Storyline 360: radio buttons accessibility with JAWS

Feb 12, 2018

I created a course containing a test with multiple choice questions utilizing radio buttons (example attached). I noticed while testing accessibility (with JAWS 16.0 and IE11) that when you tab to a radio button, it will say "radio button not checked, to change the selection press up or down arrow" however, pressing the up or down arrow doesn't do anything. Is there something I'm doing wrong when creating the test or is this an issue with Storyline 360 and radio button accessibility? No where in the documentation did I find any mention of radio buttons not being accessible, so I'm assuming its the former.

41 Replies
Leslie McKerchie

Hello Kara,

Sorry to hear that you're running into a couple of issues with your course and JAWS.

In Update 10 of Storyline 360, we included:

Fixed: JAWS screen readers would read selected answer choices as "not checked" in HTML5 output.

You can check out the full details here.

As for the up/down arrow issue, this is one we are looking into. I'll add this thread to the report as we track user impact and so that we can update you when we can.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Wenqing,

I believe the issue that Matthew mentioned is about how alt text on the object's other states is not read by JAWS, both on Flash and HTML5. That is something we've reported to our team and they're investigating - but it also sounds like you're seeing this specifically on the correct/incorrect notation of a quiz review? I'd like to have our team take a look and confirm if it's the same issue, as those items are added automatically as a part of the Review - and therefore a bit of a different set up than an object state. 

Can you share a copy of your .story file with our team here? 

Kara Campbell

Hi Leslie,

You stated previously that update 10 contained this fix:

Fixed: JAWS screen readers would read selected answer choices as "not checked" in HTML5 output.

I just updated Storyline to version v3.13.15006.0 and republished my course - but checked radio buttons are still being read as not checked with JAWS (16) on IE9. I published as HTML5 with Flash fallback.

Thanks!

Kara

Leslie McKerchie

Hi Kara, 

No worries :)

Let's dig in a bit more. Our output doesn't support a "real time" change in the state of a radio button. In other words, JAWS doesn't read "Radio button selected" as soon as a user selects it in any version of Storyline. 

Is that the behavior you are reporting? It's expected that you would have to tab back to a selected radio button to hear that's it's checked.

Kara Campbell

No. I will tab to an unchecked radio button and JAWS will say "not checked", then I will select the radio button, tab away and back to it and JAWS will still say "not checked". Thanks for looking into this for me! :)

(Storyline v3.13.15006.0, HTML5 with Flash Fallback, IE11, JAWS 16.0)

Joakim Andersen

I am having another problem with the radio buttons. This issue is that they are being read out of order. The attached image of a multiple choice quiz is read in the following order:

“page title, radio button, 3 of 4. Headings , radio button, 2 of 4. Breadcrumbs, radio button, 1 of 4. Links, radio button, 4 of 4.”

Alyssa Gomez

Hi Joakim,

Thanks so much for sharing your file with me. This appears to be a bug in Storyline 360, and I really appreciate you bringing it to our attention. JAWS should not be announcing "# of #" at all--I'll get this reported to my team so we can begin looking at next steps.

I'll keep you posted on this bug's progress!

Birgit Muehlenhaus

I am having the same issue in which JAWS (2018.1803.24 ILM) is reading the # of # for the radio buttons on multiple choice questions. In addition to reading the "2 of 5" etc., the choices are being listed in reverse order -- i.e. the first radio button is being considered "5 of 5" and the second radio button "4 of 5" etc.  Is there a way to change the order?

Alyssa Gomez

Hi Birgit,

I'm really sorry that you're running into this bug, too. You're right that JAWS reads the options in reverse order.

You can change the order by expanding the multiple choice question in the timeline, then reversing the order of the answer choices by clicking and dragging. This will not affect how the answer choices appear on the slide, but it will correct the issue of JAWS reading the options in reverse order. 

I'll keep you posted on this bug's progress!

 

Crystal Horn

Hey everybody. I'm excited to let you know that we just released update 16 for Storyline 360! It includes new features and fixes - check them all out here.

One of the fixes addresses an issue where the alt text on an object's other states wasn't read by JAWS.

Here’s how you can update Storyline 360 to take advantage of everything the latest release has to offer. Let me know how you make out!

Tama Minter

I'm still having the problem of JAWS reading "radio button not checked, press the up or down arrow to select" and then nothing happens when arrows are used. It will allow me to select the radio button with the space bar. A user could not be expected to know to try this if they are being told to use the arrow keys. This happens for me in all quizzes, and even when I try using a pick one slide with buttons or object buttons instead of the radio buttons. At this point, I can't use the quizzes. Is there any idea when this will be fixed?