Learnosity strengthens accessibility options with SpeechStream

Background

Learnosity provides the assessment infrastructure for the world’s leading learning platforms and publishers. More than 120 customers globally depend on its cloud-based APIs for better assessments, faster time-to-market, and lower development costs.

At the heart of their design values is to “be inclusive and considerate of users with different abilities”. With accessible content and functionality being an important element of product design, they added SpeechStream to strengthen the level of accessibility support provided.

Read on to discover the benefits they’ve found so far.

The challenge

Learnosity’s customer base includes those delivering assessments across early learning, higher education, and corporate training. With a diverse range of end users, accessibility support is necessary;

“There’s an urgent need to bring parity to education, and that purpose drives Learnosity’s commitment to inclusive design. With a focus on user impact, we ensure our clients - enterprise and start-up - have the best tools and user functionality to create accessible content and assessments.” - Adam Bextream, Product Manager (Assessments and Accessibility), Learnosity 

The solution

SpeechStream is a highly flexible cloud based, language and literacy support toolbar. It helps publishers maximise student outcomes by making online learning and assessment platforms more accessible. 

A variety of the key reading, writing and math support functions include text-to-speech read aloud in multiple languages, accurate read aloud of complex math equations, dynamic translation, dictionary with read aloud, picture dictionary, screen masking, and annotation pens.

Since the addition of SpeechStream, Learnosity have found that it complements their own native accessibility features, empowering their customers to better support diverse learners;

“SpeechStream works seamlessly with Learnosity to offer enhanced text-to-speech capability to help users with visual impairments, reading disabilities or challenges, and English language learners, to engage with content created through Learnosity.” - Vikram Pai, Product Manager (Authoring), Learnosity

Lasting value

In addition to the benefits of SpeechStream, Learnosity is finding lasting value in their partnership with Texthelp. As experts in our respective fields, we were able to collaborate to improve the product further, in line with customer feedback.

We created an easy to use plugin to allow assessors to improve pronunciations of test items that were commonly mispronounced by the voice engine. Subject matter experts can now simply make adjustments in Learnosity’s item editor, without touching the HTML source code.

Valuing the partnership, Learnosity’s Vikram Pai stated; “Our two companies continuously scan for emerging technologies, standards and solutions that will make creating accessible content easier for our common publishing customers, to improve their end user test taking experience.”