NBC Learn Is 508 Accessible!
NBC Learn is committed to making our site and all of its content fully accessible for users with disabilities. We teamed up with the accessibility experts at Interactive Accessibility to guide us in meeting the Section 508 requirements as well as WCAG 2.0. Our goal is to ensure that our improvements will allow users with motor, vision, or hearing disabilities to continually have the same wonderful experience exploring our archives as all users. NBC Learn is now certified and has completed its VPAT® (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template). To learn more, visit the official sites for Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act and W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. We hope that you will enjoy the new and exciting changes we have made. NBC Learn is committed to accessibility as an ongoing activity so we look forward to your feedback!
Keyboard Access
Navigate with the Touch of a Key
Significant changes have been made so that users without fine motor control or the ability to execute simultaneous actions may browse the latest collections and view the newest NBC Learn content with ease. We have enabled seamless keyboard navigation throughout our pages and within our Cue Card.
NBC Learn K-12 and NBC Learn Higher Ed are more accessible than ever before! The HTML structural changes we have made now enable users to use tab navigation controls across all collections, features, and multimedia. Our pages have been re-structured in such a way that the tabbing order now follows the natural, logical order of the HTML. This makes navigation a seamless experience for all keyboard access users. You can now easily navigate between all pages as well as click each and every link anchor with the touch of a key.
The NBC Learn carousel brings users the newest content, featured collections and the latest stories. For your browsing convenience, we have completely rewritten our carousel and equipped it with dedicated keyboard controls.
NOTE: GIF animation below is a demonstration of functionality
Tab Focus
Once you're on a slide, you can now use the tab key to directly move between the previous slide button, the story title, and the next slide button.
Previous / Next Slide
We have enabled the use of the left and right arrow keys to control the movement of the carousel. Go to the previous slide by pressing the left arrow key and continue on to the next slide by pressing the right arrow key.
Pause Carousel
So that NBC Learn users may read carousel content with ease, we enabled the escape key to pause and play the movement of the carousel.
Skip to Main Content
Created for our screen reader users, the "Skip to Main Content" button is avaiable through tab navigation and helps users avoid unnecessary tab stops to arrive at the main contents of each page
We have made our revolutionary Cue Card ever better by adding keyboard access. It has helped us achieve our goal of opening our archives to an ever wider audience. Let us introduce the simple navigation controls and the keyboard shortcuts we have created for your convenience:
NOTE: GIF animation below is a demonstration of functionality
Basic Controls
Tab Focus
We have reengineered our flippable NBC Learn Cue Card to be equipped with tabbable buttons, video playback controls, and Cue Card features.
Activate Item
When tab navigating the Cue Card, once landing on an item you would like to click, simply press the Enter key to activate it. We have enabled the Cue Card to accept the Enter key as a mouse click.
Click
When tab navigating in either the video or image Cue Card, pressing the space bar will act as a click on any link, control button or Cue Card drawer.
Enter Fullscreen
Press the Control key with the 'F' key to enter full screen viewing mode of the Cue Card. This enables users to view videos and images at a higher resolution.
Exit Fullscreen / Close
While in the Cue Card, the escape key will allow you to not only exit full screen viewing mode but also close the Cue Card itself when pressing it in regular view.
Transcript Scrolling
When the transcript tab is open (See 'Cue Card Video Transcript') you can scroll up and down through the transcript using the 'Page Up' and 'Page Down' keys.
Video Controls
Play / Pause Video
When you are watching a Cue Card video, you can use the space bar to toggle between the play and pause video controls.
NOTE: The space bar will act as a click when using tab navigation
Play / Pause Video
When you are watching a Cue Card video and using the tab key to navigate, you can use the 'P' key to toggle between the play and pause video controls.
Skip to Point in Video
The number keys enable you to skip backwards and forwards through a video by a percentage. For example, pressing '1', '5', or '9' respectively would bring you to the 10%, 50%, or 90% mark in the video. '0' brings you back to the begining of the video.
NOTE: JAWS users will need to hold down the CTRL key while pressing the numbers
NOTE: JAWS users will need to hold down the CTRL key while pressing the numbers
Volume Control
While playing a Cue Card video, press the plus key to increase the volume and the minus key to decrease it. When pressing these keys, the volume will increase or decrese by 10% and the current volume will be reflected on the Cue Card volume icon.
