We have been noticing an issue whereby Jaws stops reading the alt txt of an object. The location in the text JAWS stops seems fairly random, though it does seem to happen most often when there is a decent amount of characters (approx. 2-3k).
I haven't seen a character limit for the Tab Order/Alternate Text cells, but it "seems" that once a certain limit is reached the cell "breaks," and then JAWS randomly stops reading that text in an irregular place in the text.
Our team is seeing the same thing, so you're not alone! In our testing, it seems the magic number is 1,024 characters. JAWS won't read anything beyond that. We're looking further into this, so we'll keep you posted. If you have a sample slide I can share with our team as an example for testing, that would be really helpful!
Hi, Deb. Sorry to hear this bug is affecting your project.
Jason is correct. We still have this bug on our radar – if we have any new information, we promise to share it here in this discussion. You'll be notified since you're now subscribed!
For now, one possible workaround is to place the long alt-text into a separate text box in the slide. If we can be of any other help, please don't hesitate to reach out!
Hi everyone, we are starting to see this issue pop-up as well. Is there any update on when this will be resolved? We have some very text heavy slides (unfortunately). We are advising our team to break out text into multiple boxes in the meantime, but we wanted to check-in.
Also, we are seeing JAWS stop reading at 1,015 characters. I know this is a small difference from the 1,024, but thought I would call it out and send over a story file for review. Additionally, we're only finding the issue with JAWS at this time. While not supported, NVDA is reading out this larger text box fully.
Thanks, Jackie, for sharing your additional findings. I'm going to check in with my team about this issue, and I'll update this discussion with what I find out within a week.
We're aware of the issues raised in this thread. We are working on a wide range of improvements to our accessibility support and will be addressing reported bugs as part of that work. Please see this post for more information.
Circling back on Simon's post: We appreciate you all continuing to share the crucial need for creating accessible content for all learners. While there is more to do, we're at a point where we're confident the work done so far delivers meaningful real-world improvements for learners with accessibility needs.
Below, you'll find all the details on what this means for Storyline 360, Update 36:
This release makes it significantly easier for those users to perceive, operate, and understand content published with Storyline—all while opening up more browser, assistive technology, and device choices for the first time. Learners will benefit from the vast majority of these improvements, even when the course author is not designing their course for accessibility.
If there's anything we can help answer, please let us know. We know there is more work to do, so we'll continue to keep you in the know on this topic!
13 Replies
Hey Jason,
Our team is seeing the same thing, so you're not alone! In our testing, it seems the magic number is 1,024 characters. JAWS won't read anything beyond that. We're looking further into this, so we'll keep you posted. If you have a sample slide I can share with our team as an example for testing, that would be really helpful!
Thanks for the head's up, Alyssa! Let me see what I can do with an example slide.
HI All, I'm wondering if this issue has been resolved or if there's a workaround for Jaws reading an alt text character count greater than 1024?
thanks!
Deb,
I have not seen anything that explicitly deals with this issue, as of yet.
Hi, Deb. Sorry to hear this bug is affecting your project.
Jason is correct. We still have this bug on our radar – if we have any new information, we promise to share it here in this discussion. You'll be notified since you're now subscribed!
For now, one possible workaround is to place the long alt-text into a separate text box in the slide. If we can be of any other help, please don't hesitate to reach out!
Is there any news on this front regarding this bug? Thanks!
Hi, Nora. Thanks for checking in!
No news yet, but I promise we'll keep everyone in this discussion updated with any new information. Here's a glimpse into how we tackle bugs!
In the meantime, would it work for you to break up your longer text into multiple text boxes?
Do spaces count as characters in alt-text?
Hi Patty,
Yes, spaces count as characters.
Hi everyone, we are starting to see this issue pop-up as well. Is there any update on when this will be resolved? We have some very text heavy slides (unfortunately). We are advising our team to break out text into multiple boxes in the meantime, but we wanted to check-in.
Also, we are seeing JAWS stop reading at 1,015 characters. I know this is a small difference from the 1,024, but thought I would call it out and send over a story file for review. Additionally, we're only finding the issue with JAWS at this time. While not supported, NVDA is reading out this larger text box fully.
Thanks, Jackie, for sharing your additional findings. I'm going to check in with my team about this issue, and I'll update this discussion with what I find out within a week.
Hi everyone,
We're aware of the issues raised in this thread. We are working on a wide range of improvements to our accessibility support and will be addressing reported bugs as part of that work. Please see this post for more information.
- Simon
Hello there, everyone!
Circling back on Simon's post: We appreciate you all continuing to share the crucial need for creating accessible content for all learners. While there is more to do, we're at a point where we're confident the work done so far delivers meaningful real-world improvements for learners with accessibility needs.
Below, you'll find all the details on what this means for Storyline 360, Update 36:
Be sure to also check out these general FAQs on accessibility in Articulate 360 tools!
This release makes it significantly easier for those users to perceive, operate, and understand content published with Storyline—all while opening up more browser, assistive technology, and device choices for the first time. Learners will benefit from the vast majority of these improvements, even when the course author is not designing their course for accessibility.
If there's anything we can help answer, please let us know. We know there is more work to do, so we'll continue to keep you in the know on this topic!
This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.