We noticed today that JAWS reads scroll text a little bit weirdly. I have large amount of text in a scroll panel. When the tab key is applied on the scroll panel, the text is read out by JAWS. The weird thing is, it reads around 10 lines and restarts to read again. On the second read it reads completely.....
The client has come back that JAWS reads the scroll text twice...
Hi there Hassy! Thanks for letting us know about this problem you're having. I'm going to try and recreate it in a new file. First, can you help me with a couple of details?
We checked your output. We checked using JAWS 2018 and in Chrome v 64.0.3282. We noticed that it read till "....but not long term output," then it went back up again and began to restart reading the entire thing again but this time it read completely.
Hi there, Hassy. I gave it a test too, in Chrome in my Windows environment. I had an update for Chrome, so now I'm on version 64. Using JAWS 18, the screen reader read through the entire scroll box of text the first time.
I'm not sure what the difference could be between our experiences. Do you shift focus at all when the screen reader is reading? I was tempted to move the scroll bar so I could follow along, but that would have taken the screen reader away from the text.
I have a similar issue. JAWS will read everything inside the scrolling panel when tabbed to instead of reading the assigned alt-text. Next it will re-read the text inside the scrolling panel when the text is tabbed to. I unchecked the Alt Text for the text box, but then JAWS doesn’t see it at all. I also tried putting the text at the end of the tabbing order but JAWS still read it after reading everything in the scrolling panel.
Hi there, Steven! If you leave the scrolling panel object in the tab order window, JAWS will read the contents of the panel. In this linked example I mocked up, I removed the scrolling panel from tab order. Instead, the focus goes directly to the first item in the scrolling panel, and tabbing through reads each item individually.
We can help you sort this out! With your permission, we can take a look at your project file to investigate what's happening. We'll delete it when we're done troubleshooting. If that works for you, you can upload your file privately to our support team here. We'll give it a test in IE11 with JAWS and let you know what we find!
I've attached a file example for you to use. JAWS 18 stops reading after the word download in the second paragraph. I am using JAWS 18, Storyline 3, publish in Flash and IE11.
That's the solution that we've implemented for new projects. It's the 500+ projects that have already been created that we are concerned about. Please keep me updated on a fix.
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 updated on this topic!
Hi Katie, the redesigned accessibility functionality (the March 2020 update) where you can use both 'tabs and key arrows' is totally confusing for blind people. They would never know when to switch into arrows (I don't know this even though I'm not blind and can see the yellow selection box). All my colleagues (SL developers) don't like it.
Another thing is that it's buggy: E.g.: I have 5 interactive buttons on the slide. The tab recognises just the first one then when tab pressed again, it skips the other 4 buttons and go straight to the slide navigation. In that case I want to go back to this button using Shift+Tab but it selects the 5th interactive button (instead of the first one). Where is the logic here?
Is it ANY WAY to switch into JUST TABS (no arrows) functionality like it was before just a couple of weeks ago? Can you imagine how many past courses would need to have instructions changed due to this update?
E.g.: I have 300 courses with instructions that explain to use just tabs to navigate. They were created 1 year ago and now I need to add a couple of changes to every course. Publishing them in a newest version of SL would make these instructions useless.
39 Replies
Hi there Hassy! Thanks for letting us know about this problem you're having. I'm going to try and recreate it in a new file. First, can you help me with a couple of details?
Hi Alyssa,
Thanks
Hi Hassy,
Can you share a copy of this course with us? I'd like to see how much text you have in there to look at recreating.
You can share those items by clicking here and inserting them into a new discussion comment. Look for the Add Attachment button. Thanks!
Hi Ashley,
Pls find the output file attached here.
Any update on this pls?
Hi Hassy,
We'll need to see the .story file, which is the file prior to publishing. Can you share that with us here?
Hi Ashley,
PFA the Sl file. I have just tried it separately in this file. But it is part of a bigger course.
Thanks
Hi Hassy,
Thanks for sharing your file and allowing us to take a look.
I published your file using Storyline 3 and uploaded the output to Tempshare for testing.
Our system requirements for Storyline 3 states:
Screen Reader
HTML5: JAWS 16 or later with Internet Explorer 10 or later, Google Chrome (latest version), Firefox (latest version)
Flash: JAWS 16 or later with Internet Explorer 11
I tested using Jaws 18 and Google Chrome Version 64.0.3282.186
The entire scrolling panel was read by JAWS. You can see my published output here.
