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...
Thank you for taking the time to share these details with us! I'd love to clarify anything and offer details on any bugs that we currently have logged.
I'll start with the TAB button and Keyboard arrows.
In previous updates, you might've found that a screen reader would only read the content when it was tabbed to. This was an easy approach for authors but it's not the correct way to interact with a course if you're relying on a screen reader. For example, if a visually impaired user tabbed through an entire slide then they wouldn't be able to stop the screen reader in the middle of a text box with lots of wording. Keyboard arrows are used to move through parts of a text box, radio buttons, horizontal scrolling, tab panel, etc.
Next, to move through a number of buttons you'll need to use the arrow keys. Similar to tabbing to radio buttons, you can tab to the first button and then use the arrow keys to move through the following interactive buttons. The logic beyond this is to meet WCAG compliance.
Scrolling Panels aren't currently keyboard accessible. This is a bug that our team has logged and working to release a fix. When I have more information on the release, I'll share here!
Can you switch to just using TAB for Storyline courses?
Since the previous versions of Storyline relied on tabbing through a course, you could reinstall previous versions using the desktop app.
If you have any other questions, please let me know!
I assume you would have shared here if there had been any movement on making scrolling panels keyboard accessible. I have been experimenting with using JavaScript to force this by applying a tabIndex to the appropriate div's, but this still doesn't completely resolve the issue, so I'm hoping the developers can get on this soon.
I would also hope that the developers take the keyboard (and specifically keyboard scrolling) into account when the scrolling panel contains objects in the tab order, such as buttons. Currently, even if I enable scrolling through JavaScript as described above, when I tab to a button, the scrolling stops.
The scrolling panel should behave more like an iframe, essentially.
Thank you for sharing these insights with us! I will be sure that your comments are added to our report. Our team is actively working on a fix for this issue, and we will reach back out as soon as we can share an update!
Just to mention how it is accessible: you have to tab on it and then it has focus, you can use the up/down arrows or the page up/down keys (faster) to scroll.
I have to face scroll issues in the accessible component. content is read by jaws but the scroll bar is not moving with content. please suggest what can I do.
Hello Jayant, and welcome to E-Learning Heroes. 😊
I appreciate you reaching out to share what you are currently experiencing with your project file.
The JAWS screen reader is typically used to assist a person with vision loss. A person that does not need this accommodation would scroll through your text. I'd like to understand better how this is affecting your learners so that we can make any relevant suggestions.
Speaking from an accessibility standpoint, how is a keyboard user able to use a scroll bar in a drop-down interaction? When I select the text box to auto-adjust the height, the text continues to overflow. And when I select the option of using a scrollbar, I'm unable to view the entire text by using just my keyboard.
A keyboard user would not be able to put focus on the scrollbar of a drop-down object. Once the dropdown is selected, the user can use the up/down arrows to browse through the choices.
Would you be able to share your file so that we can see what is happening? If you cannot share the file publicly, please do submit a case through articulatecase.com so that we can look into it further.
I'm having a problem with several scroll panels in a course I'm creating. I'm able to scroll up and down using the keyboard when tested in Storyline; however, I'm not able to scroll when trying on a published file.
Edit: I remember now that I had this problem in the past and the answer is that scroll panels can't be controlled with the keyboard when NVDA screen reader is also on. Once I turned it off the scroll panels functioned fine.
I'm experiencing a similar problem to what Lauren described above. I am using The NVDA screen reader version 2022.2.4. I can use the up and down arrows on my keyboard to scroll through a scrolling panel when previewing the Storyline file, but I cannot scroll up and down when viewing the published Storyline file on a Chrome web page. This problem only occurs when NVDA is turned ON. When NVDA is off, the published scrolling panel will scroll using up and down arrows on a keyboard.
Someone using a screen reader shouldn't have to turn off their screen reader to scroll through a scrolling panel. Is there a solution for this? Thanks in advance.
39 Replies
Hi Jacek!
Thank you for taking the time to share these details with us! I'd love to clarify anything and offer details on any bugs that we currently have logged.
I'll start with the TAB button and Keyboard arrows.
