Icons and JAWS

Jun 09, 2021

Please help me save my sanity.  I created the worst possible scenario.  I have a button on a layer that when clicked has a state in which there is an icon.  I have 5 to 6 objects that do this on each of 6-8 layers, on about 15 different slides so if I don't find a simple solution, I might loose it.

When JAWS reads the Icon it reads it in a series of "Freeform 1" "Freeform 2" etc.- useless information to the user.

When I right click on the icon I can select accessibility and then uncheck "Object is visible to accessibility tools"  However Icons appear to be groups of freeform objects, and apparently each freeform object has to be individually selected in order to uncheck the "Object is visible to accessibility tools."  These icons DO NOT show up in the focus order because I had to do it the hard way and put them in as the state of a button.

See the attached example.  Here we have a slide.  We are on the "Where do I" layer.  The Find a Seating Chart button is "Selected." The selected state has some words and an icon.  The icon is selected as well as the middle "Freeform".

***Update - I found a work around.  I used my "snipit tool" to create a picture of the icon.  Deleted the icon, and then unchecked the "object is visible" for the one picture.  Still wondering what others have done.

 

2 Replies
Jose Tansengco

Hello Kate, 

Happy to chime in!

There isn't a way to change how icons are imported into Storyline 360 slides, but you can quickly convert icons into image files by right-clicking on them and selecting the 'Export Shape as Picture ..' option. 

Once you've saved the picture, you can then replace the existing icon with this image file which should now allow screen readers to read the image only once. Be sure to add alt text to the image file to make it accessible.

Hope this helps!