Let’s review three guidelines that talk about making content adaptable to different user needs and preferences, such as the ability to view content in different orientations, resize text for better readability, and reflow content.

What the criteria say

Orientation

1.3.4 Orientation (Level AA) states that content should not restrict its view and operation to a single display orientation, such as portrait or landscape, unless a specific display orientation is essential. This means that users should be able to view and interact with the content in either portrait or landscape orientation, without losing any information or functionality.

This might be important for learners who use a mounted device in a fixed orientation on a wheelchair as they're not able to change the orientation. 

Mobile-responsive authoring tools such as Articulate Rise 360 or Evolve by Intellum automatically scale the content to the orientation of the users' devices.

With slide-based authoring tools, such as Articulate Storyline 360, you should select the option that allows the users to view the content in either landscape or portrait view. 

Enlarging content

The following criteria are about allowing users to enlarge the text without causing other problems. 

WCAG 1.4.4 Resize text (Level AA) states that, except for captions and images of text, learners should be able to resize text to 200% without losing content or functionality. Additionally, one of the recommendations under 1.4.8 Visual Presentation (Level AAA) says that enlarging text to 200% on a standard-sized desktop/laptop display should not trigger horizontal scrolling. This means that users should be able to double the size of text without affecting functions, navigation or scrolling. 

Mobile-responsive authoring tools can automatically scale the content to the required size. However, some tools lack support for content zooming.

1.4.10 Reflow (Level AA) mainly applies to mobile devices but also to desktop screens zoomed in at 400%. It states that content should retain information and functionality, and without requiring both vertical and horizontal scrolling simultaneously. 

While Storyline 360 doesn't fully support this criterion, there are exemptions that apply to "two-dimensional" content where the layout is important in conveying meaning. 

Resources:

• Follow this link to read the full criterion of Orientation: 1.3.4: Orientation (w3.org)

• Follow this link to read about Resize text and Reflow: Resize text and reflow (Yatil)

Discussion questions:

Get Involved: Come to the LCA Spotlight LinkedIn group and join the conversation.

• What challenges do you anticipate in making your content adaptable?

• How do you think the user experience would be different if all content were designed to meet adaptability?

• How does your authoring tool support these criteria?

When you post in the community, use the hashtag #LCASpotlightAdaptability