Accessibility player

ThingLink's accessibility player is a dedicated viewing mode designed to enhance the accessibility of ThingLink images and videos. This player adheres to WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards to ensure content is more accessible to the users.

Key features include screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation, alternative text for images, high contrast mode, adjustable text size, captions and transcripts.

This article covers:

• How the accessibility player works
• Accessibility player for media projects
  
  • Share a link to the accessibility player
  • Display an accessibility player link under the embedded ThingLink
  • Display the accessibility player button as part of your content
• Accessibility player for scenarios
  • How to share the accessibility view for scenarios
• Notes & Limitations

What is the accessibility player?

The accessibility player is a special page that shows the transcript and content of all tags clearly. It has a widget that lets viewers change how the page looks and use the built-in screenreader.

Check out a sample page here. Follow the 'Move to next scene' links in the first three tags to see other pages with more content.

Accessibility player for media projects

Option 1: share a link to the accessibility player

Open the media project you'd like to share, click the 'Share' button, select 'Accessibility' and copy the URL:

Option 2: display an accessibility player link under the embedded ThingLink

1. Open the media project you'd like to share.
2. Click the 'Share' button and open the 'Embed code' tab.
3. Check the 'Include web accessibility link' box.
4. Copy the code and insert it into your webpage.

The embedded ThingLink will be accompanied by a link to the accessibility player, like this:

Click here to view the accessible version of this interactive content

You can customize the text of the link or extract the URL if you'd like to use it separately.

Option 3: Display the accessibility player button as part of your content

To display the accessibility button in the bottom-right corner of your scene, edit your scene, go to Settings, and click the accessibility icon in the left-side panel to toggle the button on or off:

When the viewer clicks the button, the scene opens in the accessibility player.

Accessibility player for scenarios

The accessibility player for scenarios is similar to the accessibility player for media projects - it is a separate special page that displays all content of the scenario in a way that is easier to navigate with keyboard controls. Any ThingLink scenes that are part of the scenario will automatically open in the accessibility player mode.

How to share the accessibility view for scenarios

Start editing your scenario, click the Share button, and select the Accessibility tab. Copy the accessibility link and share it with your viewers:

The language selector allows you to pick the interface language of the scenario. Please note that this does not affect the content of the scenario. For example, if you select Italian, all default interface elements (like the 'Proceed' button) and aria labels used by screen readers will be translated to Italian, but the text you added will be displayed in the language it was written in.

Here's a demo link you can use to test how the accessibility player works with scenarios: https://app.widgets.thinglink.com/accessibility/scenario/1704854838078079971. 

Notes & Limitations

• Poll tags are not shown in the accessibility player at the moment.

• The 'Conditional transition' feature for transit tags is not supported. Viewers will be able to navigate to the next scene without answering the question.

If you'd like to submit any feedback regarding the accessibility player, please contact us here.