At Circuit, accessibility compliance is built directly into our front-end experience for all users. Our team has rigorously reviewed and optimized the platform to ensure it meets strict web accessibility requirements, providing you with WCAG 2.1 AA and ADA compliance built directly into the CMS and tour front-end.
Achieving the highest level of accessibility is, however, a partnership. While we ensure the Circuit platform itself is compliant, tour creators should be intentional to configure and populate the tour to maximize accessibility. By following these best practices in the CMS while building and setting up your virtual tour, you ensure a truly inclusive experience for virtual tour visitors.
Accessibility Recommendations
1. Clear and Simplified Text
Use simplified, short language to help all users understand your message easily when building your Homepage, Splash page, Scene Guidecards, and Hotspot Guidecards written content. Reduce the likelihood that text will run beyond what is displayed with concise text:
Homepage welcome message: 1-2 sentences
Tour Search Description (the tile card message): 1 short sentence
Splash page welcome message: 1-2 sentences
Guidecard Titles: <4 Words
Guidecard Paragrahs: <50 words or 200 characters
EXAMPLE: The homepage below features a concise Welcome Message, Tour Titles and Search Descriptions without any long sentences or text that runs out of view.
Use familiar text in CTAs with clear instructions in buttons, forms, and notices (e.g., "Sign up for emails" rather than generic "Click Here").
Use Titles and Paragraphs to build guidecards, with a maximum one of each item in one guidecard.
EXAMPLE: This scene has a concise guide card title and paragraph, and audio generated to exactly match the written text.
⚠️ If your tour includes multi-language translation, ensure you have translated the content for all written text fields into your supported languages.
2. Image and Video Accessibility
Include descriptive alternative text (alt text) that describes the image content. Users who rely on screen readers or have low vision depend on accurate image descriptions to understand your image and visual content. In your Images library, or when you upload media for your tour, you can filter images with Missing descriptions to add these in. You can generate image descriptions with the AI Writing Assistant feature.
EXAMPLE: See how this image has a concise, descriptive caption for the image included in the guidecard.
⚠️ If your tour includes multi-language translation, ensure you have translated the content for all image descriptions into your supported languages.
Avoid using text within images if possible. When unavoidable, the text should meet high-contrast guidelines and be fully typed out within the image alt text description.
Have video captions in the video for any embeds in Circuit with speaking audio. Ensure these are accurate and synchronized closed captions, and should be included within the original video file, not relying on the video platform captions (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.).
3. Audio Guide and Accessibility
Enabling the audio guide feature in your virtual tour is a great way to have your audiences listen to the guidecard while reviewing your written and visual tour content.
Generate the audio guide to exactly match the written text. Ensure the audio guide matches your Splash page, Scene Guidecards, and Hotspot Guidecard text content. This helps ensure users are not losing information when relying on the audio guide, who may not be able to see or hear the guidecard text.
Review the audio guide files for pronunciation and accuracy to ensure users are able to understand the content from the audio guide. Add frequently mispronounced words to the Pronunciation library in the CMS.
⚠️ If your tour includes multi-language translation, ensure you have translated the written content and all audio guides for your scenes. With videos, add a translated version for each of your supported languages.
Circuit Accessibility: Build Checklist
Use this checklist before publishing your tour to ensure all accessibility standards are met.
Text & UI Content
Homepage message is simple, direct and short.
Splash page messages for all tours are simple and short (1-2 sentences). The audio guide matches the text directly.
Scene & Hotspot Guidecards: Visible text on guidecards is simple and short (less than 4 words for titles; less than 50 words or 200 characters for paragraph text)
Buttons, Notices, & Forms: Text is clear and actionable.
Multi-language: All text fields are translated into active languages.
Images & Visuals
Image Descriptions: All images have accurate alt text descriptions.
Images with Text: Any text inside an image is fully transcribed in the image description.
Video Captions: Embedded videos include accurate captions.
Multi-language: Image descriptions are translated into all activated languages. If available, multi-language versions of videos are embedded appropriately.
Audio & Multimedia
Audio/Text Matching: Audio files match the written text on the Splash page, Scene Guidecards, and Hotspot Guidecards.
Audio Review and Pronunciation: Audio accurately reads out words with the right pronunciation for written text.
Multi-language: Audio files and videos are provided for all activated languages.
Learn more about accessibility in Circuit: