360° Panorama Accessibility & Disability

[Adam Blankenbicker]

Has anyone developed a virtual tour that includes certain components that allow people with certain disabilities to access all of the content? Some examples would include:

1. Operate with keyboard only, including zooming in and out, opening hotspots, and browsing carousels. (Most tours you can explore easily with the keyboard)
2. Accommodate a “screen reader”: If you open a hotspot and text appears, the screen reader will read it aloud.
3. Offer alternative text: When an image is opened, text in the image’s metadata will be read aloud that describe the image.

In the United States, there is a federal code known as “508”, so being “508 compliant, especially on government websites, is crucial.

Thoughts? Comments? Help?

Thanks~
-Adam-

[Ray Fox]

Adam, I too am seeking information on accessible panoramas. Prominently featured on our website is a panorama depicting a special education classroom, yet we’re faced with having to remove it due to accessibility issues. As mandated by California law, we must provide a comparable experience to users with disabilities, but I haven’t been able to uncover much information on this topic. If you have, I’d love to hear what you’ve discovered.

Thanks.

-Ray

[Sam Rohn]

some info about krpano and accessibility here –

https://krpano.com/forum/wbb/index.php?page=Thread&postID=61231

sam

[Adam Blankenbicker]

Hi Sam–

Sorry about being so far behind in responding to you.

Thank you for following up on this topic. It looks like one of our partners is looking into some of these issues, too, so I hope I have some news to share with you after we connect.

A possible alternative/solution I thought up was to dissect the fully-loaded tour into all of its elements and create a web page that houses the elements as standalone media.

Image the top of the page a 360 image, but below it are media boxes of text, 3D objects, videos, etc. This way, each element can have its own alternative text, and a screen reader can read the regular text. The 360 image at top can be explored as is with just the arrow keys, too. The media people at the National Park Service think this may be possible.

Plus, since we may be using 3D Vista, we also have the option of keeping it all together and publishing a separate, fully-loaded tour.

Hope all is well.

Good luck~
-Adam-

[Adam Blankenbicker]

Hi Ray–

Just wanted to let you know that the tour I was working on with accessibility issues is about to be published online. In working with the National Park Service the solution that their Web Services Division moved ahead with was to create 2 tours– A “standard version” which includes all of the pano images and associated media, with alt text and keyboard controls, etc., and an “Enhanced Version”, which is the full virtual field trip.

Unfortunately the govt. shutdown has caused there to be delays in posting the tour(s) online, but we anticipate that it should be up and running not too long after the govt. reopens. You would need to look up Shenandoah National Park Air Quality virtual field trip.

I hope when you see this it may offer you some ideas if you are still looking for a solution.

Cheers~
-Adam-

[Author]

Posts