Introduction
Accessibility refers to making products usable for people with visual, auditory, motor, and other disabilities.
Examples of accessibility features for software products include screen reader support, text equivalents for graphics, keyboard shortcuts, and change of display colors to high contrast.
The current support for accessibility is detailed in the RoboHelp Server Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR).
The ACR describes accessibility compliance for RoboHelp Server according to Section 508, EN 301 549, and WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.1.
Use the above mentioned compliance as a reference when hosting responsive knowledge-based content on RoboHelp Server.
You can upload help content that is compliant with Section 508 for users who have visual or hearing impairments, mobility impairments, or other types of disabilities. You can also take steps at the design level to remove obstacles for people with disabilities viewing your Adobe RoboHelp and FrameMaker projects.
These solutions support government agencies in meeting their users’ needs through Section 508 compliance, and companies who are committed to improving accessibility.
Worldwide accessibility standards
Many countries, including the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, and countries in the European Union, have adopted accessibility standards based on those developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). W3C publishes the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, a document that prioritizes actions that designers should take to make web content accessible. For information about the Web Accessibility Initiative, see the W3C website at www.w3.org/WAI.
What is Section 508- compliance?
In the United States, the law that governs accessibility is commonly known as Section 508, which is an amendment to the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973. This section sets the standard for Federal agencies to ensure accessibility for people with disabilities is met when buying, developing, maintaining, or using electronic technology. Failure to meet the set standards lead to noncompliance.
What does accessible mean?
In general, an information technology system is made accessible for people with disabilities ensuring that it can be used in various ways and non-dependent on a single sense or ability. For example, users should be able to navigate with a keyboard, in addition to a mouse (not with a mouse only). The visual and auditory elements of a user interface must accommodate both hearing-impaired and visually impaired users.
Use the suggestions below to make your Adobe RoboHelp content accessible-friendly.
For text
- Provide your project with informative and unique page titles.
- Use the right formatting for headings such as H1/H2/H3 instead of large bold text.
- Add descriptive text links which talks about link destination. Avoid using text such as “click here”.
For more information on adding text in RoboHelp, see Add text and other elements.
For images
- Specify meaningful text alternatives (Alternate Text) to describe what an image is about.
- Create image links which can be helpful to redirect users to readable content.
- Add an appropriate title to your images, which will be displayed when hovered over.
- Add screen tips for any image and image maps so that it can be read by assistive software.
For more information on using images in RoboHelp, see Work with images.
For multimedia
- Add onscreen transcripts and captions that appear along on screen to aid users with hearing impairment.
For more information on using multimedia in RoboHelp, see Work with multimedia.
For tables and forms
- Ensure to add descriptive labels to form fields.
- Use screen tips on buttons in forms.
- Use headers for rows and columns to help explain how cells are related.
- Add appropriate table captions to aid users identify what the table is about.
For more information on formatting tables in RoboHelp, see Work with tables.
What other types of assistive software do end users need?
Screen readers or text-to-speech utilities (which read the contents of the active window, menu options, or text you have typed) and screen review aids translate onscreen text to speech or to a dynamic, refreshable Braille display. This assistive technology can provide keyboard assistance or shortcuts, captions for speech and sound, and visual warnings such as flashing toolbars. Tools available include VoiceOver and JAWS.
Support for screen readers and screen magnifiers
A screen reader recites text that appears on the computer screen. It also reads non-textual information, such as button labels and image descriptions in the application, provided in accessibility tags or attributes.
RoboHelp Server offers limited support for assistive technologies (which includes screen readers and screen magnifiers).
Adobe RoboHelp Server currently supports the following screen readers:
- JAWS + Firefox
- NVDA + Chrome
- VoiceOver + Safari
Users with photosensitive epilepsy
Adobe RoboHelp Server does not contain content which may trigger seizures.
Support for Keyboard navigation
RoboHelp Server currently supports keyboard navigation on a generic level.
Users can use the Tab and arrow keys to navigate through the pages. These keys help users to navigate elements on the page and read content using a screen reader.
Support for color contrast
Adobe RoboHelp Server supports published content by authors meeting the 4.5:1 contrast ratio. Irrespective of the graphics used the same is being hosted on RoboHelp Server. However, reporting modules in RoboHelp Server with graph content such as pie or bar charts and several user interface controls does not meet the WCAG 2.1 color contrast ratio.
Visit Adobe RoboHelp Server Accessibility Conformance Report to know specifics about Adobe RoboHelp Server’s support for the above capabilities.
