Create an inclusive virtual tour

On this page:

Overview
Expectations and tips
Examples
Affected audiences

Overview

When creating an inclusive virtual tour, whether for a campus, school, department, or unit, it is important to prioritize accessibility and inclusivity throughout the entire tour. This means that all visitors can experience an equally integrated and effective virtual tour, regardless of their abilities or needs. If there are multiple variations of a virtual tour, the outcomes from all must be the same.

It's important to ensure that the inclusive tour is the primary virtual tour with any interactive tour included as an enhancement. The inclusive and interactive tours should provide the same information. This does not mean the information must be presented in the same way, for example spoken versus written. But the content and outcomes must be equivalent.

Virtual tours should be designed with accessibility and inclusivity in mind from the beginning to create a comprehensive engaging experience for all visitors.

Expectations and tips

The expectation is to create a virtual tour that will provide an engaging, informative, and inclusive experience. This means ensuring that the tour is accessible and user-friendly, providing alternative text for any images or graphics, and offering closed captions, transcripts. and audio descriptions for any videos. The goal should be to create an inclusive and immersive experience that accurately represents the subject of the tour.

Consider the following when building your virtual tour:

Page layout

A large tour may require multiple pages. If so, consider breaking it up into natural or logical sections. And remember, videos and images increase loading time. Avoid having more than 10 or 12 stops per page.

Content

Try to make text rich and descriptive—this helps deliver an experience that more closely replicates physical tours.
Include text transitions (for example, "Continue down the hall" or "Let's go to the second floor") to connect locations.
Include alt text describing the images, in addition to image captions. Tour stop descriptions (the text about a stop) should not duplicate alt text for the image or captions and audio description for the video. They should work together. Learn more about writing alternative text for images.
Include appropriate captions, transcripts, and audio descriptions for any videos.
Use a semantic heading, paragraph text, image, or other media for each tour stop without using <figure> and <figcaption>. Simplifying the HTML reduces potential issues.
If you also have an interactive or 3D tour, make sure the content in the inclusive tour provides the same information. Text does not need to be exactly the same or delivered in the same format (for example, spoken versus written), but it should provide equivalent content and outcomes.

Interactive or 3D tours

An interactive or 3D tour must not stand alone as the only tour content on a page.
Present the more inclusive tour first, with the interactive or 3D tour included as an enhanced version of the virtual tour. This will better meet IU policies, and still permit use of the interactive or 3D tour.
If you have an interactive or 3D tour, make sure the more inclusive version using traditional media is equivalent in the most important content and will result in an equal outcome. Images, videos, or other media at significant stops on the interactive or 3D tour must be represented in the more inclusive tour.

Examples

Review the virtual tour wireframes with accessibility annotations to ensure you master inclusion on your site. In addition, you may find the following example tours useful:

Affected audiences

When creating virtual tours for schools or campuses, it is important to keep in mind the affected audiences. Audiences might want or need a non-interactive tour for a variety of reasons. Some visitors may have slower internet connections or older devices that cannot handle more complex tours, while others may simply prefer a more straightforward and streamlined experience. They may be on campus and following the text to do a self-guided tour. Also, a more inclusive tour can be more accessible for visitors with disabilities or those who use assistive technologies.