On 23 September 2020, a new law was introduced by the European Court of Justice about Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Legislation in different countries uses the WCAG 2.1 standards as a reference to define how digital content can be made available for persons with disabilities. Learnifier was built from the start to be available, but since this law was introduced, we have ticked off even more items on the WCAG 2.1 list.
There are many changes under the hood, here are our top 3 biggest changes:
Ability to navigate with the keyboard
Easier for text-to-speech to navigate and interpret the content on the page
Manage two languages on the same page
Remember, even if the system is WCAG compatible, you are still responsible for the content. We believe that these are the 4 important things you need to focus on if your company is following these guidelines:
1. Contrast
If you have added your own colors to your platform (by going to the Settings tab and then choosing Branding), you need to examine the contrast between the background and text. We are already adjusting the text automatically so that we present black text on lighter backgrounds and vice versa. But colors can have a poor contrast to both black and white text in the middle segment. For example, use https://contrastchecker.com/ to ensure that your color combination meets the AA standard or higher.
2. Strong colors
Very strong and clear colors can be difficult to look at for a long period of time.
3. Text and video
If you use videos, it is important that you add subtitles or that the videos can be transcribed into text form.
4. Write clear headings
Clear headlines are always nice to have, but it's especially important for people with reading difficulties and impaired short-term memory. For people who navigate with the keyboard and/or use screen readers, it provides an opportunity to jump to different parts of the content.