Forum Discussion
Accessibility - Defining Text Styles without Slide Titles
Hello all!
I'm working with Articulate's new accessibility checker. This slide is getting flagged by the accessibility checker for "Text styles defined":
I believe it's flagging the slide because all of the text is the same level (Normal Text). If I format any text as a heading, then the slide passes. My issues are as follows:
- I don't want to have a slide title on each slide.
- While I could probably make it work on this slide, I have some slides planned where a slide title will get in the way of what I have planned.
- With this design, I'm having a hard time imagining how to implement slide titles without making the slides look like PowerPoint slides, which I'm desperately trying to avoid.
This is a project that must be accessible, so I'm not looking to cut corners... but is it really necessary to have <h1> text on each slide? My slides aren't currently designed with slide titles in mind, and there's no obvious text that I could assign as a heading style.
Any advice? Is there a nifty, accessible solution (I really want to do what's right for accessibility) that allows me to keep my current design? Or do I need to bite the bullet and redesign my slides to accommodate slide titles?
Option 1: Click "Skip" in the accessibility checker.
Option 2: Put a Title placeholder off the slide. Use that to enter Heading-1 text that the user won't see.
I put a Title placeholder just above the slide area for blank layouts, because the Title placeholder is connected to the Slide Title field (which is under the slide image in the Scenes panel). That makes it easier to enter the text to be used for the built-in Menu.
The Title would be read by a screen reader.
- I just did a quick test. I inserted a blank slide in a project. The accessibility checker gave me its text-style-defined error. I put a Title with the Heading 1 style above the slide. The accessibility checker deleted its note. And that note didn't reappear when I removed the Title placeholder from the Focus Order.
It's up to you and your company/client to determine if what's acceptable.
3 Replies
Option 1: Click "Skip" in the accessibility checker.
Option 2: Put a Title placeholder off the slide. Use that to enter Heading-1 text that the user won't see.
I put a Title placeholder just above the slide area for blank layouts, because the Title placeholder is connected to the Slide Title field (which is under the slide image in the Scenes panel). That makes it easier to enter the text to be used for the built-in Menu.
The Title would be read by a screen reader.
- I just did a quick test. I inserted a blank slide in a project. The accessibility checker gave me its text-style-defined error. I put a Title with the Heading 1 style above the slide. The accessibility checker deleted its note. And that note didn't reappear when I removed the Title placeholder from the Focus Order.
It's up to you and your company/client to determine if what's acceptable.
Thank you for this suggestion! I ended up going with a variation of Option 1. I created the text, but hid it by making it the same color as my background. It's intended for a screen reader, so I'm guessing that it's not relevant to sighted learners. I'll double check with our accessibility expert, but I think it should suffice.
I do have a follow-up question, though... if placed off-screen, will screen-reading technology still recognize the text and read it to the learner? (I'm hoping the answer is "yes," but wanted to ask to be sure.)
Thanks again for the advice!
I think that an off-slide Title that is included in the Focus Order will be read by a screen reader, but I haven't tested it myself.
P.S. I'm glad my suggestion was helpful. I'd appreciate it if you would click the "Mark As Solution" button on my earlier reply (not this comment). Yes, selfishly, that ups the count of solutions on my Profile page. More importantly, it marks the issue as SOLVED, which might help others find the answer when they have a similar question.