Product Updates

We have successfully pushed an update to all YuJa Panorama LMS Accessibility Platform instances residing in the US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, the Middle East, and the European Union. This update includes a new alternative format of library reference, new how-to-fix guides and tutorials for HTML content, a new option to organize content by transferring items across folders, and more.

1. New Alternative Format: Create a Library Reference to Help Locate Your Reading Material
   In certain situations, such as when only a chapter of a text is provided, your readers may want the complete reference for material so they can find it on their own. To assist them, we have introduced a new Library Reference Alternative Format that allows you to include details about the reading material, such as the author’s name, date of publication, and publisher.
   
2. New How-to-Fix Guides and Video Tutorials for HTML Content Specific to the LMS
   To make our embedded “How to Fix” guides more accessible and easier to follow, we have focused our efforts on an industry-first project to create over 90 guides and video tutorials that address HTML accessibility issues specific to D2L Brightspace, Canvas, and Moodle. This will ensure that whenever you are unsure how to resolve an issue manually, each guide is tailored to your LMS so that you can follow the steps exactly as they are shown.
   
3. Organize Content by Transferring Items from One Folder to Another in DocHub
   With our new options for moving items between folders, organizing content in DocHub is easier than ever. You can select the content you want to move and click the Move button to transfer files or folders. Alternatively, you can simply drag and drop your items into and out of folders.
   
4. Optimized First-Time Scans for D2L Brightspace Courses to be More Efficient
   By optimizing how we handle our API calls for D2L Brightspace, we’ve addressed throttling issues to ensure that first-time scans for newly created courses start immediately and are completed within 20 minutes or less rather than being delayed to a later date.
5. Resolve Missing Human-Generated Caption Issues by Manually Verifying that Captions are Present for Video Content
   In cases where human-generated captions are not required or feasible for all videos, YuJa Panorama will identify the issue and allow you to override it by confirming that the video has at least auto-generated captions.
   
6. High-Performance Administrator Audit Log to Track All Major Activities on the Platform
   In this release, we have set up our backend infrastructure to fully support in-depth audit logging for administrators to monitor user actions and changes performed on YuJa Panorama. Administrators will soon have access to the audit logs, allowing them to view users’ activities, such as deleted items, configured settings, downloaded reports, and more. Keep an eye out for the next YuJa Panorama update alert, which will provide a full-featured release of our audit logging capabilities.
7. User-Friendly Improvements to the Remediation Process
   We have made a couple of tweaks to the remediation process to help you fix your documents more quickly.
   • Turn off the Confetti Animation: To make remediating many documents less disruptive, you can disable the confetti animation that activates after a document is remediated.
   • Updated Buttons in the Accessibility Report: The “Fix Issue” button is now the primary indicated action you can take to fix issues. If you prefer to manually know how to fix issues, the “Learn more” link replaces the “How to Fix” button, providing access to our step-by-step guides.
     
8. Significantly Faster Accessibility Report Generation for HTML Content
   We have improved the process for generating Accessibility Reports for HTML content, ensuring reports are generated up to 60% faster.
9. D2L Brightspace Support for Viewing “Accordion” Content in the Gradient Reader and Enhanced HTML
   We have expanded YuJa Panorama to new areas of D2L Brightspace. Now, for Content pages that organize items using an “accordion,” the Gradient Reader and Enhanced HTML formats can be generated to display content within the layout.
   
10. Improved Capabilities for Retrieving Files in Moodle Instances Using AWS Storage
    For institutions that utilize AWS storage with their Moodle instance, we have updated YuJa Panorama to retrieve these files more accurately, allowing Accessibility Reports to be generated more consistently.

We have successfully pushed an update to all YuJa AccessNotes Note-Taking Platform instances residing in the US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, the Middle East, and the European Union. This update includes the option to ask AI Assistant to auto-create quizzes based on recordings, enable auto-transcript scrolling with audio playback, a new search bar in transcripts to search content, a new option to disable the audio file downloads, and more.

1. Use GenAI to Auto-Create Quizzes Based on Your Recording to Help You Study
   Using our genAI capabilities, YuJa AccessNotes can help you replace traditional flashcard-based studying by analyzing your notes and generating self-study quizzes in multiple-choice or True/False formats. As you take the quiz, answers are provided immediately after responses, allowing you to immediately identify areas of improvement. If you didn’t perform well, you can retake the quiz, or for an additional challenge, create a new set of questions to further test your understanding.
   
2. Enable Auto-Transcript Scrolling That Syncs with Audio Playback
   During audio playback, you will no longer be required to manually scroll through the transcript when reading along. Simply enable the new auto-scroll setting from Advanced Options > Transcript Auto-Scroll.
   
3. Generated Transcripts Feature a Search Bar to Help Find Content
   We have provided a search bar that shows results alongside their audio timestamps to help you locate content more easily in your transcripts. You can then click on the search result to begin playing your audio note.
   
4. Administrators Can Disable the Downloading of Audio Files
   As an administrator, you can disable audio file downloads to protect content privacy. This ensures that recordings, such as lectures or business presentations, remain accessible only within YuJa AccessNotes and cannot be downloaded to personal computers.
   
5. Create Organized Outlines of Your Notes Using Clear Headings
   When a presentation or lecture lacks structure and a simple summary is not enough to understand the content, YuJa AccessNotes can help by generating an outline. Outlines structure entire presentations into clear, text-based formats, including headings and descriptions that summarize the discussions held in each identified audio section.
6. Organize Content by Transferring Items from One Folder to Another
   With our new options for moving items between folders, organizing content in YuJa AccessNotes is easier than ever. You can select the items you want to relocate and click the Move button to transfer files or folders. Alternatively, you can simply drag and drop your items into and out of folders.

We have successfully pushed an update to all YuJa SmartSpeaker instances residing in the US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, the Middle East, and the European Union. This update includes a new YuJa SmartSpeaker report which shows key analytics such as total requests and storage used.

1. New YuJa SmartSpeaker Report to View In-Depth Usage Analytics
   As an administrator, you can now view your institution’s YuJa SmartSpeaker report, which includes key analytics such as the total number of requests, generated summaries, and total storage used. You can analyze these metrics over time by selecting the date range for which you want to view historical usage.
   

We have successfully pushed an update to all YuJa Website Accessibility Solutions instances residing in the US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, the Middle East, and the European Union. This update includes a new option to create and save custom profiles with your color and content adjustments.

1. Create and Save Custom Profiles in the YuJa Website Accessibility Widget With Your Color and Content Adjustments
   We have introduced customizable profiles to give individuals with unique accessibility needs quick access to how web content should appear on specific websites. Simply select your preferred content and color adjustments and click the Save as Profile option to save them in the Profile tab.
   

We have successfully pushed an update to all instances residing in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the European Union. This update includes an improved live proctoring media player UI, more secure testing environments by flagging assessments that were closed before submission, a new option to create an exemption list for Lockdown App assessments, and more.

1. Significantly Improved the Live Proctoring Media Player UI with New Features and Activity Notifications
   We’ve redesigned the live proctoring interface to streamline your proctoring process by including the following:
   • New Sidebar Layout to View Test-Takers: We’ve introduced a sidebar view that lets you focus on individual test-takers while keeping others visible in the sidebar. You can click the Next Test-Taker button to easily rotate between test-takers.
     
   • One-Way Audio Bridge to Monitor Test-Takers: To help manually verify specific test violations, such as excessive noise in the environment, you can now set up a one-way audio connection with test-takers to listen to their surroundings.
     
   • View Flagged Events in Real Time: In addition to providing a complete live proctoring report after a session, YuJa Verity can flag issues and notify proctors in real time, such as when a test-taker turns off their camera, ensuring you can address potential misconduct immediately.
     
   • Text Chat is Now Embedded in the Collapsible Side Panel: You can now view and respond to chats directly in a collapsible side panel within the live proctoring media player. This feature replaces the previous pop-up window, which could sometimes be distracting as it covered the video feed of test-takers.
     
   • Badge Notifications for Activities: Badge notifications will now display for chats, notes, and flag events, allowing proctors to clearly notice any unread activities.
     
2. More Secure Testing Environments by Flagging Assessments That Were Closed Without Submission
   For the YuJa Verity Browser Extension, in cases where the assessment was closed without a submission, YuJa Verity can detect and flag whether the assessment was closed and whether the submission button was clicked. By detecting this issue, YuJa Verity will allow test-takers to reenter their testing environment while also ensuring that all test restrictions are still adhered to, such as having a single monitor or limiting website access.
3. The Desktop Lockdown App Now Supports Creating an Exemption List
   To enhance feature parity between the Browser Extension and Lockdown App proctoring methods, you now have the option to create an exemption list for Lockdown App assessments. This enables the exemption of specific test-takers from proctoring or allows you to apply specific proctoring methods suitable for them.
   
4. Allow Test-Takers to Join a Live Assessment Early Once the Proctor Joins the Session
   We have always provided proctors the option to join their live session 15 minutes before the assessment starts to ensure they are ready. Now, we’re offering similar capabilities to test-takers, allowing them to join before the start time of their session as long as the proctor has joined.
5. All Proctored Assessments Have Been Consolidated Onto a Single Page
   With the updated navigation menu, we’ve consolidated the proctoring tools into a single Proctored Assessment page. This centralized view lets you view all proctored assessments and their details in an organized table. To help locate assessments, you can filter them based on their type, the platform they were taken on, and the method of proctoring used.
   
6. Access YuJa Verity’s Specialized Proctoring Assessments from the More Tools Page
   The new More Tools page on YuJa Verity offers a dedicated location for specialized tools to proctor assessments. From here, you can access the options to create Practice Assessments, Third-Party Assessments, and Standalone Assessments when required.
   
7. YuJa Verity Will Keep You Authenticated for 30 Days
   If you have authenticated yourself within the last 30 days, you will not be required to authenticate each time you access your LMS to create or join an assessment. Authentication is required only if you haven’t launched the YuJa Verity LTI app in the last 30 days.
8. Integrated Third-Party Assessment Tools Can Be Easily Enabled or Disabled at the Institution Level
   As an administrator, you now have the option to disable your institution’s third-party integrations with Pearson, ALEKS, and McGraw Hill without having to remove them from YuJa Verity. If any integrations are needed in the future, you can quickly enable them again, allowing only instructors to access the active integrations. Simply go to Institution Settings > Third-Party Assessment Integrations to customize your third-party integrations.
   
9. YuJa Verity Will Auto-Detect and Sync Courses Created in Blackboard Ultra
   With the enhanced Blackboard integration, new courses in Blackboard can now be automatically detected and synced with YuJa Verity, allowing you to enable proctoring for assessments without the need for manual synchronization.
   
10. More Enhanced Recognition of Vanity URLs for Institutions and Their Associated Users
    Previously, for YuJa Verity to recognize the vanity URL of an institution, you would have had to relaunch the YuJa Verity LTI app after authentication. Now, upon the first launch of YuJa Verity, it will automatically recognize and authenticate you for the correct vanity URL of your institution.

We have successfully pushed an update to all YuJa Engage Student Response System instances residing in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the European Union. This release includes the option to select multiple correct answers for multiple choice questions, take polls through the web or mobile app with automatic Blackboard grade book sync, and a redesigned poll release page.

1. New Option to Select Multiple Correct Answers for Multiple Choice Questions
   Multiple-choice questions with more than one correct answer can have multiple selections as correct options. This will allow you to test the full scope of participants’ understanding by allowing them to earn full points when all correct answers are selected. Alternatively, you can award full points if they select at least one correct answer.
2. Allow Participants to Take Polls on the Web or Mobile App With Automatic Blackboard Grade Book Sync
   Previously, participants were required to log in to Blackboard to take polls and have their results synced to the Blackboard grade book. Now, their results are automatically synced to the grade book after completing polls through the YuJa Engage mobile app or website, eliminating the need to log in to Blackboard. To configure this option, simply select Allow only course members to join under Participant Restrictions, and assign the poll to your desired course from the drop-down menu.
   
3. Redesigned Poll Release Page with Enhanced Web Responsiveness and Centralized Configuration Settings
   We’ve revamped the Poll Release page with a redesigned interface, new icons for improved navigation, and enhanced web responsiveness. Additionally, poll settings are now consolidated into the side panel, allowing you to view analytics, add questions, and adjust settings in a centralized panel.
   

The release provides keyword search ranking evaluations, the option to use AutoPilot and Structural Remediation Add-ons for documents, a new Usability Engine to evaluate the text content quality and validity of links, new Behavior Engine to track visitor analytics, a YuJa EqualGround browser extension for web page scanning, the option to specify report access for different roles, a new Accessibility Best Practice metric to enhance web content accessibility, and more.

1. Evaluate How Keywords Affect Website Search Rankings With the Keyword Discovery Report 
   By integrating Google Search Console with YuJa EqualGround, you can generate the Keyword Discovery report, which helps determine how keywords are affecting website search ranking. The report can be categorized into four distinct groups:
   • Quick Wins: View words with the highest potential to drive traffic to your website.
   • High Impact: The most searched keywords that can significantly improve your website’s ranking.
   • High Performing: keywords with the most increased rankings to your URLs in the last 30 days.
   • Setbacks: Keywords that have decreased your URL rankings within the last 30 days

   

2. Use AutoPilot to Resolve Accessibility Issues in Documents 
   When assessing accessibility issues in documents found on your website, AutoPilot can automatically fix supported accessibility issues directly within the original document, ensuring the document does not need to be manually fixed and re-uploaded to your website. AutoPilot can remediate documents in DOCX, PDF, PPTX, and XLSX formats, addressing issues such as:
   • Insufficient contrast between foreground text and background.
   • PDFs that are not tagged properly for screen readers to interpret 
   • Difficulty in reading text due to small font sizes.

   

3. Use Remediation Max for Advanced Structural Remediation of PDFs
   Remediation Max provides in-line structural remediation to help fix a wide set of accessibility issues across PDF documents. These issues include:
   
   • Fixing the reading order of content by dragging and dropping elements into the correct reading preference.
   • Updating the type value of elements to ensure they are recognized correctly by screen readers.
   • Changing the language of elements so that they are read aloud correctly by screen readers.

   

4. New Usability Engine to Evaluate the Quality of Text Content and Validity of Links
   EqualGround offers a Usability Engine that evaluates websites based on three essential metrics to ensure they are user-friendly for viewers.
   • Readability: Whether your web content is for young adults or academic professionals, YuJa EqualGround provides a customizable readability checker. You can choose from six standardized methods to assess readability, such as the Automated Readability Index and the Coleman-Liau formula. After selecting a method, a grading scale can be selected to determine the maximum readability level suitable for your audience.
   • Spelling: YuJa EqualGround offers a built-in standardized American-English spell checker with the option to add words to your own customizable dictionary. As we continue to develop YuJa EqualGround, we will offer a wider range of languages.
   • Valid Links: All links on scanned pages are checked to ensure errors are not received.

   

5. New Behavior Engine to Track Analytics for Website Engagement
   The Behavior Engine monitors several key metrics to analyze visitors to your website. These issues include:
   • Total Visit: The number of visitors to your website.
   • Bounce Rate: The percentage of visitors who leave your website without taking any action.
   • Referrals: Visits to your sites from links that have appeared on other websites.

   

6. Download the YuJa EqualGround Browser Extension to Run WCAG and ARIA Checks for Web Pages
   With the launch of the new browser extension, you no longer need to be on the YuJa EqualGround platform to run your accessibility scans. On YuJa EqualGround, you can access Configurations > User Setup to install the extension and connect it to your platform. Once connected, the accessibility scan can be initiated for your desired web page listing all WCAG and ARIA issues and steps to remediate them.
   
7. More Granular Role Management Capabilities for Reports
   As an administrator, when creating a role, you can specify particular reports that the role will have access to rather than granting access to all reports. This allows for roles to be specialized in one or more areas of web content improvement.
   
8. Follow Our Best Practice Guidelines to Make Your Website More Accessible
   In addition to the Accessibility Report’s ability to detect ARIA and WCAG-level issues, YuJa EqualGround is offering more ways to enhance web content accessibility by providing a score based on our recommended Accessibility Best Practices. These best practices include detecting issues such as:
   • Any content on a website that is hidden behind tabs or within accordion components in the site’s design.
   • Images that contain duplicate labels.
   • Landmarks on a website that do not contain a unique name or role.

