Accessibility and Storyline

Hey John

Here's another informative link regarding Storyline's 508 compliance. And as far as course navigation, when you press the Tab key while viewing published Storyline content, you may notice a yellow box or rectangle that appears around an object on the slide. If you repeatedly press the Tab key, you'll notice that the yellow box cycles through the items on the slide and then moves through the player controls for the course.

This is an accessibility feature that assists those who are using a screen reader. It's enabled for all objects by default, but you can turn it off for any slide object. Here's how.

Hi Peter

Thanks for this information, it is most helpful.

I am wondering if it is possible to move through a scrolling panel using keyboard strokes (rather than a mouse) and also whether text in a scrolling panel or marker can be resized (up to 200%) as needed by a learner, once a course is published?

Many thanks for any assistance.

Leanne

Hi Leanne,

There is no way to change the zoom for a scrolling panel and it isn't accessible for use with a keyboard.

If you'd like to share your thoughts on seeing this as a new feature in future versions of Storyline, please feel free to share your thoughts here in the form of a feature request.

Hello Everyone.

Specifically, I need to know if the JAWS screen reader reads the notes tab when it is selected by the user. Also, does it read other tab items, such as the text in the menu tab?

Like John, I don't have access to the JAWS screen reader. This is extremely frustrating since my project needs to be Section 508 compliant with JAWS before it's approved for release. I'd love to download the trial version of JAWS, however the license agreement clearly states, "These demonstration or evaluation licenses are not permitted for purposes of development and testing of JAWS scripts, applications, HTML coding, or other Web Based code." So far I've been using the Thunder Screenreader to test accessibility, with mixed results. The tabs highlights in yellow when selected, but the reader doesn't recognize the text.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

J.

Hi Jacqueline,

JAWS will read the Notes text when the user has tabbed to the Notes. Just tabbing to the Notes tab itself doesn't invoke it.

Does that help?

Thanks Brian! This is very helpful.

Hi Ashley,

Is there away for the yellow bounding box to be moved up and down to reveal – scroll – up and down text. So the reader would be able to actually see the text at the bottom of the scroll box?

Thanks,

Justin

Hi Justin,

Scrolling using the accessibility is something that we've shared with our QA team per the thread here. There is a suggestion from Matthew in that thread on a way to work with it, and a link to another thread with additional information.  I'll include this thread in the report that is filed with our QA team so that once there is additional information available I can update the thread here. I can't offer a time frame in regards to when I'll hear back, so you'll want to look into one of those workarounds in the meantime. 

I have installed a screen reader on my site but it won't read the course segments.  I was checking out the JAWS reader mentioned herein but I don't see a way to integrate that into the lesson in an export.  It seems to be a hardware tool that you would need to download on all devices??? on screen reading options that is built into the lesson other than me recording all the audio.  Am I missing it?  Can JAWS do this?

Hi Monique,

JAWS is another screen reader tool and it will need to be installed on the computer system of the user as far as I know - it's not an Articulate product but one that we recommend based performance and industry standards. We've tested with JAWS as well during our development and QA process. We don't have a tool that would be built directly into the course, and as for embedding it into your website, I'd defer to your web site team or the tool you end up using as a screen reader. 

Best of luck with your search for the right tool, and you may want to search the ELH forums further for additional threads/comments from other users. 

Hi Monique,

I would strongly discourage any type of built in screen reader. Those who need to use a screen reader for accessing/navigating the digital world will already have the software. The user should not have to change to a new screen reader simply to access your project/web site.

To test screen reader access, you might want to try using NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access - http://www.nvaccess.org/) which is free. While it doesn't have all the bells and whistles that JAWS has, it can help with developing a project that is accessible for those who use screen readers. Another freebie for checking website accessibility is Web Anywhere (https://webanywhere.cs.washington.edu/wa.php)  which is an internet-based screen reader (thus, it only works through a browser where as JAWS and NVDA provide access to the entire computer environment - desktop, apps, etc.)

Cheers!

Hi, Heidi -- Many thanks for stopping in to share that additional information, and I hope Monique finds it useful for what she needs! And as this thread focuses on Accessibility, I thought I might also share the following general resources for others who may want to take a look:

• General Info on Storyline and Section 508 Accessibility
• 6 Best Practices for Designing Accessible E-Learning
• Creating Keyboard Navigation/Shortcuts for Users to Navigate

We have a request to develop accessible elearning for our proprietary software. I'm not sure whether to capture software demonstrations in the default mode or to switch to accessibility mode when capturing video demonstrations. Any advice or best practice?