Frequently Asked Questions

Find answers to questions specific to the courses on our platform

  • Does it matter which browser I use to access the Canadian Women’s Foundation courses?

    • We have found that Firefox or Safari performs best
  • I am having trouble viewing the site or have gotten an error message

  • What are the accessibility standards followed for the courses on the platform?

    • Our courses has been designed to meet WCAG 2.1 accessibility guidelines.
    • For more information, visit the World Wide Web Consortium.
  • What accessibility features are available on the courses?

    Expanding on web accessibility guidelines, specific attention has been given to:

    • Colour contrast and text size for vision impairment
    • Header hierarchy for non-visual navigation
    • Descriptive links and text where applicable
    • Use of alt-text specifically to describe images
    • Mobile-first responsive content reflow, including graphic novel images that adjust automatically for portrait view on mobile and landscape view on desktop
    • Interactive scenarios have been designed with special accessibility features
  • What are some of the Interactive scenario accessibility features?

    • Compliant page heading hierarchy
    • “Alt-text”/description text for each scene appears in reading order before the scene content
    • Illustration panel scenarios:
      • Descriptive text, character speech bubbles and thought bubbles have contextual prefixes (e.g. “Narration: …”, “Shane says: …”, “Julia thought bubble: …”)
    • The authoring tool visualizes reading order for text frame content (e.g. multiple speech bubbles) so that accessible order matches the intent
    • Video scenarios:
      • Selectable auto-play: The user initiates video play after traversing the initial “alt-text.”
      • When autoplay is disabled, the video pauses automatically for changes in scenario action within the same video segment for updates to “alt-text” describing action or change of scene
    • Choice selection buttons have appropriate nonvisual text prefixing (e.g. “Option 1 of 3: …”)
    • Option controls have descriptive accessible labels
    • All nonvisual accessibility text is localized (English and French)
    • The immersive scenario provides a “resume” feature to leave and come back without losing progress
  • I am an assistive device user. Can I use my screen reader to access the course?

    • YES, our courses have been designed to work with screen readers. We recommend NVDA, AppleVoiceOver, JAWS or your preferred screen reader technology.
  • I’ve noticed accessibility widgets are becoming more common; why haven’t you installed an accessibility widget on this site?

    • While Accessibility widgets like UserWay and AccesiBe have been growing in popularity, these add-on tools manipulate the way a website behaves and may impact the presentation of the learning content in unintended ways. Moreover, assistive device tools used by accessibility users may not work properly when an accessibility widget is present.
  • Is there a way I can listen to the content? I’m new to accessible technology

    • There are numerous accessibility tools available for personal use, ranging from built-in operating solutions to browser extensions and software downloads.
    • For those new or not reliant on assistive technology, Text-to-Speech (TTS) allows you to listen to text-based content without the complexity of learning screen reader software (used by accessibility power users).
    • Here are some examples of Text-to-speech options built-in to your device: