Category: YuJa Panorama LMS Accessibility Platform

  • January 31, 2023

    YuJa Panorama for Digital Accessibility – Minor Update RC20230131 Released to US, CAN, and EU Zones

    Canada Zone European Union Zone United States Zone YuJa Panorama LMS Accessibility Platform

    We have successfully pushed an update to all YuJa Panorama for Digital Accessibility instances residing in the United States, Canada, and the European Union. This minor update provides our users with improvements to our new LTI app and standalone Panorama Portal, released in December. Users can expect enhanced responsiveness in the Panorama Portal, custom role mapping in D2L Brightspace, improved text and language support, and downloadable XLSX reports across the Panorama platform.

    1. Increased Responsiveness of the Panorama Portal
      Users will notice instant UI improvements across the Panorama Portal, which will now automatically fit any screen size and can be manually resized to provide users with a seamless experience.

    2. Custom Role Mapping Available For D2L Brightspace
      Institutions using D2L Brightspace can now add their custom role list for administrators, instructors, and students to standardized system roles. Please note that when custom roles are enabled, default roles are disabled, and changes may take up to 24 hours to be reflected.
      The Custom Role Mapping window open inside D2L Brightspace featuring Custom Role Names.
    3. New Accessible Layout for Institution Settings
      We have updated the panels for Institution Settings to provide a two-column view for admins to access quickly.
      The new two-column view shown in the Panorama Settings panel.
    4. Improved UI Text
      We have standardized all text across the LTI app and the Panorama Portal to provide users with clear information about their institution and courses.

    5. Download Content Report Data
      Admins can now download a summary of their Content Report from the Panorama Portal.
    6. All Downloadable Reports are Available in XLSX
      All reports will be available to download as XLSX files to help admins and instructors identify trends and organize data.
    7. Spanish and French Language Support for the Panorama Portal
      The entirety of the Panorama Portal now has language support for Spanish and French.
  • January 6, 2023

    YuJa Panorama for Digital Accessibility – Minor Update RC20230106 Released to US, CAN, and EU Zones

    Canada Zone European Union Zone United States Zone YuJa Panorama LMS Accessibility Platform

    We have successfully pushed an update to all YuJa Panorama for Digital Accessibility instances residing in the United States, Canada, and the European Union. This minor update provides our users with access to Alternative Formats and Accessibility Reports from the LTI app, optimizations to the Feedback form, improved sign-up for the Panorama Management Platform, faster HTML to PDF processing speeds, and several minor UI improvements to the LTI app. 

    1. Access Full Alternative Formats and Accessibility Reports from the LTI App
      We have improved our LTI app to allow administrators and instructors to view Alternative Formats and Accessibility Reports from the content menu within their Course Report. In addition to viewing Alternative Formats, admins and instructors may also download and reprocess their documents.
      Alternative Formats menu within the LTI app.

    2. Optimized Submission Forms for Feedback
      As Panorama continues to grow, we’d like to have your input on new suggestions, designs, and other comments you may have to enhance your overall experience when using Panorama. To help facilitate transparent communication on feedback, submitted forms will receive timely responses to requests.
      Give Feedback submission form.
    3. Enhanced Sign-up for the Panorama Management Platform
      Users will no longer be required to sign up using an access token. Simply navigate to the User Setup page on the LTI app, and click Create Account to sign up for the Panorama Platform. For more information on how to sign up for the Platform, please visit our guide on Signing Up for the Panorama Management Platform.
      Sign up screen for the Panorama Platform
    4. Optimized HTML to PDF Conversion
      We have optimized our HTML to PDF conversion rates for faster processing speeds.
    5. UI Enhancements for the LTI App
      As Panorama has recently migrated to a new LTI App, we’ve touched up some finer details with our UI. Expect more of these enhancements in future releases.  
  • December 19, 2022

    YuJa Panorama for Digital Accessibility – Update RC20221219 Released to US, CAN, and EU Zones

    Canada Zone European Union Zone United States Zone YuJa Panorama LMS Accessibility Platform

    We have successfully pushed an update to all YuJa Panorama for Digital Accessibility instances residing in the United States, Canada, and the European Union. This release provides our users with significant enhancements to our PDF-Processing sub-system, an upgraded LTI app, re-designed analytics reporting, a new Immersive Reader for Alternative Formats, support for D2L Lessons and Moodle Chapters, and keyboard accessibility improvements.

    1. New Elastically Scaling PDF Processing Sub-System for Faster Throughput
      To support extremely high-volume PDF processing-throughput, we are introducing a new elastic-scaling PDF Processing Sub-System. Customers can expect even faster processing of media content, which will make a difference for large institutions at the start of the semester when thousands of courses are being copied-forward and instructors are actively creating large volumes of content.
    2. New Institution Report with Improved At-a-Glance Summary Information
      Along with significant updates to the UI, the Institution Report now offers administrators the ability to view the Total Number of Files Processed, File Improvements, and Alternative Formats Downloaded. The average accessibility score will now be presented as a yearly graph, which can be downloaded for offline viewing. Users can also review a list of Most and Least Accessible Courses.

    3. Redesigned Institutional Accessibility Issues Report with Analysis of Top Accessibility Issues
      To provide a comprehensive overview of issues detected, Panorama now offers admins a month-to-month breakdown of issues detected. Most occurring issues can be viewed in a list format. These issues are organized into their respective categories (Severe, Major, and Minor), and admins are provided a breakdown of the documents most affected.
      The new Panorama Issues Report page.
    4. Redesigned Contents Report Provides Breakdown of Popular Formats
      To provide administrators with a full breakdown of content-related issues, Panorama now offers users the ability to review the average file utilization, total number of downloads, most popular format, and most popular format uploaded. Users can also view graphs related to Popular Alternative Format Upload and Download, as well as a Content and Popular Format Download summaries.
      The new Panorama Content Report page.
    5. Improved Course Report Provides In-Depth Accessibility Scores
      Providing administrators and instructors with information regarding course-specific issues, Course Reports features a month-to-month summary of the average Accessibility Score. Instructors can view the overall popularity of Alternative Formats, view popular document types, and have access to view specific Accessibility Scores and issues for their course content. 000shadow
    6. New Immersive Reader for Alternative Formats
      We have merged High Contrast and Text-to-Speech Alternative Formats and now offer a new Immersive Reader to cater to individual needs. Customize text sizes, font types, themes, and highlight parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. The Immersive Reader offers many more customizable options for students to explore, such as Line Focus, Picture Dictionary, and Translations. Students will have the flexibility to adjust these options and follow along with the text reader.
      A GIF highlighting the features for the immersive reader.
    7. Automatic Document Reprocessing When Using the Moodle File Picker
      Panorama will now detect if a document has been replaced using the Moodle File Picker and will automatically reprocess the new file.

    8. Support for the New D2L Lessons View
      We have updated the Panorama browser extension to support the new Lessons view in D2L Brightspace.
    9. Support for Moodle Chapters
      In continuing to integrate Panorama into new areas of Moodle, we now generate Alternative Formats for Moodle Chapters. Future updates will further expand Panorama into other areas, such as Discussion Topics.
      Alternative Formats within Moodle Chapters.

    10. More Responsive and Accessible Keyboard Navigation
      As an accessibility product, Panorama is dedicated to continuous improvements to our UI to ensure that it’s responsive and accessible to all users. In this release, we’ve improved the keyboard navigation of our tools.

     

     

  • October 28, 2022

    YuJa Panorama for Digital Accessibility – Update RC20221028 Released to US, CAN, and EU Zones

    Canada Zone European Union Zone United States Zone YuJa Panorama LMS Accessibility Platform

    We have successfully pushed an update to all YuJa Panorama for Digital Accessibility instances residing in the United States, Canada, and the European Union. This release provides our users with a new direct-access Panorama Platform (in addition to the LTI-only integration), Alternative Formats for math equations, privacy and security enhancements, and a more responsive and accessible UI.

    1. New Standalone Panorama Platform for Admins and Instructors
      To provide more flexibility to admins and instructors, we have created a Standalone Platform that can be used to manage their institution, access the LTI App, and review the functionality of the APIs for their Alternative Formats.

      In future releases, institutions will be able to customize their personal domain, access features like our upcoming Library and Reserve Desk capabilities, and more. The Standalone Platform will soon have support for SSO integration and a Sandbox environment where users can view Alternative Formats and Accessibility Reports. For more information, please visit our support guide on Signing Up for the Panorama Management Portal.The login screen for the standalone management portal for admins and instructors.
    2. New Alternative Math Formats Support for Printed and Handwritten Math Equations
      To expand upon our alternative formats, we now support converting documents containing math equations into MP3 files and clear text (i.e. numbers and symbols to words) to improve readability. Whether your document contains printed math equations or chemical diagrams, we support up to a dozen image types to ensure that Panorama is as accessible as possible. Below are examples of some of our supported math formats, including printed math and handwritten math.Supported image types for Math Formats.
    3. Math Equation Support for Screen Readers
      We have implemented a new feature that will allow users to have math equations read aloud to them when using screen readers across all instances. This includes equations embedded in documents and included in images.
    4. Improved Accessibility for Alternative Formats Button
      Our Accessibility Icon will now change shape based on the document’s accessibility score. There will be five different shapes to ensure that instructors with color impairments can easily distinguish the scores.
      The new accessibility buttons for instructors featuring new distinct shapes.
    5. Users Can Now Convert all Text Files to LaTeX
      In continuing to provide alternative formats, Panorama can now convert text-based files to LaTeX. This includes the ability to recognize and convert math equations within documents, whether they be directly embedded into the document or included as an image.
      LaTeX document describing the functionality and use of the format.
    6. Instructors and Admins Can Now Hide Alternative Formats
      With the implementation of our new toggle switch, instructors and admins can choose to enable or disable student access to the Alternative Formats menu for individual files.
      The Alternative Formats menu featuring the new Visible to Students toggle switch.
    7. Admins Can Now Test Alternative Formats API Access
      If alternative formats are not being generated, admins may test the API access for their institution through the new Panorama Management Platform. For more information, please visit our guide on Testing the Alternative Formats API Access.
    8. Enhanced Privacy and Security for the Panorama Chrome Extension
      To provide our users with the latest standards for privacy and security, as well as performance enhancements, Panorama’s Chrome extension will now adopt Manifest V3.
    9. Optimized Institution Report Exporting
      We have optimized the performance of institution reporting across all Panorama instances. Exporting reports will now take significantly less time.
    10. More Responsive and Accessible User Interface
      By partnering with third-party auditors, we have identified key areas of improvement for Panorama’s UI. In this release, we’ve improved the responsiveness and accessibility of our UI across all instances. In future releases, we will continue to identify and expand upon the accessibility of our Platform.
  • September 30, 2022

    YuJa Panorama for Digital Accessibility – Update RC20220930 Released to US, CAN, and EU Zones

    Canada Zone European Union Zone United States Zone YuJa Panorama LMS Accessibility Platform

    We have successfully pushed an update to all YuJa Panorama for Digital Accessibility instances residing in the United States, Canada, and the European Union. This release focuses on enhanced real-time suggestions for WYSIWYG content, new accessibility profiles and features for webpage and in-LMS page content, an option for Admins and Instructors to reprocess all items within a course, and more.

    1. New Real-Time Accessibility Suggestions Available within WYSIWYG Editor
      Building on the Real-time Accessibility Suggestion Engine introduced last release, we have added new accessibility suggestions for WYSIWYG Editor content. Panorama will now make suggestions and prompt instructors to fix issues associated with font size, color contrast, alternative text, and descriptive text. Content Creators will be prompted when there is a detected accessibility issue—which will be flagged as Minor, Major, or Severe—and subsequently offered an appropriate solution.
    2. Real-Time Improvement Suggestions for Color Contrast When WCAG 2.1 Color Contrast Issues Are Detected
      Suggestions for color contrast allow Content Creators to resolve WCAG 2.1 color contrast issues by choosing from a recommended selection of complementary text or background colors.
    3. Real-Time Improvement Suggestions for Font Sizes When Font Readability Issues Are Detected
      Font size issues that could affect readability will automatically be detected and easy-to-use recommendations to adjust the text size are provided.
    4. Customized Website Accessibility Profiles for Motor Impairment, Color Blindness, Dyslexia, Visually Impairments, Seizure-Prone Users, and More
      To make web-based content more accessible to viewers, we have implemented an improved layout alongside one-click Accessibility Profiles, which will automatically alter the website or LMS content for viewers with: motor impairments, color blindness, visual impairments, dyslexia, ADHD, cognitive or learning disabilities, and those prone to seizures.
    5. Addition of Font Face Designed to Be Easier to Read for Dyslexic Users
      Further enhancements include the addition of Comic Sans to the list of Readable Fonts, and a customizable option for the Reading Guide.
    6. Ability to Reprocess All Documents Within a Course To Take Advantage of Newly Introduced Accessibility Engine Enhancements
      Admins and Instructors who wish to re-generate Alternative Formats and Accessibility Reports for a course may do so with the click of a button. Simply access your Course Report or Content tab within the Panorama LTI app and select Reprocess Course.
      Reprocess Course
    7. Support for Moodle Books
      In continuing to integrate Panorama into new areas of Moodle, we now generate Alternative Formats and an Accessibility Score for Moodle Books. Future updates will further expand Panorama into other areas such as Discussion Topics and Moodle Chapters.
  • August 18, 2022

    YuJa Panorama for Digital Accessibility – Update RC20220819 Released to US, CAN, and EU Zones

    Canada Zone European Union Zone United States Zone YuJa Panorama LMS Accessibility Platform

    We have successfully pushed an update to all instances residing in the United States, Canada and the European Union. This release focuses on dynamic accessibility suggestions for WYSIWYG text regions, language translation support for Text-to-Speech, increased options for Website Accessibility, enhancement to Panorama’s ability to generate Accessibility Reports, and more.

    1. Dynamic WYSIWYG Support and Real-Time Accessibility Suggestions
      A major step forward in digital accessibility is now available with our new real-time accessibility suggestions for WYSIWYG text regions. Accessibility Reports will now generate and provide dynamic feedback as Instructors create WYSIWYG content. This enables Panorama to offer real-time accessibility suggestions and solutions to issues surrounding images and URLs that do not contain alternative descriptions. In future releases, we will continue to build upon this initial capability-set around real-time accessibility suggestions.
    2. Text-to-Speech Can Now Be Translated into Multiple Languages
      Continuing our efforts to make learning accessible to all students, we now provide the option to translate text-to-speech in over twenty languages.
    3. Website Accessibility Now Offers Translations for Alternative Formats
      Documents content on a website can now be translated, as well as have their alternative formats supported in over 100 languages.
    4. Localization Support Added for French and Spanish
      We have added support for French and Spanish to be set as preferred languages through the Panorama LMS app. Once configured, Panorama will display all UI text in your preferred language. To learn how to set your preferred language, please click here.
    5. Website Accessibility Can Now Be Integrated Directly Into the LMS
      To provide our users with a more customizable experience, we have added several new features to the Website Accessibility tool. To learn about Website Accessibility for Panorama, and the newly added features, please click here. Capabilities include:

      • Have the option to enable Website Accessibility within their LMS at the institutional-level and course-level.
      • Content Creators will now be able to undo/redo changes, save changes for future use, discard all changes
      • Added a Color Adjustment tab to complement our Content Adjustment features.

    6. Enhanced Menu for Alternative Formats with Ability to Integrate Custom Terms of Use
      In addition to improving the user experience, the Alternative Formats menu has been revised to provide more clear labeling of the various accessibility options. Additionally, a new Help button provides additional details on Alternative Formats.
      We have also added a Terms of Use feature that LMS Administrators can set in the LTI App. To learn how to add Terms of Use to your Alternative Formats menu, please click here.
  • June 10, 2022

    YuJa Panorama for Digital Accessibility – Update RC20220610 Released to US, CAN, and EU Zones

    Canada Zone European Union Zone United States Zone YuJa Panorama LMS Accessibility Platform

    We have successfully pushed an update to all instances residing in the United States, Canada, and the European Union. This Panorama update has broadened the scope of website accessibility, added language translation and increased performance for accessibility report generation.

    1. Website Accessibility Add-On Now Offers More Accessible Page Viewing
      To offer a more accessible viewing experience for those interacting with your institution’s public website, we added a new Content Adjustments tab within the Website Accessibility Add-On. From here, any website viewer can instantly adjust their personal viewing experience of your institution’s website including: Content Spacing, Font Sizing, Line Height, Letter Spacing, Font Readability, Text Alignment, Title Highlighting, and Link Highlighting. This is in addition to the existing Accessible Formats generated for all PDFs, PowerPoints, Word documents that are linked off your website. To learn more about this feature, please click here.

    2. Documents Can Now Be Translated Into Multiple Languages
      Panorama has broadened its definition of an alternative format to now include the document’s language. Students may not always be the most familiar with the language a document is uploaded in. Panorama now offers the ability for a student to translate a document instantly to over 100 languages. To learn more about this feature, please click here.
    3. Accessibility Reports Can Now Be Generated Automatically
      In Panorama’s most recent release, we shifted the way we generate alternative formats, to be on-demand. However, after listening closely and working with our clients we now understand that many institutions would like the Accessibility Report for all files uploaded to be automatically generated. We now provide a setting in the LTI app that enables automatic report generation. When this setting is enabled, all files uploaded will have their Accessibility Report automatically generated. This setting can be set at the institution level and overridden at the course level. To learn how to enable this feature, please click here.
    4. Colored Icons for Instructors to Easily View Accessibility Scores

      Instructors can now quickly and easily determine the Accessibility Score of a file they’ve uploaded through the color of the Alternative Format icon.

      Green is for Accessibility Scores greater than 70%
      Yellow is for Accessibility Scores between 30% and 70%
      Red is for Accessibility Scores less than or equal to 30%

      Note: This functionality is only available for instructors. Students will always see the standard blue icon.


      Instructors can also hover over any Accessibility icon to view a tooltip displaying the report score:

    5. Icons Hidden for Non-Supported File Formats
      Icons for files that are not supported by Panorama will now have their icon hidden.
    6. Enhanced HTML Accessibility Reports for Better Visual Representation on All Screen Sizes
      We have increased the LMS locations where HTML Accessibility Reports will be generated, has improved the quality of the reports, as well as enhancing the visual compatibility of viewing these reports with devices of all sizes.
    7. Optimization Upgrades
      Users will notice faster processing speeds for Accessibility Reports and Alternative Formats during large spikes of requests with minimal impact on processing time.
  • April 8, 2022

    YuJa Panorama for Digital Accessibility – Update RC2022428 Released to US, CAN, and EU Zones

    YuJa Panorama LMS Accessibility Platform

    We have successfully pushed an update to all instances residing in the United States, Canada, and the European Union. This release prioritizes making Panorama accessible to files available for all websites. This release also focuses on optimizations with setup auto-scaling of all of our services to reduce wait time when processing any alternative formats.

    1. Panorama Now Supports Accessibility on Any Website
      To expand and support an organization’s effort to improve accessibility for all resources, beyond the borders of the LMS environment, Panorama now supports the generation of alternative formats on any website. Through the use of the new Website Accessibility tab, Admins can utilize a provided script to deploy Panorama features to their website. For more information on utilizing this feature, please click here.4.8 Website Accessibility
    2. Enhanced Menu for Alternative Format and On-Demand File Generation
      Previously, Panorama strived to deliver alternative formats in a pre-processed model. Incorporating feedback from our users, Panorama is moving towards a direction of having our Accessibility Engines dynamically provide alternative formats, within seconds, on an on-demand basis. This shift reduces the processing time of new courses, provides Accessibility Alternative documents on the most recent version, and provides a responsive experience to the user.4.8 Alternative Formats
    3. Support for Blackboard Ultra View Courses
      Continuing our efforts to make Panorama compatible with all major Learning Management Systems, Panorama now extends support for courses beyond Blackboard Classic view to also support courses using Blackboard Ultra view. Alternative formats will be generated for any uploaded content.
      4.8 Blackboard
    4. Additional Accessibility Reports For HTML Documents
      Panorama now generates Accessibility Reports for HTML documents. This, similarly to other formats, can be found in the Alternative Formats dialog.
      4.8 Html
    5. More Informative Panorama Browser Extension
      To provide our D2L and Blackboard Ultra users with more visibility, as well as assurance, into the data that is stored within the Browser, the Panorama Browser Extension will display more comprehensive information, including UserId, Authenticated Role, Domain, and Extension Token.
      4.8 Browser Extension
    6. Ability for Instructors to Reprocess Document
      In the event that a document has failed to be ingested, Panorama will inform Students why an alternative format cannot be accessed and give Instructors the ability to reprocess the file.
      4.8 Error Processing File
    7. Improved the Error Message for Files with Unsupported Formats
      In line with the goal of providing users with informative messaging, Students and Instructors will receive a notification when files that contain unsupported formats are accessed.
      4.8 Not Supported File Type
    8. Refreshed Accessibility Icon
      To provide our users an enchanted Panorama experience, this update better supports responsiveness for various device sizes along with a refreshed look of the accessibility icon. This also improves the page load speed by combining a Accessibility Formats menu and Accessibility Gauge into a single icon. In a subsequent release, we will have this Accessibility Icon be different colors to show the Accessibility Score (for instructors and administrators).
  • February 4, 2022

    YuJa Panorama for Digital Accessibility – Update 20220204 Released to US, CAN, and EU Zones

    Canada Zone European Union Zone United States Zone YuJa Panorama LMS Accessibility Platform
    1. Ability to Regenerate Alternative Formats with Latest Accessibility Engine
      Users can now reprocess the Alternative Format(s) of their documents to take advantage of the latest accessibility engine. Users have the option to reprocess either a single, or all Alternative Formats.

      • Reprocessing a Single Alternative Format File
        1shadow
      • Reprocessing All Alternative Formats FilesGshadowborder
    2. Improved Accessibility Engine to Better Detect Language and Color Contrast Issues
      We have improved the underlying engine that is responsible for detecting Language and Color Contrast issues present in documents. This includes doing a better job of Instructors when a portion of a document is written in a language different than the default for the document. We also have tuned the sensitivity of our Contrast checker to ensure that the probability of a false positive is reduced.  Purpshadow
    3. Improved Speech-to-Text Engine for Multi-Column Microsoft Word Documents
      The Accessibility Engines have been improved to better detect column formatting when performing speech-to-text operations on Microsoft Word documents. The result is more accurate narration of the file.
      Purpshadow
    4. Optimized Integrity and Security 
      Taking the concern of users’ privacy and security seriously, we have made significant improvements to Panorama’s integrity and security.
  • December 15, 2021

    YuJa Panorama for Digital Accessibility – Update 20211215 Released to US, CAN, and EU Zones

    Canada Zone European Union Zone United States Zone YuJa Panorama LMS Accessibility Platform

    We have successfully pushed an update to all instances residing in the United States, Canada and the European Union. This release prioritizes making Panorama accessible to users of Blackboard 3800 and higher versions. This release also focuses on providing users easier management of content, enhanced security, and a number of optimizations.

    1. Panorama Now Supported on Blackboard 3800+ via Browser Extension for Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Apple’s Safari
      We have now made Panorama available for users of Blackboard 3800 and higher versions through a downloadable browser extension. Users can download the extension on a browser of their choice, including: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Apple’s Safari. Moreover, while we currently support non-ultra courses, we intend to support Blackboard Ultra courses for future releases. To learn how to download the Panorama browser extension, please click here.YuJa Admin Alert border
    2. Ability to Remove Documents
      To allow for easier management of content, users will now be able to remove documents from Panorama through the LTI application. This will not remove users’ files from their Learning Management System. To learn more about this feature, please click here.
      Remove Files Shadow
    3. Optimized Security, Accuracy, and Efficiency
      In addition to resolving minor bugs, we continue to stand firm on our promise of making learning accessible for all students. Thus, we have strengthened the efficiency and accuracy of issue detection for doc(x) files. Moreover, taking the concern of users’ privacy and security seriously, we have made significant improvements to Panorama’s integrity and security.