Forum Discussion
Accessibility settings for grouped items
This may have already been discussed, if so forgive me.
Many tools I use, if I group a set of items together and apply accessibility settings to the group, any child elements that are grouped will either be invisible or will inherit the settings given to the parent at the group level.
For example, if I group a set of shapes, then mark the group as "decorative", none of the items within the grouping will appear in any kind of reading order. They essentially inherit the "decorative" setting applied to the parent group.
This is not the case in Articulate Storyline, and as a result I often end up with a lot of additional clicks. Is there any conversation about changing this behavior?
There can be valid reasons for the group not inheriting the decorative setting. I use groups for animating items together, and when I group elements for animation, I don't necessarily want the group to have its own ALT text value, and so I remove it. The elements in the group may contain a mix of decorative and non-decorative items, such as a text box and design element.
I'm not a fan of the group automatically being assigned an ALT text value though. I'd rather proactively specify that, as, if it is missed, you then have an ALT text value of "Group 1" or similar.
Just keeping the conversation going on this...
One sample use case for applying accessibility settings at the group level:
Inserted icons from the 360 content library are often grouped freeform objects (makes sense). Depending on the slide layout, I may have several of these inserted icons on a single slide...
My preference (and experience in other tools) would be to be able to select the inserted icon (group) and apply accessibility settings to the entire group of freeform objects, rather than be required to expand the group, select all items, apply accessibility settings AND still need to set the same accessibility settings at the group level as well.
Ah yes, the library items are a problem.
In my opinion, these are setup incorrectly and catch people out. I think the grouped elements, that in many instances users are likely to assume is a single element, do contain junk ALT text values on the individual elements.
I'm sure not many people are aware you should ungroup and then make each element decorative, before regrouping the element and then handle the ALT on the group.
I'm sure I have reported this as an accessibility issue in the past, as it does, inadvertently, set authors up to fail.
There is no good reason for the individual elements of freeform objects to have junk ALT text, and so rather than changing the behaviour of the ALT text on a group, I think Articulate should fix those library elements and remove the junk ALT from the grouped elements.
I'm sure not many people are aware you should ungroup and then make each element decorative, before regrouping the element and then handle the ALT on the group.
... and, when this isn't done, especially with multiple such icons on a screen, the reading order is absolutely horrendous. Each freeform object is listed individually...
When several elements are selected at the same time, a unique right click allows you to mark them all as "decorative". For me, that is enough.