Hi Leslie,
We checked your output. We checked using JAWS 2018 and in Chrome v 64.0.3282. We noticed that it read till "....but not long term output," then it went back up again and began to restart reading the entire thing again but this time it read completely.
Hi there, Hassy. I gave it a test too, in Chrome in my Windows environment. I had an update for Chrome, so now I'm on version 64. Using JAWS 18, the screen reader read through the entire scroll box of text the first time.
I'm not sure what the difference could be between our experiences. Do you shift focus at all when the screen reader is reading? I was tempted to move the scroll bar so I could follow along, but that would have taken the screen reader away from the text.
I have a similar issue. JAWS will read everything inside the scrolling panel when tabbed to instead of reading the assigned alt-text. Next it will re-read the text inside the scrolling panel when the text is tabbed to. I unchecked the Alt Text for the text box, but then JAWS doesn’t see it at all. I also tried putting the text at the end of the tabbing order but JAWS still read it after reading everything in the scrolling panel.
Any ideas on how to have the text only read once?
Hi there, Steven! If you leave the scrolling panel object in the tab order window, JAWS will read the contents of the panel. In this linked example I mocked up, I removed the scrolling panel from tab order. Instead, the focus goes directly to the first item in the scrolling panel, and tabbing through reads each item individually.
Would that setup work for you?
Ms. Horn,
Unfortunately, taking the Scrolling Panel out of the Tab Order does not allow a sighted keyboard only user to scroll through the information.
Thanks anyway,
Steve
We have experienced a similar same issue. Storyline 3 and IE 11 and JAWS 18. When a slide has a lot of text JAWS will stop reading about 10 lines in.
Hey Erin,
We can help you sort this out! With your permission, we can take a look at your project file to investigate what's happening. We'll delete it when we're done troubleshooting. If that works for you, you can upload your file privately to our support team here. We'll give it a test in IE11 with JAWS and let you know what we find!
Hi Alyssa,
I've attached a file example for you to use. JAWS 18 stops reading after the word download in the second paragraph. I am using JAWS 18, Storyline 3, publish in Flash and IE11.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks,
Erin
Hi there, Erin. We've identified an issue where JAWS will stop reading a text box after 1,024 characters. We're treating this as a bug on our end.
In the meantime, would it work for you to break up your longer text into multiple text boxes?
Thanks for the quick reply Crystal.
That's the solution that we've implemented for new projects. It's the 500+ projects that have already been created that we are concerned about. Please keep me updated on a fix.
Thanks again,
Erin
Absolutely, Erin.
We have this discussion tagged on the report so that we can pop in and update this discussion, which you should now be subscribed to.
Any updates. I am also running into the same issue.
Hi, Ravi. Thanks for checking in, and sorry you're at this obstacle!
While I don't have an update on this issue just yet, I promise to keep this discussion updated as soon as new information is available.
For now, would it work for you to place the longer text into multiple text boxes? Let us know, and we're also happy to dig into your .story file to explore other solutions!
Hi, I just want to follow-up again. Are JAWS users our still having this issue. Thank you
Hello, everyone!
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 updated on this topic!
Hi Katie, the redesigned accessibility functionality (the March 2020 update) where you can use both 'tabs and key arrows' is totally confusing for blind people. They would never know when to switch into arrows (I don't know this even though I'm not blind and can see the yellow selection box). All my colleagues (SL developers) don't like it.
Another thing is that it's buggy: E.g.: I have 5 interactive buttons on the slide. The tab recognises just the first one then when tab pressed again, it skips the other 4 buttons and go straight to the slide navigation. In that case I want to go back to this button using Shift+Tab but it selects the 5th interactive button (instead of the first one). Where is the logic here?
Is it ANY WAY to switch into JUST TABS (no arrows) functionality like it was before just a couple of weeks ago? Can you imagine how many past courses would need to have instructions changed due to this update?
E.g.: I have 300 courses with instructions that explain to use just tabs to navigate. They were created 1 year ago and now I need to add a couple of changes to every course. Publishing them in a newest version of SL would make these instructions useless.
Please advise.
I forgot to add that the scroll functionality is not accessible for the keyboard-only users. It was submitted as new future request 7 years ago :(