April 27 build, Accessible text, tab focus order not working as documented.

Apr 29, 2021

Richard Fouchaux
By Richard Fouchaux

Hi all,

My organization is a leader in accessibility advocacy. I've recently received a failing accessibility audit from our provincial Accessibility Centre of Excellence, who tested a recent course published in January with Build 3.47.23871.0 (Dec. 15, 2020). The testers purportedly include authentic AI users, using NVDA and JAWS. They were not happy. Among the advice, accompanying a screenshot of the "Skip Navigation. Press enter to return to the slide" with the following comment, and I quote:

"There is a bypass block link that appears on the slides, but it doesn’t do anything for me. We would recommend removing this, as it does not bypass the navigation."

Prior to addressing their concerns I've installed the latest build (April 27). I thought some of the reported issues would be helped by my better understanding information on this page, but it has not, and the page contains errors:
https://articulate.com/support/article/Storyline-360-Accessible-Text 

The current build does not have the Modern Text selector shown in the screenshot there. I set the built-in variable Player.AccessibleText  true, as suggested. There's no difference that I can hear in NVDA's behaviour. Neither in the published version nor Preview does the Alternate Text toggle button show, but in Storyline Player dialog all three buttons still appear.

NVDA does not read the things expected and does not follow the focus order I've set — it finds the first graphic on a layer as it opens, reads the ALT text but then neither TAB nor Arrow keys provide access to other images or text, except HTML form elements or buttons. It adds "Landmark region" (I'm familiar with ARIA) and "grouping" to some things it reads, then repeats that prior to the announcement of others. I've yet to deduce the pattern.

I thought to submit a support ticket and upload all or part of my project, as I've done once in the past, only to find no access to the form, and when I found a "Contact Support" form it said "Something went wrong" and directed me here. Has the support protocol been changed… might I have missed a memo?

I try to be self sufficient. I've got more pages open to read and I'm not giving up. I'm a novice with NVDA but no means a newbie. I'm hoping to receive advice and/or links to the most relevant and current information. I'd very much appreciate hearing from an Articulate insider what you believe the Skip Navigation is supposed to accomplish.

Thanks to all,

Richard

 

 

7 Replies
Leslie McKerchie
almost 3 years ago05/03/21 at 5:37 pm (UTC)

Hello Richard,

Thank you for reaching out and sharing what you are experiencing in Storyline 360. I'm seeing a few questions in your post above, so I'd like to break them down:

  1. What is Skip Navigation supposed to accomplish?


    When learners get to the end of a slide and press the Tab key:

    Screen reader users hear a prompt that says, “Back to top.”

    Keyboard-only users see a temporary button, labeled "Back to top," in the lower right corner of the slide.

     

    Learners can press the spacebar or Enter key to activate the skip navigation shortcut and return to the top of the slide. Or, they can press the Tab key to proceed to the player controls.

  2. This page contains errors.

    I'm not seeing any errors when taking a look at this link. What errors are you seeing? Is this in a particular browser?
  3. NVDA does not read the things expected and does not follow the focus order I've set.

    We'd certainly like to take a look at your project file to understand what you're experiencing with NVDA.
  4. Has the support protocol been changed? I could not submit a support ticket.

    It has not. Since you ran into an issue submitting a support case yourself, I've opened one on your behalf and also sent a direct upload link for you to share your file privately so that we can test using NVDA and take a look at what you're experiencing.
Richard Fouchaux
almost 3 years ago05/03/21 at 6:14 pm (UTC)

Thanks so much for your reply. Points 3 & 4 are now moot, as I received the ticket and will upload the project shortly.

Regarding #1, the Skip navigation, I see and understand perfectly that the "Skip Navigation" is working as designed and/or described. The comment was a direct quote from the professional accessibility auditor within the provincial government, whom while I don't know personally is assumed to be an experienced user of the tech. I guess the "navigation" it's skipping is what I normally refer to as the playback controls. I agree it beats circling around.

And I can report #2 appears now to be a moot point as well… you have my word I checked and double-checked before making that assertion! It referred to the screen shot showing the Fonts drop-down and two checkboxes beneath — on the day I posted (the same day I installed the latest build) "Use Modern Text" was not displayed there. It's there now and I've just checked it. I'll publish again before the end of the day, check for and report any differences.

I've been working steadily on the project in response to the audit, but it's my intention to upload a earlier version closer to the one tested. I'm also taking a crash course in NVDA.

As I remind my managers fairly often, the level of support your company provides is, in my experience, unparalleled in the industry. Thank you.

-

Richard

Richard Fouchaux
almost 3 years ago05/03/21 at 7:03 pm (UTC)

Wonderful! We're all still working from home here and I've been reporting to the boss ever since your message arrived… I'm finally about to publish for the first time since setting up extensive custom Focus Orders on many slides, including the ones I noted for you, and enabling "Modern Text". If that seems to solve anything I'll let you know asap.

Sincerely,
Richard

Richard Fouchaux
almost 3 years ago05/03/21 at 8:01 pm (UTC)

Hi Leslie,

I regret to report Modern Text and other changes I've made have not resulted in improvements; if anything it's worse. In the current version of Firefox there's a play button — not of my creation — when the module launches. It becomes highlighted and remains so despite tabbing, and does not respond to Enter or Space bar. So the course is completely inaccessible to keyboard-only users. As a sighted user I clicked it to continue. Mouse hovering, NVDA reads everything in the browser and other applications, but none of the text on the slide. I'm trying NVDA keyboard shortcuts mostly to no avail—in Chrome I've heard the Start Course button read twice, first by pure accident and later using NVDA-key + Down Arrow, but even then I'm unable to start the course unless I click the button with the mouse.

The advice I received at my web accessibility training was to turn of the monitor or wear a blindfold and try to navigate your web page or rich application. I currently wouldn't be able to find the first slide.

Richard

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