Carriage returns read as 'Graphic' on JAWS

Nov 18, 2014

Hello. I've been trying to make an e-learning module accessible for people using screen readers. When I tested it with someone who uses JAWS, every carriage return was identified as a 'Graphic'. Has anyone encountered the same problem?  I'd be grateful for any advice, as this double 'Graphic' between every paragraph became too distracting for the learner to continue.

The other issue was that the JAWS reader always went to the bottom of the page when the learner navigated to a new page, causing confusion. I was of the understanding that JAWS should read top left to bottom right by default.

6 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Christine,

The issue with "graphic" being appended to the elements read by JAWS is something that has been reported to our QA Team in Storyline 1. Can you let us know what version of JAWS you're using as well? I'll be able to add this thread to the existing report filed with our QA team so that if there are any updates I'll be able to post them here. 

In regards to the navigation, I haven't seen that behavior before. I'd want to confirm that you were using an updated version of JAWS, a supported browser (I believe they're mostly Internet Explorer?) and what version and update of Storyline (the latest are Storyline 1 Update 7 and Storyline 2 Update 1). Also is there something at the bottom of the page that could be grabbing the focus such as a text entry box? Do you see the focus at the bottom of the page with the yellow highlight box or is the browser being scrolled to the bottom of the page? If you're still having difficulty we're happy to take a look at a sample course if you can share it here. 

Christine Connolly

Thanks very much, Ashley. It was JAWS version 15.

Regarding the navigation, yes, it's a relatively new version of JAWS, Internet Explorer, and Storyline 1 Update 7. The pages we looked at were very simple text-based pages, and there was nothing at the bottom of the page that should have grabbed the focus. When I tested the module using keyboard navigation, the yellow boxes moved as they should from the top to the bottom of the page. So it seems to be something about the interaction between JAWS and Storyline.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Christine,

Thanks - I'll add that to the report with our QA team.

In regards to the navigation and grabbing focus, if the yellow box wasn't highlighting anything can you let us know how it grabbed focus at the bottom? Is the content larger than the normal browser window, and therefore the user would need to scroll but it's already scrolled to the bottom? Do you see the same behavior when running Storyline without Jaws? 

Christine Connolly

Hi again, Ashley. Thanks for the update.

In response to your questions: I didn't see any yellow boxes when the learner used JAWS, so I'm not sure how it grabbed focus at the bottom. The content size should have been fine for the browser window. And no, this doesn't happen when running Storyline without JAWS.

You offered to look at a sample. Do you have an e-mail address I could send it to?

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.