Accessibility questions

Feb 24, 2014

Gillian Hubbold
By Gillian Hubbold

Hi there,

I've been testing some Storyline courses we've developed using JAWS screen reader (version 15.0.625) and have noticed a few things:

  • Sometimes, even when 'Alt text' has been switched off for an object on a slide, you can still tab to it (the yellow box still highlights around the object even when Alt text has been disabled).
  • I can get into the Resources tab (by pressing spacebar), but it's a bit hit and miss as to whether I can actually get into the list itself using the up and down arrows.  The resources title seems to be skipped completely and isn't read out when tabbing in JAWS.  Also, JAWS won't read out the items in the Resources list, so a visually impaired user would have no way of knowing what they're scrolling through.
  • Sometimes the tab function picks up a 'ghost' item that simply doesn't exist at all.
  • Sometimes when a slide loads, JAWS reads out the title (or first object on screen) automatically without tabbing to it.  When this happens and you then tab to the title itself, JAWS doesn't read anything out at all.

Just wondering whether these are known issues/bugs, or whether it's something to do with the way in which we've created the courses themselves.

If they're known issues, are there any plans in the pipeline to address them with future Storyline updates?

Any guidance would be gratefully recieved as we're designing for an audience of 100,000+ people and accessibility is a must.

Many thanks,

Gillian

6 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
10 years ago02/24/14 at 11:31 am (UTC)

Hi Gillian and welcome to Heroes! 

I don't see these documented as known issues, but if you're able to share your Storyline course with us (or even a sample/mock up) we can do a bit more testing on these elements and report to our QA team if it's determined to be a bug. If you'd like you can share the Storyline file  here with us, or if you'd prefer to share privately I can send you directions on how to share it with me and you're also always welcome to connect with our Support engineers. 

Gillian Hubbold
10 years ago02/28/14 at 9:47 am (UTC)

Many thanks Ashley,

Rather than send privately, I've replicated the issues I've been having (I think!) on the attached Storyline project file.

I haven't been able to replicate the 'ghost' item I mentioned in my original post above, but the other 3 queries are there.

Thanks again for looking at this for me.

Gillian

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
10 years ago04/25/14 at 11:34 am (UTC)

Hi Gillian,

Sorry for the delay - there are a few known issues with accessibility and tabbing that seem to be prevalent in your project such as the inability to turn off the alt text functionality for an object with multiple states (such as your text box on the first slide). This has been shared with our QA team in a few different instances, but I don't have any updates to share in regards to a time frame or fixes.

The resources tab can be a bit tricky, and is supposed to work as follows:

 In order to do so, you'll need to "Tab" and select the Resources tab.

Once that's selected, hit "Space" to expand the menu.

Once the list is open, press the "Down" arrow key on your keyboard. This will select the first item in the list. You can continue moving through the list, or hit the "Space" bar again to select the item. 

Testing this on your course, you'll also hear it read out the icon for each element, as undefined and it then has to read the title separately, but I was able to hear the different titles of the resources elements. Also, you'll need to close the Resource tab using the space bar again from the main Resources tab button. 

It seems the title is read automatically for all your slides, and that seems to be how Jaws reads any other windows I open by reading the title of the window before tabbing to any elements. 

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