In previous updates, you might've found that a screen reader would only read the content when it was tabbed to. This was an easy approach for authors but it's not the correct way to interact with a course if you're relying on a screen reader. For example, if a visually impaired user tabbed through an entire slide then they wouldn't be able to stop the screen reader in the middle of a text box with lots of wording. Keyboard arrows are used to move through parts of a text box, radio buttons, horizontal scrolling, tab panel, etc.
Next, to move through a number of buttons you'll need to use the arrow keys. Similar to tabbing to radio buttons, you can tab to the first button and then use the arrow keys to move through the following interactive buttons. The logic beyond this is to meet WCAG compliance.
Scrolling Panels aren't currently keyboard accessible. This is a bug that our team has logged and working to release a fix. When I have more information on the release, I'll share here!
Can you switch to just using TAB for Storyline courses?
Since the previous versions of Storyline relied on tabbing through a course, you could reinstall previous versions using the desktop app.
If you have any other questions, please let me know!
Hi Lauren,
I assume you would have shared here if there had been any movement on making scrolling panels keyboard accessible. I have been experimenting with using JavaScript to force this by applying a tabIndex to the appropriate div's, but this still doesn't completely resolve the issue, so I'm hoping the developers can get on this soon.
I would also hope that the developers take the keyboard (and specifically keyboard scrolling) into account when the scrolling panel contains objects in the tab order, such as buttons. Currently, even if I enable scrolling through JavaScript as described above, when I tab to a button, the scrolling stops.
The scrolling panel should behave more like an iframe, essentially.
Hi Mark,
Thank you for sharing these insights with us! I will be sure that your comments are added to our report. Our team is actively working on a fix for this issue, and we will reach back out as soon as we can share an update!
Great news, all! 🗞
Update 41 for Storyline 360 is live: We fixed the issue where scrolling panels weren't keyboard-accessible.
Thank you for bringing this forward!
Hi All! I'm back with more great news:
As always, we're here for any questions!
Hello,
Just to mention how it is accessible: you have to tab on it and then it has focus, you can use the up/down arrows or the page up/down keys (faster) to scroll.
I have to face scroll issues in the accessible component. content is read by jaws but the scroll bar is not moving with content. please suggest what can I do.
we are using jaws 20 and storyline 360
Hello Jayant, and welcome to E-Learning Heroes. 😊
I appreciate you reaching out to share what you are currently experiencing with your project file.
The JAWS screen reader is typically used to assist a person with vision loss. A person that does not need this accommodation would scroll through your text. I'd like to understand better how this is affecting your learners so that we can make any relevant suggestions.
Speaking from an accessibility standpoint, how is a keyboard user able to use a scroll bar in a drop-down interaction? When I select the text box to auto-adjust the height, the text continues to overflow. And when I select the option of using a scrollbar, I'm unable to view the entire text by using just my keyboard.
HI Jessi,
A keyboard user would not be able to put focus on the scrollbar of a drop-down object. Once the dropdown is selected, the user can use the up/down arrows to browse through the choices.
Would you be able to share your file so that we can see what is happening? If you cannot share the file publicly, please do submit a case through articulatecase.com so that we can look into it further.
I'm having a problem with several scroll panels in a course I'm creating. I'm able to scroll up and down using the keyboard when tested in Storyline; however, I'm not able to scroll when trying on a published file.
Edit: I remember now that I had this problem in the past and the answer is that scroll panels can't be controlled with the keyboard when NVDA screen reader is also on. Once I turned it off the scroll panels functioned fine.
Hi, Lauren!
I'm glad you remembered the solution to this scroll panel issue!
If there's anything else you need, please come visit again!
Hello,
I'm experiencing a similar problem to what Lauren described above. I am using The NVDA screen reader version 2022.2.4. I can use the up and down arrows on my keyboard to scroll through a scrolling panel when previewing the Storyline file, but I cannot scroll up and down when viewing the published Storyline file on a Chrome web page. This problem only occurs when NVDA is turned ON. When NVDA is off, the published scrolling panel will scroll using up and down arrows on a keyboard.
Someone using a screen reader shouldn't have to turn off their screen reader to scroll through a scrolling panel. Is there a solution for this? Thanks in advance.
Hello Nicholas, and welcome to E-Learning Heroes. 😊
I agree, and thankfully this is an issue we addressed in a recent update.
Please update Storyline 360, republish, and let us know if this works better for you.