Alt Text problems
Apr 24, 2017
Hello everyone,
I built a quiz template using Storyline 3, and I need to ensure it's accessible to screen readers. I tested the course, and although I added alt text to all images, it's the image name (file name) that screen readers read out instead. I've tested with NVDA and Mac's VoiceOver, and both read out file names.
I changed alt text, as well as tab order, and technically the readers should pick up the newly identified descriptions. But they don't.
You can preview the quiz template here. The problematic slide - Slide 2.
.story file attached below.
Will look forward to your ideas.
13 Replies
I think I solved this problem, and am posting it here, so that others can benefit. An answer was presented in Kuriko A.'s post, which mentioned the need to update alt text of button states. This advice prompted me to think about the states of my images, which I did not consider adding alt text to.
State alt text - notice the alternate text is the file name of the image - I updated alt text on all states:
This change has resulted in screen reader reading out appropriate alt text tags.
FYI, and thank you Kuriko A.
I ran into the same issue. Thanks for posting this! I thought it might have been a bug.
Glad that this post was able to help you out as well Jay :) Thanks for chiming in to share.
I ran into this issue also but changing the states of the images didn't work. I had to export the images, title them as the alternate text and then re-insert them for them to be read properly. Helpful workaround for anyone having problems.
Thanks for posting this! It worked great for me!
Glad this was able to help you out as well Elizabeth and welcome to E-Learning Heroes :)
I've been doing that exact thing since I started using Storyline with great success. However, just recently, my changes aren't sticking. I have instructional bars across the bottom of my screens (Click This, Click That, etc.) and I usually update the alt text as I'm developing. Build one bar on one slide, copy and paste to the next then edit the alt text. But it's not working now. All of my instructional bars have kept the alt text from the very first one. I've tried right clicking > Accessibility and editing; selecting the bar > States > Edit States (even though there's only one state) > right click > accessibility. And keep getting the same result(s). I've also tried shutting everything down and rebooting to no avail.
Hi Bobby!
Sorry you've run into this issue! I see that others have listed workarounds, so I'm interested to hear if you've tried to reinsert the affected instructional bar.
If you are still seeing this snag afterward, would you mind sharing your file with us? We'll take a look and share our findings.
Thanks for the response, Lauren. I was able to get things back to normal by creating another shape (instructional bar) and editing the Alt Text - which ended up sticking after Save and Exit. However, with a file that has 30+ slides, having to do this for each slide is troublesome.
I'd be glad to share my file with you privately to have you and your team take a look at the issue.
Of course, Bobby.
You can share your file privately here.
Why is NVDA not reading my entire text box? I have a text box with about 4 sentences but NVDA reads through 1-1/2 sentences and I have to press DOWN to keep reading. Is this an issue with Storyline or NVDA?
Hi Bobby,
Thanks for reaching out, and I'm sorry you're running into this! I was able to replicate NVDA stopping mid-sentence when reading through a larger text box. And you're right on using the Down button to continue the progression through the slide.
We're looking into this issue and will reach back out with any updates!
Any updates on this issue? It seems like there is a character or word limit that NVDA hits and just stops reading aloud until the user taps the down arrow.