VoiceThread - Accessibility

What is Accessibility?

‘Accessible’ means a person with a disability is afforded the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as a person without a disability in an equally effective and equally inclusive manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use.

Accessibility Considerations

Users can access VoiceThread in either Standard or Universal mode on the VoiceThread website and from within Desire2Learn. Universal mode is recommended by VoiceThread for screen reader users. Universal mode can be accessed by navigating directly to voicethread.colorado.edu/u.  

Information for Screen Reader Users

The following issues have been noted in VoiceThread when accessed with a screen reader:

General Issues

• When an external microphone is plugged in, the user is prompted to allow the microphone when leaving an audio or video comment. This popup prompt is difficult to find in order to select “allow,” and the user only has a 5-second countdown to accomplish this before the recording begins.

Standard

• The Standard version of VoiceThread is generally not accessible due to a lack of labeling, reliance on mouse-over actions, improperly structured or missing headings, poorly defined menus and lists, and poor focus handling.
• Comments cannot be added to VoiceThreads without use of the mouse.
• VoiceThreads are very difficult to access or edit without use of the mouse on the home page.

Universal

• Limited functionality compared to Standard; users are unable to rewind or back up in the media player, and are unable to add cover art.
• Tabbing between media player controls may cause video to play and pause unexpectedly.
• Audio comments are difficult to record due to countdown timer and difficulties stopping the recording. Audio comments are also not supported in Microsoft Edge.
• Headings and links are not all properly labeled.

Information for Screen Magnifier Users

General Issues

• When an external microphone is plugged in, the user is prompted to allow the microphone when leaving an audio or video comment. This popup prompt is difficult to find in order to select “allow,” and the text is quite small. The user only has a 5-second countdown to accomplish this in before the recording begins.

Standard

• Adding comments is difficult to do while using a screen magnifier due to the layout of commenting controls.
• The Standard version of VoiceThread has many instances of low color contrast. Consider using a browser plugin on this website to override style sheets with high contrast options.
• Success messages are displayed for only a few seconds after create and update actions, and may occur “offscreen” while using a magnifier.
• Many elements rely on mouseover to appear, and may be more difficult to access and view fully with a magnifier.

Recommendations for Instructors

If you have a student using assistive technology in a course in which you utilize VoiceThread, please familiarize yourself with the limitations listed above for the particular type of assistive technology they use. If you have a student using a screen reader in your course, for example, they may encounter trouble in adding voice comments. Please also review the “Information for Content Creators” section below for details on creating accessible video content in VoiceThread.

Follow general video accessibility guidelines in creating video content for VoiceThread, such as narrating any visuals that appear in your video. For example, don’t use vague language like “This over here indicates…”. Instead, describe what you are referencing, like “This graph shows increasing purchases over time, which indicates…”. Recommend these practices to your students if they leave video comments as well.

If you have a student with a captioning accommodation in your course, please contact the captioning service to discuss how to proceed with captioning your VoiceThread content.

Information for Content Creators

To make the VoiceThreads you create accessible, consider adding closed captioning and describing the visual content of each slide. Below is a list of help articles that explain how to accomplish each task.

• Request closed captioning from the CU Boulder captioning service
• Create your own closed captions using DIY captioning tools like YouTube
• Add closed captioning to VoiceThreads
• Describe the visual content of each slide using the “Title” attribute

Please also reference OIT’s guidelines for creating accessible videos for additional recommendations.

Service Road Map

VoiceThread recently switched to an HTML5 video player, and is in the process of remediating its platform for accessibility. For questions about the status of specific issues, please contact OIT at help@colorado.edu or 303-735-4357.

Additional Accessibility Information

VoiceThread Accessibility Whitepaper: includes VoiceThread’s VPAT, which explains VoiceThread’s 508 compliancy. For more information about the accessibility of VoiceThread, visit the VoiceThread accessibility website.

Get Help or Provide Feedback

OIT has partnered with Disability Services to provide assistance for accessibility issues related to OIT supported services and we want to hear from you about this service. If you need assistance using this service or you have more information about the accessibility of this service that we should share with others, please contact the IT Service Center at help@colorado.edu or at 303-735-4357 (5-HELP from an on-campus phone).