NOTE: JAWS users will need to hold down the CTRL key while pressing plus and minus
Image Viewer Controls
Zoom In / Zoom Out
When viewing images and documents in our Cue Card, zoom in by using the plus sign key or the up arrow key when you are in full screen mode. Zoom out by pressing the minus sign key or the down arrow key when you are in full screen mode.
Panning
When you have zoomed into an image, you can pan up by pressing or holding down the 'W' key, pan down with the 'S' key, pan left with the 'A' key, and pan right with the 'D' key.
Panning in JAWS©
Since 'W', 'A' 'S' and 'D' are already reserved by JAWS, you can pan up with '8', down with '2', left with '4', and right with '6' on the Number Pad.
NOTE: Feature only works on the Number Pad with 'Num Lock' on.
Visual Improvements
See Content Clearer than Before
Improving accessibility for users with low vision or hearing impairments is critical as one of NBC Learn's major goals is to deliver the most relevant videos, images and documents on a daily basis. We want to ensure that users can view our content with ease because everyone should have the great experience using NBC Learn.
We have taken every piece of text, form, and button on NBC Learn and redesigned it to meet the Level AA Color Contrast Ratio. This means that every image element and piece of regular-sized text has a minimum color contrast ratio of 4.5:1. Larger-sized text (at least 18pt or 14pt bold) has a minimum color contrast ratio of 3:1. Here are two examples of the many changes we have made:
Form fields BEFORE meeting WCAG 2.0
Form fields AFTER meeting WCAG 2.0
Many users rely on using High Contrast Mode on their computer screens to navigate the internet, but this can often cause images and visual elements to disappear. We have restructured our page and converted the format of our images so that all of NBC Learn's relevant and necessary visual elements are visible, even when switching to High Contrast Mode.
GIF Animation of NBC Learn in High Contrast Mode
Enter High Contrast Mode
Entering High Contrast Mode on the
Windows Operation System:
Press the left Alt and left Shift keys along with the Print Screen key (may also be displayed on keyboards as "PrtScn") at the same time and your computer will prompt you to enter High Contrast Mode.
Equipped throughout all NBC Learn pages is a custom-styled focus indicator built around visual accessibility guidelines. Now when you tab forward and backwards within our pages, you will see a dashed, black border around the current element in focus.
NOTE: GIF animation below is a demonstration of functionality
Assistive Technologies
Screen Reader Support
We are proud to announce that NBC Learn and the NBC Learn Cue Card are now fully compatible with the JAWS© Screen Reader for Windows. These changes in conjunction with screen reader technologies assist users who are blind or low-vision to explore everything that NBC Learn has to offer.
Following the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative WCAG 2.0 Guidelines, we have made our web content accessible by providing semantic information about functional elements contained on NBC Learn. This will help assistive devices such as screen readers to "convey appropriate information to persons with disabilities." Screen readers can now describe exactly what your cursor or indicator is focused on as well as the functionality.
We have provided alt text on every image so that screen readers may easily describe what is being displayed to the user. Additionally we have provided link anchor titles so that screen reader users may be informed of the functionality of a link before they click it.
Alternative Text
Example: alt="President Obama in Washington"
Describing an image is important for users with no vision. The image description in context with the story can be all the difference in understanding what is being presented.
Our NBC Learn Cue Card has two easy-to-find locations for screen readers to access full video transcripts. One option is to open the "Transcript" drawer on the upper right-hand side of the Cue Card. It will provide a full video transcript that can be read by JAWS©. The other option is to activate the "Print" drawer found on the bottom of the Cue Card which will open a new page with a text version of the Cue Card. This page provides the selected video's metadata along with a full video transcript following this information.
Cue Card Transcript Tab
Print View Full Video Transcript
Support for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Get the Story Behind the Video
Whether you are accessing a video on the latest news or an NBC Learn original series, an integral part to understanding the story is the written content behind each video. We have equipped our Cue Card with features such as closed captioning and full video transcripts to enrich the experience of deaf NBC Learn users.
All NBC Learn video Cue Cards have real-time, synchronized closed captioning. When accessing the Cue Card video controls, you may activate Closed Captioning by clicking with your mouse or by pressing the enter key when focused on the CC button found on the right side of the controls.
Closed Captioning Button
Cue Card with Closed Captioning
All NBC Learn Cue Cards are equipped with full video transcripts. The "Transcript" fly-out tab can be found on the upper right hand side of the Cue Card. Once opened, it will slide out to reveal the title of the video along with the full transcript.
Cue Card Transcript Tab
We hope that these features and improvements make NBC Learn even more useful for you! We're always eager to hear your feedback, so please let us know what you think!
