Accessibility Toolkit for Open Educational Resources (OER): Glean Notetaking Apps [New 2024]

Glean is a web-based application that lets students capture class lectures and discussions. Audio notes are captured and visually labelled according to the level of importance. The app also provides the ability to import presentation slides which can then be linked to recorded audio.

They assessed the accessibility of their products and services using the following approaches:

• Self-evaluation.
• External evaluation.
• In-house accessibility specialists who work with their design and development teams.

• Glean’s products and services are partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 level AA.
  • Partially conformant means that some aspects of the content don't fully comply with the accessibility standard.
• Glean's products and services are not required to conform to Section 508 as they are not a US federal agency.
  • However, they utilize Section 508 as guidance to make their products more accessible to users with disabilities.

Glean products and services are designed to be accessible and compatible with assistive technologies.

By building for accessibility from the start, they aim to create an inclusive user experience that works for everyone regardless of ability.

• They say they are committed to making their web and mobile apps as accessible as possible and conduct comprehensive testing to achieve a high degree of compatibility with screen readers such as TalkBack, VoiceOver, and JAWS.
• Their web application, is optimized for use with Chrome and Edge. For more information about compatibility see Glean specifications

Current known limitations for Glean:

1. Events. Page titles can be incomplete. If a user leaves the Event title blank, there could be multiple page titles of 'Untitled Event'. While this hasn't been reported by users as an issue, we're actively exploring ways to address this, such as giving each Event a unique name.
2. Identical labels for buttons: On the Events page, all Events have a 'Move Event' button, however, we don't specify which Event will be moved when it's announced. The Event being moved can be inferred as it is the next tab after the Event title.
3. Page Titles: Some screens do not have descriptive titles. This occurs on the following pages: View Event View, Re-Order Cards and Task Lists Views, Home and Record Event Views, and Account and Collections Views.
4. Third-party applications within Glean are not fully optimised for accessibility and we're actively working with our third-party providers to help them to improve the accessibility of their products.
5. The guided tour and transcription features are not keyboard accessible: Alternatives for the introduction tour are available including an introduction video and onboarding articles. We are working to identify solutions to address these issues. 
6. Transcription requires focus mode: Our transcription service representing the recorded audio as text is accessible to screen readers, however, NVDA users will need to use Insert + Space to interact with the content in Focus Mode.

Reach out to Glean support at support@glean.co if you spot an issue that isn't listed above.