Why corporate eLearning accessibility matters
Around 1 in 5 people has some form of disability. In a workforce of 500 people, that is roughly 100 employees who may need accessible training to do their jobs effectively. Mandatory courses — compliance, health and safety, onboarding — are not optional. If an employee cannot complete them, that is a legal and operational problem.
Corporate eLearning has an additional challenge: brand consistency. Most organisations use locked-down templates with fixed brand colours, fonts, and layouts. Brand teams design for aesthetics — not legibility. Many corporate templates fail basic WCAG contrast checks straight out of the box, and L&D teams are expected to use them anyway.
A11yCheck finds these issues before they reach employees. Scan any Articulate Review 360 link — whether built in-house or by an external supplier — and get a full report in under two minutes.
Laws and regulations that apply to corporate training
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
The ADA requires employers to provide equal access to employment benefits — which includes training. Inaccessible mandatory training can constitute disability discrimination.
Section 508
Federal contractors and agencies must ensure all electronic content, including training, meets WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Many large corporates now require Section 508 compliance from their L&D suppliers.
Equality Act 2010
UK employers must make reasonable adjustments for employees with disabilities. Inaccessible mandatory training — onboarding, compliance, safety — can constitute a failure to do so.
EN 301 549
The EU standard for digital accessibility, referenced in the European Accessibility Act. Applies to digital training content delivered to employees across EU member states.
The most common accessibility failures in corporate eLearning
These are the issues A11yCheck finds most often when scanning corporate training and compliance courses built in Articulate:
Missing captions on compliance and onboarding videos
Corporate onboarding and compliance training relies heavily on video. Without captions, deaf employees and those in open-plan offices or loud environments cannot access the content.
Read the fix guide →Colour contrast failures in branded course templates
Corporate eLearning often uses brand colours in templates. Brand teams choose colours for aesthetics — not legibility. Many corporate templates fail WCAG contrast checks straight out of the box.
Read the fix guide →Auto-advancing slides in mandatory compliance courses
Compliance modules with timed slides prevent screen reader users from completing the training — which creates both an accessibility failure and an audit trail problem.
Read the fix guide →Keyboard navigation failures in interactive scenarios
Scenario-based training and branching activities built in Storyline often rely on click interactions that have no keyboard alternative — locking out employees who use keyboard navigation.
Read the fix guide →Where corporate teams use A11yCheck
Before go-live QA
Scan every course before it goes live to the LMS. Catch accessibility failures before employees report them or an audit finds them.
Supplier course acceptance
Paste the Review 360 link from your external supplier and scan it yourself — before signing off delivery. No supplier involvement required.
Existing library audit
Work through your existing course library systematically. Prioritise mandatory compliance and onboarding content — the courses every employee must complete.
Frequently asked questions about corporate eLearning accessibility
Does corporate eLearning need to be accessible?
Yes. In the US, the ADA requires employers to provide equal access to training. In the UK, the Equality Act covers training as an employment benefit. In the EU, the European Accessibility Act applies to digital training products. Most large corporates also have internal accessibility policies that apply to all L&D content.
What are the most common accessibility failures in corporate eLearning?
The most common failures in corporate training are: brand colour templates that fail contrast checks, compliance videos without captions, mandatory courses with auto-advancing slides, interactive scenarios with no keyboard alternative, and missing alt text on infographics and process diagrams.
Who is responsible for accessibility in corporate eLearning — L&D or IT?
Both. L&D teams are responsible for building accessible content — alt text, captions, readable text, logical structure. IT or procurement teams are responsible for ensuring the authoring tools and LMS platforms support accessibility. A11yCheck sits in the L&D space — it scans the course content, not the platform.
Can A11yCheck scan courses built by external suppliers?
Yes. If the supplier publishes to Articulate Review 360, you can paste the Review link into A11yCheck and scan it yourself — without involving the supplier. This is useful for QA before accepting delivery of externally built courses.
How do I build an accessible corporate eLearning library?
Start by auditing your existing courses with A11yCheck to understand the scale of the problem. Then set accessibility standards for new builds — alt text on all images, captions on all video, learner-controlled navigation, minimum 4.5:1 contrast ratio. Run A11yCheck on every course before it goes live.
How quickly can we check a corporate course for accessibility?
A11yCheck returns results in under two minutes. Paste your Articulate Review 360 link and the scanner produces a prioritised report with plain-English descriptions and step-by-step fix instructions for Storyline 360 or Rise 360.
Check your corporate course for accessibility issues
Free during beta. No credit card. Paste your Articulate Review 360 link and get a full WCAG report in under two minutes.
Start scanning — it's free