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Making Accessible ThingLink Content

Whilst ThingLink are committed to improving the accessibility of their software as part of continued development, some features are not currently fully accessible.

What needs to be improved

  • You cannot add alterative text to base layers. However, there is a workaround: you can use the info button to add a description of the base layer. Guidance on how to do this is provided below.
  • 3D models can currently inaccessible in that there is no accessibility player available for this type of content and the tags for 3D models cannot be accessed via a keyboard.

Ways to ensure your ThingLink content is accessible

In the meantime, to ensure your ThingLink content is as accessible to the widest number of students and staff as possible. We recommend utilising the following features of ThingLink:

Add a description of your base layer by using the info button

It is not possible to add alterative text (Alt Text) to base layers. As a workaround we recommend using the info button to add a description of the base layer.

  1. Add your base layer.
  2. Select Settings.
  3. From the Settings panel that will open, select Info panel.
  4. Enter a Title for your base layer.
  5. Enter the alt text in the Description field and click Done to confirm.

Video Demonstration

Students should then be able to select the i icon in the bottom right to access a description of your base image.

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Add Alt Text to images

You can add alternative text to any images via a Text and media tag.

First, click Add tag > Add text and media.

Then in the Media files area, select the upload icon, to upload your image.

Once uploaded, click on the ellipsis at the top left of your new media file to open the Settings dialogue box.

This is where you can add your descriptive Alt text, as well as an optional Caption which is then shown at the top of an image or video (this may be useful if you are displaying more than one image or video in a single tag).

See, Adding alternative (alt) text on ThingLinks support site for further guidance.

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Add Close Captions to your ThingLink video base content

You can add closed caption files to base videos uploaded to ThingLink. ThingLink currently supports the SubRip (.srt) and WebVTT (.vtt) subtitle and caption file types.

Students will then have the option to turn closed captions on or off using the cc button in the bottom-right corner of the video.

See, how to add and display closed captions on base videos on ThingLink's support site for guidance on how to add close captions to your video content.

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Share a link to content that opens directly within the ThingLink Accessibility Player

ThingLink’s Accessibility Player is designed to better meet WCAG web accessibility standards: providing multiple avenues for students to engage with content in ways that are tailored to suit their individual needs.

As well as providing its own screen reader tool, the Accessibility Player also offers choices for how to display text and images, as well as general display options such as contrast settings and cursor size.

If you wish to share a link for students to view your ThingLink project in an Accessibility Player, you can go to Share and select the Accessibility option. This will provide you with a unique web link which you can then share with your students so that they can directly access the Accessibility Player version of your ThingLink project.

See, ThingLink’s web page dedicated to explaining the Accessibility Player.  

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Embed web accessible ThingLink content into your Minerva module (Staff Guidance)

You can embed your ThingLink project into a Minerva module:

  1. Click the Share button at the top of the window
  2. Select the Embed on website option
  3. Make sure Include web accessibility link is ticked

You can then copy and paste the provided HTML code into a Minerva learning document using the Add HTML option.

We recommend changing the HTML code so that the width is expressed as 100%. This will help to ensure that ThingLink content will resize to fit a learning document in Minerva.

Video demonstration

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Immersive Reader available by default for text descriptions 

Once a text description is added to a Text and media tag, the icon for Microsoft’s Immersive Reader - an integrated reading tool and automatic language translator – will be shown automatically to the right of that tag. This provides additional textual, audio and visual options for descriptions, such as translation to other languages, highlighting parts of speech, and reading text aloud.

See, ThingLink’s dedicated web page on ThingLink’s integration of Microsoft Immersive Reader for more information.

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Related Guides

Further support using this tool

Quick Link