Accessibility at Shiken
Last reviewed 21 October 2026 · Reviewed quarterly · Target: WCAG 2.2 Level AA
This statement is written for the people who buy, roll out and use Shiken: L&D and procurement teams, accessibility leads, and learners. It is a plain-English account of where we are today. It is not a claim of conformance.
1. What this statement covers
In order of priority:
- The learner course player — the pages a learner sees when they open a Shiken course: lessons, text and media blocks, flashcards, tabs, sorting and hotspot activities, chapter navigation, progress and completion.
- The question and quiz player — multiple choice, multiple select, free-text and scored question sets, including feedback and results.
- SCORM and embed surfaces — the same players when exported as a SCORM package or shown in an iframe inside a customer LMS or intranet.
- The admin and authoring app (secondarily) — the workspace where courses, questions and roleplays are created, edited and reported on. We hold it to the same target, but the learner surfaces come first because they reach the most people, including people who did not choose the tool.
Out of scope: the marketing website, the native iOS meeting recorder, and third-party content a customer uploads (for example a PDF or video the customer authored). We describe below what we do and do not do to help with uploaded media.
2. Our target
We are working towards WCAG 2.2 Level AA (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2, W3C Recommendation, October 2023) for every surface above. We chose 2.2 rather than 2.1 because it adds criteria that matter for learning content — focus visibility, dragging alternatives, target size, consistent help and accessible authentication — and because it is the version our customers' public-sector and healthcare obligations (EN 301 549 in the EU, Section 508 in the US) are converging on.
3. Current status: partially conforms
Shiken partially conforms to WCAG 2.2 Level AA. “Partially conforms” means that some parts of the content do not fully meet the standard. The limitations we know about are listed in section 4, each with the date by which we plan to resolve it.
We do not publish a conformance claim, and we will not until an independent review confirms one. What we publish instead is this statement and a self-assessment against every A and AA success criterion (see section 7).
4. Known limitations and when we plan to fix them
The dates are commitments on our roadmap, not guarantees. Items marked Q4 2026 are in the current accessibility pass; items marked 2027 follow it.
| # | Limitation | Who it affects | Planned |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Image hotspot activities have no keyboard alternative. The hotspot quiz can only be answered with a mouse or touch. | Keyboard-only, switch and some screen-reader users | Q4 2026 |
| 2 | Secondary ("muted") text in some themes falls below the 4.5:1 contrast minimum (about 3.4:1 in the default theme). Some callout labels, the green "Correct" state and the embedded results screen are also below the minimum. | Low-vision users and anyone in bright light | Q4 2026 |
| 3 | Quiz results and other state changes are not announced to screen readers. The result appears visually but there is no live region. | Screen-reader users | Q4 2026 |
| 4 | Pinch-zoom is disabled on embedded players, so a learner viewing a course inside an LMS iframe on a phone cannot zoom. | Low-vision users on mobile | Q4 2026 |
| 5 | No skip link, and landmarks are incomplete. The course player has two top-level headings, skips heading levels, and lacks header, navigation and main landmarks. | Screen-reader and keyboard users | Q4 2026 |
| 6 | Tabs, flashcards and sorting activities use custom markup without the matching ARIA roles, so they are not announced correctly. | Screen-reader users | Q4 2026 |
| 7 | Player chrome is in English only, and the page language is set to the viewer’s interface locale rather than the course language. | Screen-reader users and multilingual teams | Q4 2026 |
| 8 | Uploaded video has no caption track. The video block does not yet accept a caption file, so captions depend on the author burning them in. | Deaf and hard-of-hearing users | Q4 2026 (caption file); 2027 (automatic captions) |
| 9 | Generated alt text can describe the intended image rather than the stock photo actually chosen. | Screen-reader users | Q4 2026 |
| 10 | Flip and progress animations do not yet respect the operating-system "reduce motion" setting. | Users with vestibular or attention conditions | Q4 2026 |
| 11 | Disabled "Continue" controls give no reason that assistive technology can read. | Screen-reader users | 2027 |
| 12 | No pre-publish accessibility check in the editor for missing alt text, low-contrast colours or heading problems. | Everyone, indirectly | 2027 |
| 13 | No learner-selectable high-contrast or large-text mode. Learners rely on browser and OS settings (the player reflows correctly at 390 px and at 200% zoom). | Low-vision users | 2027 |
If you find a problem that is not on this list, please tell us (section 6). We would rather know.
5. How we test
We test the surfaces in section 1 with:
- Keyboard only — every task completed without a pointing device, checking focus order and focus visibility.
- NVDA with Chrome on Windows.
- VoiceOver with Safari on macOS, and VoiceOver on iOS Safari for the mobile and embedded players.
- Automated checks with axe and Lighthouse on each surface, treated as a floor rather than a pass.
- Code review of the player components against the success criteria, which is how most of the items in section 4 were found.
We re-run these checks when we change the players and at each quarterly review.
6. Feedback and support
If you cannot access part of Shiken, or you want to tell us about a barrier, email support@shiken.ai with “Accessibility” in the subject line. Please tell us which course or page you were using, the browser and assistive technology, and what happened.
We will acknowledge your message and respond with a substantive answer, a workaround, or a date, within 5 working days. Accessibility reports are tracked alongside security reports, not in a general feedback queue.
Enterprise customers can also raise accessibility issues through their customer success manager, and can ask for a fix on a specific item in section 4 to be scheduled into their rollout.
7. Requesting the self-assessment (VPAT)
We maintain a self-assessment in the VPAT 2.5 (WCAG edition) format covering every WCAG 2.2 Level A and AA success criterion, with a conformance level and remarks for each. It is the detailed companion to this statement and is kept in step with it. It is available on request.
Request the VPAT by email (opens a message to support@shiken.ai with the subject “VPAT request”). We send it as a document within 5 working days; there is no charge and no NDA.
Section 508 (US) and EN 301 549 (EU) tables are not yet assessed. The WCAG 2.2 table covers the criteria those standards incorporate by reference, and we will add the remaining chapters at a future review if a customer needs them.
8. Formal approval
This statement was prepared by the Shiken product and engineering team on 21 October 2026 and approved by the Chief Executive of Meddicle Ltd. It will be reviewed and re-published at least quarterly, and earlier whenever an item in section 4 is resolved or a new limitation is found.
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