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.

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. 

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

1.4.4 Resize text (Level AA) states that except for captions and images of text, learners should be able to resize text up to 200% without loss of content or functionality. This means that users should be able to increase the size of the text three times its original size without affecting other functions such as navigation or interactivity.

Mobile-responsive authoring tools can scale the content to the required size. However, some authoring tools may have limitations. Storyline 360 supports this when using the Modern Player.

You must be familiar with the experience of having to scroll from left to right if you enlarge an image on your mobile device. 1.4.10 Reflow (Level AA) aims to prevent this for text. It requires that when users increase the text size by 400% in their web browser, the content should still display correctly, without having to use a horizontal scroll bar. The content is usually displayed in more lines, introducing more vertical scrolling, but learners shouldn't use both vertical and horizontal scrolling.

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