   

9. More In-Depth SEO Crawling by Including Six New Areas of Improvements
   We have improved our SEO crawling engine to include six new areas where we verify that your website adheres to the latest SEO best practices. The SEO crawler will check for:
   • Open Graph Tags:  Determines how URLs will appear when shared on social media platforms.
   • JSON-LD Structured Data Tags:  Provide organized, standardized, and machine-readable information about a web page.
   • Sitemap:  Provides details about the pages, videos, and files on your site and how they are related to each other.
   • Internal Links:  Checks for the number of internal links on your website.
   • Redirects:  Checks for the number of links that direct to another website.
   • H1 Tags:  Determines the topmost heading for your web page.
   • Alt Text:  Text that represents visual images.
   • Viewport Tags:  Tells browsers how to control viewport dimensions and scaling.

   

10. Choose the WCAG Conformance Level Your Organization Requires
    Your organization can now select the desired level of WCAG conformance to ensure that their websites meet accessibility standards. In the Website Settings, you can choose whether your organization prefers Level A, Level A and AA, or Level A, AA, and AAA accessibility standards for detecting issues.
11. More In-Depth Detection of WCAG and ARIA Accessibility Issues
    We have added more than a dozen accessibility checks for WCAG and ARIA-related issues. Some of these issues include:
    • Elements should have visible focus indicators so users can easily see where they are on the page when they navigate using a keyboard.
    • Lists on a web page should be structured correctly, specifically to ensure that assistive technologies can interpret and present the content accurately.
    • Ensure ARIA labels do not have redundant roles, as their implicit role defines their function.

    

12. New Filters to Organize Accessibility Issues by Their Components or WCGAG Criterion
    We have provided two new filters to the Accessibility Issues panel, allowing you to select whether to view issues by their WCAG criterion or to group issues by their component. The WCAG criterion filter will highlight the issue detected, along with the items affected by the issue. In the new component view, you will be able to see all issues within a related category in one view, including all link, checkbox, list, and button issues displayed in their respective viewport.
    

We have successfully pushed an update to all YuJa AccessNotes Note-Taking Platform instances residing in the US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, the Middle East, and the European Union. This update includes the option to ask AI Assistant questions to clarify complex concepts, embed supplementary materials to the audio-based notes, embed personalized illustrations through whiteboard, disable waveform animation during playback, and improved responsiveness for mobile and tablet view.

1. Ask AI Assistant Questions During Audio Playback to Clarify Complex Concepts
   With our new Gen AI integration, you can ask questions while listening to your audio playback. Simply access the AI Assistant to clarify complicated concepts, discover fun facts, or learn key details from the notes. Whatever questions you have, AI Assistant is here to help.
   
2. Embed Supplementary Materials to Your Audio-Based Notes
   You can now import supplementary materials, including slides, PDFs, and images, directly into your audio-based notes, ensuring that all relevant resources are easily accessible alongside your notes for a more organized learning experience.
   
3. Embed Personalized Illustrations With Our New Whiteboard
   You can now add personalized illustrations through the whiteboard, including drawings, shapes, text, images, or embedded websites to visually capture complex concepts during note-taking. Additionally, you can import predesigned icons or symbols from the library to better organize your notes.
   
4. New Option to Disable Waveform Animation During Audio Playback
   If waveform animation is no longer needed, we’ve added a new setting that lets you disable it for audio playback.
5. Improved Responsiveness for Mobile and Tablet View
   We’ve updated the YuJa AccessNotes interface for improved responsiveness with various screen sizes, allowing you to access your Audio-Based notes on web, mobile, or tablet devices with a consistent layout.

We have successfully pushed an update to all YuJa Accessibility AutoPilot.AI instances residing in the US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, the Middle East, and the European Union. This update includes a new AutoPilot Report that offers in-depth insights into your document remediation analytics.

1. New YuJa AutoPilot Report Offers More In-Depth Analytics to Track Document Remediations
   The new YuJa AutoPilot report offers insights into your document remediation analytics and progress, summarizing our YuJa AutoPilot usage with key metrics such as the number of remediated documents, issues resolved, and time saved. Additionally, you can filter by term and account level to compare documentation improvements across different semesters.
   

We have successfully pushed an update to all YuJa Website Accessibility Widget instances residing in the US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, the Middle East, and the European Union. This update includes a new color-blind filter tailored to three common types of color blindness.

1. Improved Web Accessibility With Color-Blind Filters
   You can now enhance the accessibility of web content in your LMS by allowing users to select from color-blind filters tailored to three common types of color blindness: Protanopia, Deuteranopia, and Tritanopia, addressing the diverse learning needs of your users.