Accessibility in Allele
Overview
Allele is committed to providing an exceptional teaching and learning experience for individuals across the globe. Every one of these individuals has unique and diverse needs in how they interact with technology. As such, we strive to ensure the platform meets the conformance criteria of standards such as WCAG 2.1 A/AA and Section 508.
We are making a concerted effort to ensure every aspect of Allele meets the high standards for accessibility, but we also understand there are always areas for improvement. We welcome any feedback from our community on how we can continue to create a learning experience that is inclusive to all.
Conformance
Please take a look at our VPAT, published in April 2023, for a detailed look at the specifics of our conformance status. In a nutshell, Allele:
- Our current VPAT mostly meets WCAG 2.1 A/AA, with each applicable criteria either supporting or partially supporting.
- Measured at > 99% in aggregate across key pages per Google Lighthouse’s accessibility auditing tool.
- Reported no issues across all but one key page, with one repeated issue reported in the authoring tool with axe® DevTools for Mozilla Firefox. axe® is a leading digital accessibility toolkit built by Deque.
Our automated accessibility testing with Lighthouse and axe® was completed using a standard team-based learning learning module: a case that contained an individual readiness assurance test, followed by a team-based readiness assurance test.
Screen Readers
Allele uses semantic HTML structure, ARIA tags, roles, landmarks, and more and should be compatible with most major screen readers (e.g. NVDA, Jaws, VoiceOver). Our manual testing for the VPAT was conducted with NVDA.
Keyboard Shortcuts
In addition to shortcuts that are provided by default from most modern web browsers, Allele provides keyboard shortcuts when working with Allele’s rich text editor:
- ctrl/cmd + b (bold)
- ctrl/cmd + i (italic)
- ctrl/cmd + alt + 1 (heading 1)
- ctrl/cmd + alt + 2 (heading 2)
- ctrl/cmd + alt + 3 (heading 3)
- ctrl/cmd + alt + 4 (heading 4)
- ctrl/cmd + alt + 5 (heading 5)
- ctrl/cmd + alt + 5 (heading 6)
- ctrl/cmd + shift + 7 (ordered list)
- ctrl/cmd + shift + 8 (bulleted list)
- shift + enter OR ctrl/cmd + enter (hardbreak)
- ctrl/cmd + z (undo)
- ctrl/cmd + y (redo)
We are progressively adding keyboard shortcuts as improvement of Allele continues. Our keyboard shortcuts require a non-printable character.
Per-student release and due date overrides
To support a common Disability Resource requirement, Allele has the ability for instructors to configure per-student due dates and release dates for phase content.
Accessibility and compatibility features
Font and image size
Allele supports browser’s built-in zooming functionality to increase both font and image size.
See how to use the related zooming feature for your browser:
Text description of images
The Builder in Allele allows the end-user to associate alternate (alt) text with any uploaded images.
See our how-to add alternate image text documentation for steps and more details.
Semantic HTML
Allele’s rich text editor allows you to create semantic HTML, including support for tags like heading (<h1> through <h6>), strong text (<strong>), emphasized text (<em>), and paragraph text (<p>).
See our how-to add semantic HTML tags in the Builder documentation for steps and more details.
Keyboard shortcuts
See the above sections for specifics on how to use Allele’s keyboard shortcuts in the rich text editor.