YuJa Panorama: Simplifying Accessible Course Creation

What Are Components of Digital Accessibility?

Within accessibility, YuJa aims to ensure it’s compliant with the principles of Universal Design:

  • Media content must be perceivable, meaning that it is visible to all regardless of their ability. 
  • Content has to be operable, with an interface that can be navigated by all. This is where features like keyboard shortcuts and audio description come in. 
  • Content must be intuitive and simple. If students have a learning disability or they’re less intuitive when it comes to technology, institutions should be looking for ways to make it easy for them to operate and use as they work through the courses. 
  • Course content also has to be robust; essentially, it has to be scalable.

The Accessibility Solution — YuJa Panorama

YuJa Panorama is unique in that it adds to the comprehensiveness of the digital accessibility offered in multiple ways: 

  • Generating Accessible Alternatives: The high-velocity engine of Panorama digs deep into the file data structure to understand the current state of the content’s accessibility. By integrating into an institution’s learning management system, Panorama can automatically generate accessible formats for users. For example, when an instructor uploads a piece of content into the LMS, YuJa Panorama generates various files, such as Braille for those who are visually impaired, high-contrast for color blind individuals, text-to-speech, HTML, plain text and a tagged PDF version. 
  • Reporting: Panorama also tracks and delivers reports and insights on how accessibility is scaling within an institution. A visual accessibility gauge is located next to the file to make it easy for instructors to measure the accessibility of their course. Reporting allows instructors and administrators to effectively judge the efficacy of their accessible technology, so they can rest assured they’re doing everything they can to assist all types of learners with accessible digital assets.
  • Innovation: YuJa, Inc. is actively innovating to improve Panorama for Digital Accessibility. For example, we’re identifying issues and providing potential solutions to better serve our clients, such as recognizing decorative images, which don’t need alt text, and auto-generating alt text for other images to serve visually impaired learners. This is just one of many objectives our development team is tackling. 

Learn more about YuJa Panorama and it’s features, or request a demonstration

YuJa Helps Make Content Accessible to All

Two students look at tablet in a library.For example, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 ensure that students with disabilities are given access to services and are eligible for accommodations to meet their needs. Section 504 works in tandem with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) to protect those with disabilities from exclusion and discrimination in educational settings, the workforce and even in their communities. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act mandates that federal agencies make information and communications technology accessible to people with disabilities. 

Technology and Disability Accommodations

Educational technology is required to meet the federal accessibility regulations that make it easy to navigate for students with disabilities and instructors alike. YuJa is fully compliant with Section 508/VPAT, WCAG, CVAA and abides by FERPA and security regulations.

The YuJa suite of products automates many accessibility features for students, primarily through the Enterprise Video Platform and YuJa Panorama for Accessibility: 

  • Videos are auto-captioned, making them accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Auto-captioning creates a word-for-word transcript of a lecture, allowing students to both listen to and read lectures, depending on how they best learn. 
  • High-quality audio recording and text captioning makes material accessible to students with visual disabilities.
  • Live ASR allows live-stream events to be captioned in real-time for viewers to provide improved accessibility to content. 
  • Alternative text is included for images and video thumbnails to convey meaning to users.
  • The Video Platform scales well when text is enlarged up to 200%, such as when used with screen readers. 
  • The HTML5 media player provides keyboard shortcuts.
  • Alternative formats of course material can be generated in HTML, Electronic Braille, EPUB, Audio (Speech-to-Text), High Contrast, and as Tagged PDF files.

YuJa also supports regulations for the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act with: 

  • Video Origination: YuJa offers full support for captioning workflows, including automation, of full-length video programming, Internet video clips, and archival video programming.
  • Quality Standards: Captioning workflows ensure that captioning meets the quality standards outlined by the FCC for clarity, accuracy, timing, completeness, and placement.
  • End-User Controls: Capabilities for modification of captions is included, with tools for end-users to change the text color, opacity, size, font, background color, and window color.
  • Live and Near-Live Video Captioning: YuJa supports recorded and live captioning workflows, including for implementation standards provided by the National Captioning Institute, a non-profit organization.

No matter who the learner is or their abilities, YuJa’s products aim to simplify workflows to enable more accessible, usable technology.

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