Forum Discussion
Accessibility - NVDA screen reader reading random things
The screen reader NVDA reads out random unexisting graphics and objects when I use the down arrows with my keyboard. There are no hidden or invisible objects, no objects off-slide, and our focus order is very clean and contains only the correct textboxes in order.
Has anyone encountered this?
- LydiaMans-3120bCommunity Member
I'd suggest checking the states of any objects. Sometimes shapes can be hiding in the selected and visited states and you'd need to hide those objects from accessibility tools as well.
- SandeepGadamCommunity Member
Hello Emmy, have you tried to uncheck the option called "Object is visible to accessibility tools" for those specific objects that are no longer needed in the focus order.
Even after removing the objects from the focus order, with the option enabled screen reader can still access those specific objects. So, uncheck that option and try again.
To do this, just right click on the specific object and select "Accessibility" and when the pop up opens, uncheck the option.
- EmmyHuotCommunity Member
Yes, the objects are unchecked.
Emmy Huot
Lead Interactive Developer & Creative eLearning Specialist
- PhilMayorSuper Hero
Can you post a picture of the focus order? If they have been removed then they will get unchecked automatically, could they be on slide master or master layers?
- IsabelleGallaghCommunity Member
I am having a similar issue. I've triple checked the focus order AND made sure that every object on the slide that needs to be unchecked, is unchecked under the accessibility tools, but the screen reader is still picking up random objects. I have checked the selected and visited states as well with the same result.
- PhilMayor-b4ca0Community Member
Can you post a slide?
- LydiaMans-3120bCommunity Member
This issue can also happen with grouped objects.
For example, it is possible that grouped objects are taken out of the focus order, but elements of the group still have that box "visible to accessibility tools" checked.
This can happen a lot with icons that are made up of several separate objects, so then even though you take the icon out of the focus order, some remnants remain that will be picked up by the screen reader. This happened to me once with an icon of a keyboard that had 50 individual elements. Hi Isabelle,
I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing a similar issue!
Are you using NVDA as well? If you're comfortable sharing your file with our team, we'd be happy to investigate what's going on. You can share it here or privately in a support case and we'll delete it from our systems once troubleshooting is complete.