Guide to creating accessible VoiceThreads
There are lots of accessibility features baked into VoiceThread. It is designed to be accessible for an incredibly diverse group of users, from very young pre-writers who can only communicate by speaking but not writing, to Deaf and Hard of Hearing users who need to speak using ASL, to blind users, to students with dyslexia and related visual processing disabilities, to adults in workforce training programs who have all manner of cognitive and scheduling differences. All of those communities of users, and many more, are using VoiceThread to express themselves and connect with others.
But of course, and unsurprisingly, they all use it differently. So when you first create a VoiceThread, it’s a space that will allow you to work with almost any kind of users you can think of, but you will need to put in a little thought to make sure that your creation is accessible to all members of your audience. We have lots of tips to help you do that!
Alt Text
Alt text is a written description of an image that isn’t actually visible on screen to sighted users but is read aloud by a screen reader. If you use an image in VoiceThread, type out a clear description of that image in the alt text field so that blind or low-visibility users will still have full access to the content.
Bonus feature: If you upload a document slide or PDF, the text from that slide will automatically be pulled into the alt text field so you don’t have to recreate it manually.
Audio descriptions
Audio descriptions are much like alt text, but you actually record the description instead of typing it out in text. This allows you to be more expressive with your own voice instead of relying on a screen reader to convey that information for you.
Closed captioning
Most institutional VoiceThread licenses include our automatic captioning service, which is pretty wonderful because it’s all quick and effortless. 100% of all content created by members of these licenses will go to our automatic caption provider and be ready in minutes. You can also use our quick caption editor to catch any mistakes or misunderstandings from the machine that generates that text.
If you aren’t part of a license that has automatic captioning, be sure to request captions for each slide and comment manually. There is a free option to do this in VoiceThread with a 4-day turnaround time, or your institution might opt to integrate with third-party professional caption providers.
How to add, edit, and use closed captioning
Multiple forms of content
One of the tricks to making sure your VoiceThread is as broadly accessible as possible is to provide multiple formats of the same learning content so that users can self-select what method works best for them. Text-only learning content is simply not accessible to many people, but neither is only video, or only audio. A VoiceThread supports the inclusion of dozens of digital file types, and the strategy to attain the highest possible accessibility profile is to use more than one of them. For example, if you upload an image or document, also record an audio comment or audio description to describe that content, and perhaps do it via a webcam so you can convey emotion and meaning with your face. If your learning content is primarily video, make sure that captions and transcripts are available to people who process by reading better than by listening.
Multiple modes of learning content are a foundational method for improving overall accessibility!
Visual contrast and clarity
A simple but sometimes forgotten accessibility consideration is simple contrast. If you have light blue text on a light green background, that’s hard to see. It might be annoying to most users, but it will be outright impossible for people with low vision. Similarly, if you are recording a webcam video, make sure your face is well lit. If there’s a window behind you, you’ll just be a silhouette, and much of your warmth and nonverbal communication will be lost.