Screen reader not reading any content
Mar 03, 2023
I've built a very simple course that we intend to be WCAG-compliant, but no screen readers will read any of the slide content. When I launch the course (on Content Review, on SCORMcloud, even if I publish to web), when I navigate to the slide the screenreader says "You are currently on a group, inside of web content. To interact with items in this group, press Control-Option-Shift-Down Arrow. To exit this web area, press Control-Option-Shift-Up Arrow." Doing the C+O+S+Down does nothing (beeps in error). Up does navigate back to the web address bar. The only thing I can tab to is a button I made on screen and then to/through the navigation. I thought maybe it was the course, so I just created a new file and made a few simple slides and I can't get any screen readers to read those either. I've tried NVDA and VoiceOver on Edge (NVDA) , Chrome (on both) and Safari (VoiceOver). None of them work.
I've checked that they are visible to accessibility tools. I've verified they are in the focus order. I'd even tried plugging in alt text that was the same text as the text box. Nothing seems to be working. What am I missing?
7 Replies
Hi AShea,
Thanks so much for reaching out!
I see that you've opened a support case and you are working with my colleague Ian. You are in great hands!
We'll continue the conversation over in your support case.
Have a great evening! ✨
This is EXACTLY the issue I'm having right now.
If a solution is found, it'd be ideal to post in this thread as I've also sank countless hours trying to get this simple feature working. 🫠🫠🫠
Cheers,
Hi Jake, and thanks for reaching out!
I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing this issue and understand how frustrating it can be to spend hours trying to make something work. I took a closer look at AShea's support case, and it appears we weren't able to replicate this issue. To help us troubleshoot, I'd like to gather a few more details from you.
If you're willing to share your file with our team, we'd be happy to take a closer look at what's going on. You can upload it here or share it privately in a support case. We'll delete it from our systems once troubleshooting is complete.
Have you assigned Text Tyles to all your text boxes?
We ran into this problem before - if there was only ONE text box onscreen (that had the "Normal Text" heading assigned to it - you can see this in the menu bar under TEXT STYLES), the Screen Reader would read the text, but if there were ADDITIONAL boxes on screen that didn't have text styles (or were also Normal Text), the screen readers were calling them "Group" and getting stuck on them. If you tried to tab past it, the screen reader skipped over reading any text and went straight to any buttons on the page.
The way to fix this is to assign Text Styles to every piece of text on your slide. Apply Heading 1 for all titles. Applying Heading 2 for subtitles, apply Normal Text for body text, (and we created a Custom style for button text so that even if we changed the Normal Text style, it didn't affect the font style on the buttons), and then customize your focus order so that it moves according to the sequence of the interaction.
I hope this helps?
Hello Valerie!
Thanks for sharing that assigning Text Styles to every text on the slide works for you! I'm sure this will be helpful to other community members running into the same issue.
Enjoy the rest of your day! 🙂
I am having an issue with the screen reader only reading the frame on a slide then when it goes to the next slide it functions fine. Any suggestions?
Hi Stephanie!
Sorry to hear you've run into this behavior!
I see that you've already opened a support case. Smart move! It looks like my teammate Lejan just picked it up. You're in great hands working one-on-one with him and he should be getting in touch with you shortly!
We can continue troubleshooting in your support case to keep all information in one spot.