Forum Discussion
Focus Order, Accessibility, and Set Focus
Okay, I need some help please.
I was contracted by a company working on this gigantic project (over 150 storyline files) that are non accessible and they wanted screen reader accessibility.
Granted, this project has been in the works for 8 years, and changing how they built stuff is not an option. They use a lot of modal layers instead of dialog ones, which seems to cause a lot of problems for Screen Readers.
Every time you open a new layer, NVDA loses focus.
To rectify this, I've added a "Set Focus" on "Text" when the timeline starts on "Text" in the new layer.
This fixes the screen reader, but for non screen reader users, it adds that ugly yellow square that looks like a glitch if you don't know where it's from.
I see a lot of posts here saying Set Focus isn't the best trigger....but when I don't use it, opening layers is a nightmare and I have to find "Back to top" and start over, which can be infuriating, and I would be infuriated if I needed to keyboard nav this project.
I just found out that unchecking "Prevent users from clicking on other layers" seems to make this work without a set focus....but I was keeping that checked because if you use back to top in a layer, you have to recycle from the beginning....and some slides have like....12 layers ... ouff.
Does anyone know what could be done without drastically renovating way too many files and layers?
5 Replies
Also...
Sometimes when closing a popup button, you return to where you were in the base layer
But sometimes you just get kicked to player controls.
The focus order is the same in both scenarios, and sometimes happens on the same objects (like clicking it once works fine but subsequent clicks does not)Crap, I wrote back yesterday but apparently it didn't save my reply.
Let me try again.
In theory you are right about the yellow square not appearing over non interactive elements. For me, it appears on the previous interactive object you selected.
I also found that NVDA automatically reads elements in the focus order if they start at 0:00 on the timeline.
So, here's an example:
Base slide has 4 popup buttons, each revealing a layer that has a title, text, and a close button.
Case 1:
No Set Focus enabled on the titles in the popup
"Prevent users from clicking on other layers" is enabled.
Selecting the popup opens the layer
Pressing down results in either a blank or you're kicked out of the slide and you need to find your way back to "Back to top" which can be annoying.
Case 2:
Set Focus enabled on the titles in the popup
"Prevent users from clicking on other layers" is enabled.
Selecting the popup opens the layer.
A yellow square appears on the button that you clicked on to open the popup
Yellow square disappears once the set focus on Title when Title Starts kicks in
Pressing down is fine.
Case 3:
No Set Focus enabled on the titles in the popup
"Prevent users from clicking on other layers" is disabledSelecting the popup opens the layer
Pressing down works
However....if you use back to top, you have to cycle back through all the base layer elements, which can be really annoying on slides where you're 6 layers in.
I guess out of the 3.....Case 3 is best? I just don't know how often someone who uses keyboard nav would click "back to top" and get infuriated that they have to travel back to wherever they werecouldn't need to add a set focus to text the yellow square should only appear fro interactive objects, what happens in NVDA if you press the down arrow once the layer opens?
That's what I thought, that Set Focus only triggered yellow squares if the objects were interactive.
However, you click the button to trigger the layer, and the button itself gets the yellow square UNTIL the set focus kicks in and moves it to the right object
I found that NVDA read things automatically if elements in the screen reader appeared at 0:00 in the timeline, so everything fades in after 0.25 or after the appropriate animation occurs.
So, in this case, since I used "Set Focus on Title when Timeline starts on Title", the yellow box appears on the previous element that triggers the layer until it is visible.
--
To answer your second question:
If I keep the "Prevent Users from Clicking on other layers" checked/enabled, and 0 set focus, the screen reader loses focus in the slide and gets kicked out to player controls and needs to find the back to top button.
If I don't keep "Prevent users on clicking on other layers" checked and disable it, this seems to solve the issue. Pressing down will work.
--the Downside to this if there are several layers and you are in deep and cycle through back to top, you have to start all over from the base slide and navigate through the focus order, which could be annoying for those users and cause frustration.Oops, double post....my page didn't show this one was approved.
