document in a word processing program. A version that illustrates clicking the Print icon would be of very little value for people who are blind. Instead, these users would benefit from a demonstration that explains how to accomplish the same task choosing File > Print.

Both versions of this demonstration should be accessible. The version that relies on the mouse may provide only a single description for the entire movie. The version that relies on the keyboard may provide multiple descriptions on a step-by-step basis to ensure the user understands how to accomplish the prescribed task.

Your Captivate project should have the Enable Accessibility preference set in the Project's Publish Settings.

Follow these steps to ensure the Publish Settings have Accessibility enabled:

• Open the movie.
• Choose Edit > Preferences.
• Choose Publish Settings from the Project Category in the list of categories.
• Check the box labelled Enable Accessibility if it is not checked.
• Click OK.

Every movie created in Adobe Captivate should include a movie description. For demonstrations that are short or that rely heavily on the mouse and are thus irrelevant to screen reader users, the movie description alone will suffice. Longer movies should provide a description including a content overview and context for the user, along with individual slide descriptions where necessary.

Follow these steps to add a description to an Adobe Captivate movie:

• Open the movie.
• Choose Edit > Preferences.
• Choose Project from the list of categories.
• Type your description in the Description field.
• Click OK.

An individual slide should include a description if it is an important step in the process or if it presents a significant concept visually. Some movies, particularly those of recorded demonstrations, may not need descriptions for each individual slide because often several slides cover one concept. In these cases, place the description on the last slide of that group.

When providing a description for an individual slide, it is important to pause the movie on that slide. This provides the user the opportunity to return to the top of the movie and read the description. Otherwise, the movie plays and moves past the slide containing the description.

To make it easier for a screen reader user to understand when a movie is paused, it is recommended that an audio cue, such as a tone, be associated with the Continue button.

To add a description to a slide, use the following steps:

• Open the movie and select the appropriate slide.
• Choose Slide > Properties.
• Click the Accessibility button.
• Type the slide description in the Slide Accessibility Text dialog box.
• Click OK.

To add a pause button to a slide, use the following steps:

• Choose Insert > Button.
• Type "Continue" or other appropriate label as Button Text.
• Click the Select Keys button.
• Select the Attach a Shortcut option.
• Select Enter as shortcut key.
• Click OK.
• Select the audio tab.
• Click the Import button.
• Select Tone.mp3.
• Click Open.
• Click Apply.
• Click OK.
• Position the button on your screen.

Adobe Captivate includes a set of accessible question types including multiple choice, true and false, and Likert scale. To ensure that your quiz is accessible, limit questions to these types. The short answer and matching question types are not accessible.

For people who are deaf or hard of hearing, the audio content of an Adobe Captivate movie is not accessible. To provide access to this information, place a transcript of the audio content in a caption on each screen.

Adding click areas to your movie is an easy way to create simulations that make Adobe Captivate movies much more than simple demonstrations. However, for people who have difficulty using the mouse, click areas are not meaningful ways of interacting with content. To allow people who rely on the keyboard to navigate content to access simulations containing click areas, these objects have been made keyboard accessible. With the 508 compliance option selected (which is enabled by default), click areas are accessible by default. In addition, they have a text equivalent for screen reader users to let them know that the button is a click area. Moving to the click area and pressing Enter will allow keyboard users to advance through a simulation even if they cannot use the mouse.