JAWs Reader is not reading ALT Text

Bummer: not only does this bug still exist in Storyline 3, but it appears now to extend to actual buttons.

Was building a project in Storyline 2 and upgraded the project file to Storyline 3 to take advantage of Storyline 3-produced projects not having a tab navigation bug I was encountering with S2-produced projects. Found that after upgrading the project to S3, the buttons within it were now  exhibiting the same bug I reported earlier in this thread regarding multi-state image alt text in S2. Since I don't think my previous assessment of that bug was fully accurate, I'd now describe it as:

For images in S2 that have more than one state AND a different alt text for the image (outside of Edit States) and the Normal state (within Edit States), the Normal state alt text is what will be read by the screen reader; if the Normal state's alt text is blank (but detectable), the image file name will be read by the screen reader. The fix for this bug is to give the Normal state the desired alt text. The best method, I found, for applying this fix is to give the image the desired alt text BEFORE creating any additional states; that way all additional states will automatically be given that alt text (however, then if you want to change the alt text, you have to do so within the Normal state). 

In S2, this bug did not occur with buttons. The button's (outside of Edit States) alt text was being read, even though the button's Normal state alt text was blank.

I've found in S3 that the button's Normal state alt text is what is (initially*) read by the screen reader AND that if the Normal state's alt text is left blank, S3 will automatically populate that field with the button's original Timeline designation +1. E.g., when first created, a button appears in the Timeline as Button 1. Its Normal state alt text is automatically populated as Button 2 (even if you delete the alt text, it will be re-populated as Button 2). All other button states appear to have the auto-populated alt text of Button original # + 2. E.g., Button 1's hover state has Button 3 as its auto-populated alt text.

*Other observations:

In S3, if a button has different alt text for its Normal state and outside of Edit States:

• If you tab navigate to the button, its Normal state alt text will be read until you hit enter or click on it, at which point its outside of Edit States alt text will be read.
• If you hover over it, its outside of Edit States alt text will be read.

In S3 and S2, if an image has different alt text for its Normal state and outside of Edit States, its Normal state alt text will always be read, even after you hit enter on it.

In S2, if a button has different alt text for its Normal state and outside of Edit States, its outside of Edit States alt text will always be read.

Hi Mat

I'm using SL360 latest version, JAWS version for testing.

For Multiple choice questions, Jaws is reading the option in normal state (no radio button selected) but once the radio button is selected it won't announce it is selected.

I saw there was a bug logged for SL3 but is there one also logged for SL360 and is there a workaround? I'm on a deadline and have 3 modules all with MC quiz assessments that need to be accessible - HELP...

I am also encountering problems with tabbing and check boxes. Normally, when you tab to a checkbox or button, you need to press enter in order to trigger the action.

In 2 of my current projects, on some screens when you tab to the check box, nothing will happen until the enter key is pressed - this is expected behavior. On other slides, and this is all within the same project, just tabbing to the check box will activate it. I've deleted check boxes and recreated them but can't get rid of the problem.

Any suggestions? I've spent way too much time trying to fix the problem but it's still occurring and these were due yesterday.

Hi Janet! Your issue sounds like it may be a bit different than Wendy's and I know that she's working with Alyssa here.

It sounds like you are currently working on all of these projects, so they are developed with the same version/update and no variance?

Would you be able to share your .story file with our team here so that we can take a look Janet? 

Hi Leslie,

The projects were created in Storyline 360 at the very end of November, 2017. And the software is kept up to date. I'll send the .story file to the link you provided. Thanks!

Hi Leslie, I submitted a support case. Thanks!

Thanks Janet :)

We are still having this issue, we use Storyline 360 and JAWS as a reader. It is reading the image file name instead of the alt tag when used as a button. The work around that we had to do was to delete the visibility of all the images, the triggers, and set buttons set back to none. Then we followed Jonathan's advice of putting "an invisible rectangle on top of a real button that has the triggers you originally had on the real button underneath it and remove accessibility from the real button and add the ALT text to what is now essentially an invisible button on top of your real button." This is very tedious work and let me tell you that our team is not happy of having to have to redo so much work because this feature is not working correctly and it has been a known issue for over a year. Please get this bug fixed!

This is really frustrating guys.  We are a university and are moving towards making all our online learning content accessible.  This kind of behavior where you cannot reliably make content readable by a screen reader might mean that eventually we'll need to seek out another tool.  Please do something about this.

Hi Carolyn, 

I'm truly sorry for the frustration that this is causing you, and our team knows how important accessibility is. We've released a few fixes for the items in this discussion in the past couple updates of Storyline 360. For example, the following items were recently fixed:

• JAWS screen readers wouldn't announce the active player tab.
• There were some keyboard navigation issues, such as an incorrect tab order for objects on slide layers.
• Alt text on object's other states is not read by JAWS

If you're using Storyline 3, those same fixes will be available in the next update (release date TBD) and we'll let folks know as soon as that's ready!

If you've hit any other roadblocks, we definitely want to know about them! Can you share details and any examples (screen recordings, .story files, etc.) with our Support team by uploading at this link?