Using Trucentive with Assistive Technology and Accessible Gift Email Design

This article provides information and tips for those using assistive technology to access Trucentive. It also includes guidance on creating accessible gift emails. Assistive technology refers to devices and software designed to provide equal access for people with disabilities. Some common examples include:

• Screen readers
• Text-to-speech readers
• Magnifiers
• Captioning tools
• Alternative navigation devices, such as keyboard-only navigation or eye tracking

Using a screen reader to drag and drop elements in the Trucentive email template.

In addition to predesigned Trucentive templates, you can also customize and rearrange the various elements of a gift email, such as titles, paragraph text, buttons, and images, to your preferred placement. To do this with a screen reader, Use the following Steps:

Mac specific Steps (VoiceOver)

• From the Trucentive home screen, navigate to the desired project.
• Open the project and locate the design link near the top of the interface.

• The edit link is inside the “First Email” heading. To access it, interact with the "First Email" heading. Press the VoiceOver modifier keys, typically Control plus Option, unless changed. With these keys pressed, also press Shift and Down Arrow. VoiceOver should announce that you are interacting with content.
• Click the edit link. After the edit page loads, locate the "Content" tab. This tab is within the grid of email elements, which are announced as modules.
• In order to find the edit tab, you may need to move through various sections that require VoiceOver to stop interacting. When moving through the modules, use the VoiceOver modifier plus Right Arrow.
• When focus moves to a toolbar or unlabeled button, press the VoiceOver modifier plus Shift and Up Arrow to stop interacting, then continue using the VoiceOver modifier plus Right Arrow to move through the content.
• Repeat this process a few times until you reach the "Content" tab.
• Once VoiceOver announces the "Content" tab, it will also announce that the tab is selected. Despite this, click on the tab anyway. This will display the list of drag-and-drop elements for your gift email.
• As you move through the list, elements such as paragraph, button, list, title, image, and more will be announced.
• When you find the element, you want to drag and drop into your email template, press the enter key. VoiceOver will announce that you have picked up the element.
• Use the up and down arrow keys to move through the email template.
• As you move past elements in the email template, VoiceOver will announce the module, row, and type of element you are focused on, as well as where the picked up element will be dropped.
• When you reach the desired area for the element you want to add, press Enter.
• After pressing Enter, VoiceOver will announce that the element was dropped. For example, you might hear something like: "Paragraph dropped.”

Windows Specific Steps

For Windows users, JAWS is recommended over NVDA for the best experience.

• From the Trucentive home screen, navigate to the desired project.
• Open the project and locate the design link near the top of the interface.
• After the design page loads, look for the heading labeled “First Email.” When navigating by headings, JAWS may announce this as “First Email heading level 1 edit link.” Despite this reading, focus is actually on the heading text, not the edit link.
• To access the Edit link, press Tab or use the Down Arrow once to move past the heading. Then activate the Edit link.
• Once the edit page opens, press Tab until you reach the tab selector. This selector may or may not already be set to the Content tab.
• Use the Left and Right Arrow keys to move through the available tabs until you locate the Content tab.
• If JAWS says the Content tab is already selected, press Enter anyway to expand it. This step ensures that the list of drag-and-drop elements becomes visible.
• A list of elements (such as Title, Paragraph, Button, and Image) will appear. Use Tab to navigate through the list.
• When you find the element, you want to drag into the template, press Enter. JAWS will announce something like “Picked up Title.”
• Now use the Up and Down Arrow keys to move through the modules in your email template. As you move, JAWS will provide drop indicators like “Drop title before type text at module 5, column 1.”
• When you reach your desired placement, press Enter once to switch JAWS into Focus Mode, then press Enter again to drop the element.
• JAWS will confirm with an announcement that the element has been dropped.

Tips For Making Gift Emails Accessible

This section provides tips to help ensure that gift emails sent to recipients are accessible when using assistive technology.

• Use properly styled headings.
  Use headings to separate various sections of your message. Headings allow people who use screen readers to easily navigate between parts of your email. For everyone, they help keep messages organized and easy to follow. For example, a gift message could include headings such as “Participation Thank You,” “Incentive,” and “Questions.”
• Make sure link text is meaningful.
  Avoid using vague link names like “read more,” “here,” or “click here.” Instead, use descriptive link text that clearly conveys the destination or purpose of the link. Many screen readers are capable of presenting links in a list without surrounding context to accommodate different user workflows, so clear link titles like “Illinois State University Website” or “Redeem Gift” help users understand what they’re selecting.
• Add alt text to images.
  Alt text is a short but concise description that helps people who are blind or have low vision understand the content of an image. Be sure to include meaningful descriptions for all images in your email.
  Learn More About How To Write Alt Text For Images