Using Keyboard Shortcuts to make "Multiple Response" Question Types Accessible?
Feb 25, 2018
Our team has been switching our development focus from Adobe Captivate to Articulate Storyline for accessibility and compliance purposes. So, as I'm experimenting with templating options, I'm doing so with an 'accessibility-first' mindset.
With that in mind, I'm trying to develop question slides where each answer indicates the specific keyboard shortcut associated with it. Yes, yes, I know, the user can already tab through the options. Personally, I don't think that approach is particularly user-friendly, so I'm exploring additional options and potential best practices.
So far as I can tell, setting up keyboard shortcuts on single-answer multiple choice questions is pretty straightforward. Answer choices are radial, so as soon as one is selected all other choices are deselected. With multiple response questions this is not the case, however, and I'm having trouble with the keyboard trigger logic.
My ideal scenario: When the user presses "1", response option 1 should become selected if it is currently in a normal state. Otherwise, it should return to a normal state. It sounds simple, but without "else" options in the logic, this seems to get a wee bit complicated in practice.
From some reading and experimentation, it looks like the most common approach is to set up a true/false variable, and have three separate triggers for each answer option. For a single question with four options, like the one pictured above, this would involve four variables and at least 12 distinct keyboard triggers. This seems cumbersome for a question so basic, and I'd love to hear other potential approaches. Maybe I'm missing something?
The other workaround I've come up with is to use a clear button, but I'd like a more elegant and intuitive solution. Does anyone else have any approaches or thoughts to share on the topic?
To see a logical skeleton of the scenario, see the attached Storyline file.
1 Reply
So, the good news is that I've made this fully functional, and the keyboard shortcuts are currently working as intended. I'm pretty new to accessibility in Storyline, so forgive me for responding to my own question here... but after some further research and experimentation, I'm thinking the best (only?) way to approach this is with variables, event listeners, and a whole bunch of triggers.
The challenge of using intuitive (non-tab) keyboard shortcuts to make quiz questions more accessible was compounded by a decision to use numerical shortcuts. Here's why:
Storyline treats the "5" as a different key than "NumPad 5", the former being the numbered keys sitting above the QWERTY portion of most keyboards. Essentially, each set of triggers must be created twice using this approach to ensure you're fully accommodating all learners. For this purpose, if you're trying to replicate what I've done here I would strongly recommend using alphabetic shortcuts to cut the trigger count in half.
I'll attach a link to a playable version of my quiz shortcuts below, along with the logic.
Link to Multiple Response Question Type with Keyboard Shortcuts
So just how many triggers did it take to accomplish this? Well... about 40. But that number would be significantly less if I'd used
A, B, C, and Din lieu of1, 2, 3, 4.Had I known the # vs NumPad# oddity beforehand I would have created an additional event listener for the clear button (seen above with the "5" shortcut). Although, really, I'd probably just forego the clear button entirely now that individual response options are toggling correctly. I'd also probably use an "S" for submit.
And again, this is all much, much simpler when doing multiple choice. It's just that sneaky multiple response question type that gets you...
I'm attaching a Story file for anyone who would like to build from my work here, or just to better understand what I was trying to accomplish. It is working perfectly, but is more tedious to setup than anticipated. Along those lines, here's a screenshot of the active triggers:
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