Forum Discussion
Should an audio clip be made visible to Screen Readers and Alt Text added?
I have read and heard a lot about adding "alt text" to images on the slide. I typically do this in the timeline. But what about when there is an audio clip in the timeline? I have heard nothing about whether it is needed here. Should it be visible or not? And if yes, I assume that means we would need to come up with something in the alt text box? See screenshot. As it isn't an item on the slide, I think we can turn the visibility off to a screen reader but would like to hear from others.
Hello Amy,
Happy to help!
Screen readers will not be able to detect if audio is playing on a course, so the best thing to do is to plan when the audio will start playing if you're creating a course with accessibility in mind. You can check out this discussion to see how members of the community approached this accessibility design requirement:
And you can also check out this article which lists some tips on how to design an accessible course in Storyline 360 that has audio:
Let me know if you have any questions!
Audio should have captions, doesn't need alt text. I would keep it visible to screen readers it will not be read in the focus order.
Hi Amy,
I'm glad the community was able to help you! I'm happy to share some insights regarding your question on closed captions.
Screen readers are meant for vision disabilities, while closed captions are for hearing disabilities. That being said, closed captions are not meant to be announced by screen readers, so it's expected that they won't pick up the captions.
If you require any further information, please let me know!
Thanks Joe. Those links are very helpful and I will explore them further. Also, thank you to Phil. We do use closed captioning with our audio. I am at a loss though on whether screen readers will pick up the closed captioning, or only the text on the slide. I am thinking only the text on the slide. I will check out the screen reader user guide and test it myself at some point. I am wondering if a blind learner turns off the course audio, but leaves the CC open, will their screen reader pick up the CC.
