Forum Discussion
Focus Order & Feedback Layers
I do a lot of accessibility testing with NVDA on my courses, and there is one major inconsistency that I cannot figure out. What determines if a feedback layer will read before or after I press the submit button?
So when you author a question but don't mess with the focus order, the "try again", "incorrect", and "correct" feedback layer items are at the top of the focus order.
When you publish the content and read the slide with a screen reader, the action following the submit action is inconsistent. Sometimes the focus jumps to the feedback layer, but sometimes the focus wants to continue down the feedback layer, and you have to up-arrow to get to the feedback layer.
I know there are a lot of variables at play. You could create a button on the screen that triggers a submit action, or you could use the submit button. You could apply a layout, or you could build an interactivity from scratch. You could use the feedback master layouts, or you could build custom feedback masters...
I have done all sorts of these, but I repeatedly return to having to test each individual question and tweaking the focus order with no blanket best practice. For a long time, I was seeing that questions without a score needed their feedback layer content at the bottom of the focus order, but questions with a score needed their feedback layer content at the top of the focus order; but that general rule is now out the window.
Have you seen a pattern?
Hi ID4WiscState,
Thanks for your reply! I do want you to know that with the ability to customize Storyline content, predictions can be difficult. The ability to fully control the focus order independently with layers is actually a feature request that has been shared with our team that we are currently tracking.
I hope this is helpful!
It depends on if you have the layer set to prevent users clicking on the base layer. If it is set it will jump to the layer and play in the order in the focus order.
If it is not set then with the items being at the top you will have to shift tab back, you can either set to prevent or move the layer content after the submit button.
Thanks for that option! I was able to force the focus order to find the feedback layer that way.
I am still curious about default behavior for better planning. I cut down my project to two example questions. I matched their layer settings. Using the NVDA screen reader, the first question jumps to an item in the feeback layer; but on the second question, you have to navigate back to the top of the list to reach the feedback content. Hypothetically, I could still want the user to find the base layer items, but there doesn't seem to be a consistent way to inform if the feedback content should be at the bottom or top of the focus order.
Hello ID4WiscState!
I appreciate you sharing what you were experiencing on your second question slide and for the sample .story file.
When learners still need access to the base layer, we recommend arranging the objects on the individual layers to appear after the object on the base layer that activates the layer.
I'm attaching your updated file, so let me know how Slide 2.1 works for you now.
Since we're talking about accessibility, I noticed, with a quick glance, that your narration overlaps my screen reader announcements and that the first question slide is auto-advanced. A couple of additional adjustments to consider if you're building an accessible course.
