Tab order not reading slide objects in Storyline 360?

Jan 30, 2020

This is new to my team and it works fine in the previous Storyline 360 build (3.335.21017.0).  In build (3.36.21289.0), when running in Preview or published to Web or Review 360, the tab highlight won’t enter into the slide to indicate slide titles, text, images, buttons/links, etc. It only highlights the navigation skin elements (next, previous, etc.). See attachment. We have tried all common browsers, OS updates, etc. No joy? Please let us know what's up?

8 Replies
Katie Riggio

Greetings, Todd and Christian!

Todd, thanks for sending your file in for our Engineers so that we have a careful review. I'm replying publicly to recap what our team found with others who spot this conversation!

The new behavior where the yellow highlight does not enter the slide when learners use the Tab key is intentional when slide content isn't interactive or clickable—like text boxes or images that don't have any triggers associated with them.

The screen reader will still read objects within the Tab Order dialogue or you can use the screen reader's navigation keys (e.g., Down and Up arrow keys) to move through objects on the slide. When using the Tab key, interactive elements gain focus (the yellow highlight).

Below, you'll find all the details on what this means for Storyline 360Update 36:

Be sure to also check out these general FAQs on accessibility in Articulate 360 tools!

If there's anything else we can answer or clarify, please give us a shout!

christian rodriguez

Hi Katie, thanks for your input, although I'm still issues with the accessibility modifications in the two newest SL360 versions. Screen readers (tested with Jaws and Windows narrator) are still ignoring alt text already defined in the tab order panel onstage objects such as graphics alt text and text boxes. We are working on a huge project with accessibility features but by publishing using the newest versions will just make screen reader unusable. I'm wondering if others have reported similar issues and a fix may be available soon. Thank you.    

Lauren Connelly

Hi Christian!

There aren't any active bugs for JAWS not reading over the alt text of a graphic. Do you have the "accessibility tools" box checked for the object? Here's what it looks like:

Text boxes should be read automatically since they part of the slide content. Are you not hearing the text boxes read off? 

Lastly, we don't currently support Narrator as a screen reader. Our supported screen readers are NVDA, VoiceOver (macOSiOSiPadOS), TalkBack, and JAWS with our supported browsers on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. (Note: JAWS has limited support for Microsoft Edge.)

christian rodriguez

Hi Lauren, I have just double checked and Jaws is still ignoring both graphics and onscreen text which has "accessibility tools" enabled, the only on stage objects being recognized by Jaws are the interactive objects such as buttons. So Jaws reads the course title first, then the onstage interactive objects and then it goes directly to the bottom controls, then the course menu, resources, glossary panel buttons at the top, then restarts the cycle. This doesn't happen with build '3.35.21017.0' or older.  Tested both in Chrome and Firefox latest versions. Wondering why it works for you but not for me and my teammates.

Ren Gomez

Hi Christian,

Using a screen reader, you should experience hearing the text and image descriptions (non-interactive items) of the slide first. Then you can use the up/down arrows or your specific screen reader's navigation to move through the objects on the slide.

You can use tab and shift+tab to activate interactive objects only, that way if you already heard the text, you can focus on the interaction. More details here.

These changes took place in Storyline 360, Update 36 to improve the accessible experience, so that's correct that you will not see these same steps in previous updates.

Feel free to connect with a support engineer if you'd like us to take a closer look at your file and help guide you a bit more!

christian rodriguez

Hi Ren,

Thanks for the details about the new Screen reader functionality. I have been testing the latest SL version and still have a couple questions:

- When using Jaws screen reader I can hear the word "blank" every time I select any onscreen object after having a text box selected, is this intended or do I need to modify something on my end?

- When activating a custom button, when the button state changes, Jaws immediately reads "Unlabeled button". Even when having the button stated "unchecked" from screen readers.

Let me know if there is something I can do on my end to prevent those issues from happening.

Thanks!     




Ren Gomez

Hi Christian,

Happy to tackle these with you!

For hearing <blank> often, an action you can take to help alleviate this is to ensure you're on the latest update of JAWS. They made enhancements in February 2020, where a new setting was added called "Skip Blank Lines While Navigating," which is on by default when reading web pages and PDF documents. Read more about this here.

As far as hearing <unlabeled button>, I have seen some issues where JAWS will misread specific buttons. It may be related, but can you share a slide or video with that particular issue with us so we can test and confirm? Thanks!

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.