Forum Discussion
Accessibility - Screen Readers and TTS
Hi, I'm currently completing an apprenticeship in Digital Learning Design, and I'm working through some content on accessibility.
Previously, all our storyline courses had text-to-speech added on, but the accessibility features such as alt text and focus orders weren't used. Since I've learnt more about screen readers through my apprenticeship, I've been following correct processes and designs for best practice with screen readers. However, as these read out the text on screen, I'm wondering if the text-to-speech I manually add onto all slides is still required?
Part of me thinks it might be too much if both the audio on the course and the screen reader are reading the content out loud, but then we might have learners with dyslexia, for example, who might not require a screen reader but still prefer to have the text read aloud.
How does everyone else navigate this? Do you use both or one or the other?
Thank you!
3 Replies
I've wondered the same thing. When audio is desired, I leave both because I figure those with screen readers can turn off the audio if they would rather have the text read by their device (it can be read faster on their device) or if they leave the audio on, they can skip the text by using the keyboard shortcuts to advance slides. I'm wondering what others do as well.
I would leave the audio in as that provides learners more options.
However, to make it a fully accessible experience, the audio would need to be turned off by default. As far as I know, Storyline does not have a simple option to turn the audio off by default so you'd need to set up a mechanism where the learner can turn audio on/off when a slide begins. My team is bound by federal and state regulations that require we comply with WCAG 2.1 Level AA so it is a must for us. Just something to consider as you work with audio, screen readers, and accessibility.
In terms of requirements for 508 or WCAG, you are not required to add an audio version of the text on the slide. It is far more important to get things such as ALT and using semantic HTML (making sure heading use appropriate heading levels, bullet lists are bullets lists etc). These support screen reader users much better. Text to speech does not contain the same level of information that screen readers do. A screen reader helps the user indentify elements on the slide such as buttons, radio buttons, check boxes etc. I can't see a scenario where a screen reader user would opt to use the text to audio content as they would have to continually switch between the two in order to identify elements to select such as navigation etc.
Some users may like to use the audio in the course as a preference, but it is definitely not a requirement. I think time/money is much better invested in all the other things and making the screen reader experience as good as possible, as this supports assistive technology in lots of ways.
