I am wondering if this setting can be made "opt in" instead of "opt out". There can invariably be a lot of screen assets that do not need to be visible to accessibility tools and it would certainly save me a great deal of time If I could decide what is needed instead of having to change the setting for everything that is not needed. If this is not possible or even desirable then perhaps when I select all objects and change the setting it would work for not only groups but the objects in the groups as well. Currently the objects within the group do not change and I must go into each group and turn off the setting for the objects within them. Any thoughts or advice?
Thanks for taking the time to share this! Right now, this setting is turned on by default but I can see how it would be helpful to choose this behavior for all objects or none.
I'm happy to share this with our team! You can also include additional thoughts by submitting a feature request.
Yes please! My training modules are fully narrated and the on-screen visuals mostly supplement the narration, so going in and turning off everything individually is very time consuming, having to turn things 'on' would be a whole lot easier.
I'd like to give this a further vote. I was writing my own thoughts then saw David's post was along the same thread.
This is a big frustration of mine. I'm really happy for ALT text to be on by default for Text fields and any kinds of form components, buttons etc.
I have a problem with ALT text being on by default for Shapes and Lines etc. Even images and illustrations isn't worth it too, as invariably a lot of shapes, lines, images, illustrations are decorative and it would make sense to "opt in" to these, as we will be pro-actively setting good ALT text values on them. I test so many Storyline modules where somebody has forgotten to or doesn't know to hide decorative elements.
The other issue is some of the icons and illustration brought in to projects have several nested grouped elements that all have unhelpful ALT text values defined. And whenever you group something it will automatically add an ALT value of "Group 1" or similar. I can't see the logic in this. If we want a value, we'll add one. I think better no value than "image_one_19204_JPG.jpg". This just creates meaningless noise for screen reader users.
I think it's worth a look at anyway, as I think we spend more time removing from AT than we do adding the values we do want.
Our development team is tracking a feature request to give authors the option to "turn off accessibility" so the Alt Text doesn't auto-populate while creating objects.
I've included you in the feature report so you can be notified as soon as we have news to share!
I appreciate the quick response to this question, but Articulate really shouldn't be tracking this as a feature request. It should have been on the roadmap a long time ago, or better still, resolved by now. I know Articulate call this a feature request. I feel it's more like a bug. I draw a line on the slide, the line has an ALT text of "Line 1". This isn't helpful.
Having to review content and turn off ALT text on those shapes and images that have been missed during development is an extra job during accessibility testing. To support accessibility better, these things need to be looked at asap.
Our business does a lot of accessibility testing, and the biggest issues we see besides focus order from our clients using Storyline is ALT text all over the place reading "Rectangle 1", "Oval 1" etc. To compound this issue, assets downloaded from the Articulate library can be made up of multiple grouped vector shapes. When you ungroup these shapes, you'll find that many of them have nonsense ALT text on them. The developer wont be aware of this, but the screen reader user will.
More often than not ALT text is not needed on shapes and bitmap images imported into Storyline (Text fields yes) and so the developer is removing ALT text most of the time, rather than just adding where needed.
BTW, well done on 64bit. Haven't dipped in yet, but looking forward to trying it out.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. I'll be sure to pass them along to our team.
Glad to hear that you are looking forward to exploring 64-bit! We're excited to have this version of Storyline in our community's hands! 🎉
If any other questions or discoveries come up in the meantime, feel free to let us know in the community or privately in a support case! Have a great day! :)
11 Replies
Hello David!
Thanks for taking the time to share this! Right now, this setting is turned on by default but I can see how it would be helpful to choose this behavior for all objects or none.
I'm happy to share this with our team! You can also include additional thoughts by submitting a feature request.
Hi Lauren thanks for passing this on. I will submit a feature request as well.
Yes please! My training modules are fully narrated and the on-screen visuals mostly supplement the narration, so going in and turning off everything individually is very time consuming, having to turn things 'on' would be a whole lot easier.
I'd like to give this a further vote. I was writing my own thoughts then saw David's post was along the same thread.
This is a big frustration of mine. I'm really happy for ALT text to be on by default for Text fields and any kinds of form components, buttons etc.
I have a problem with ALT text being on by default for Shapes and Lines etc. Even images and illustrations isn't worth it too, as invariably a lot of shapes, lines, images, illustrations are decorative and it would make sense to "opt in" to these, as we will be pro-actively setting good ALT text values on them. I test so many Storyline modules where somebody has forgotten to or doesn't know to hide decorative elements.
The other issue is some of the icons and illustration brought in to projects have several nested grouped elements that all have unhelpful ALT text values defined. And whenever you group something it will automatically add an ALT value of "Group 1" or similar. I can't see the logic in this. If we want a value, we'll add one. I think better no value than "image_one_19204_JPG.jpg". This just creates meaningless noise for screen reader users.
I think it's worth a look at anyway, as I think we spend more time removing from AT than we do adding the values we do want.
@Sam It might be a good idea to put in another Feature Request I don't hold much hope of it happening anytime soon... But you never know.
Any update here?
Hi Joshua!
Thanks for checking in on this!
Our development team is tracking a feature request to give authors the option to "turn off accessibility" so the Alt Text doesn't auto-populate while creating objects.
I've included you in the feature report so you can be notified as soon as we have news to share!
Hi Steven,
I appreciate the quick response to this question, but Articulate really shouldn't be tracking this as a feature request. It should have been on the roadmap a long time ago, or better still, resolved by now. I know Articulate call this a feature request. I feel it's more like a bug. I draw a line on the slide, the line has an ALT text of "Line 1". This isn't helpful.
Having to review content and turn off ALT text on those shapes and images that have been missed during development is an extra job during accessibility testing. To support accessibility better, these things need to be looked at asap.
Our business does a lot of accessibility testing, and the biggest issues we see besides focus order from our clients using Storyline is ALT text all over the place reading "Rectangle 1", "Oval 1" etc. To compound this issue, assets downloaded from the Articulate library can be made up of multiple grouped vector shapes. When you ungroup these shapes, you'll find that many of them have nonsense ALT text on them. The developer wont be aware of this, but the screen reader user will.
More often than not ALT text is not needed on shapes and bitmap images imported into Storyline (Text fields yes) and so the developer is removing ALT text most of the time, rather than just adding where needed.
BTW, well done on 64bit. Haven't dipped in yet, but looking forward to trying it out.
Sam
Hi Sam,
I don't work for Articulate... I am in the same boat as you.
Sorry, meant to address that to Steven Benassi
Hi Sam,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. I'll be sure to pass them along to our team.
Glad to hear that you are looking forward to exploring 64-bit! We're excited to have this version of Storyline in our community's hands! 🎉
If any other questions or discoveries come up in the meantime, feel free to let us know in the community or privately in a support case! Have a great day! :)