Forum Discussion
NVDA Use
I'm very new to designing and developing for screen readers using Storyline and using NVDA. I feel like NVDA behaves differently in every course and even on different laptops. Every slide has a focus order, all decorative elements have been removed from the focus order, and I've added "set focus" triggers on anything with layers, but we have to push the down arrow to get NVDA to read the enter text block and actually getting NVDA to "engage" with the actual slide content seems very hit or miss. It also reads a bunch of extraneous information, even though it isn't in the focus order. Is this normal? Is this a setting we need to adjust in NVDA? Or is something wrong on the Storyline side of the equation?
9 Replies
Thank you! I will definitely look into the NVDA shortcuts and watch the webinar.
Am I doing all of the right things in Storyline?
- -Setting the focus order on every slide
- -Removing all decorative or unnecessary elements from the focus order
- -Adding "set focus" triggers to any slide with layers (targeted at the first item in the focus order for each layer)
Should I add "set focus" triggers to every slide as well?
And no to focus triggers on every every slide. Not necessary. This should only be reserved for when sending focus to an element that is not in the natural reading order.
One of the key things is make sure you have a consistent heading on slides and ensure that heading appears after any repeated content (course title or any links at the top of the slide). It provides a good shortcut for assistive tech users (H key) to jump straight to the first heading in the content and start reading the main content (skipping any content that may be repeated on all slides).Oh! I haven't really been using heading or text styles, so that might be causing confusion. (I was taught to use as few text boxes as possible.) I can go back and implement text styles, but what if I use a lot of shapes as "text boxes" Should I keep the text style and just place it in the shape separately? Or can I keep typing the text in the shape itself?
Yes, I think you are on the right track.
With layers, you don't always need to set the focus trigger. It depends on the layer properties. If the layer is exclusive (prevent user from accessing Base), you generally don't need to set a focus trigger.
If the layer is not exclusive (user can still interact with the Base), you only need to set a focus trigger in circumstances where the defined focus order of the layer deviates from the natural reading order, or, there are other elements on the layer you need to by-pass and set focus to a specific element on that layer.Try where you can, with non-exclusive layers, to position them in the focus order so that the natural reading order will handle it. For example, I select a button, that reveals further text in a layer, I would just make sure that layer is directly after the button in the focus order.
For exclusive layers, you just need to ensure the focus order is correct in the layer.
There are quite a few different shortcut keys to use when experienced using NVDA. The main keys to use when starting out are the down/up arrow keys to move up and down through content and the SPACE/ENTER keys for selecting interactive elements.
FYI: Sometime people make the mistake of using the TAB key to move through content with a screen reader, but this only takes you to interactive elements.
NVDA can be frustrating to learn initially. There was a helpful webinar from about a year ago - Beginner’s Guide to NVDA and Storyline for Accessibility Testing | E-Learning Heroes. You may find some answers to your questions in it. Good luck!
This webinar was a great introduction...thank you!
