Forum Discussion
JAWS won't find focus or read anything on Lightbox
Hi,
My team is having issues with JAWS not reading any information in light boxes. We tried SL Versions 3.96.33815.0 (1/21/25) to 3.93.33359.00 (Oct 22, 2024) with JAWS 2020 and JAWS 2023 and it's not working. We also tried several different projects in Edge and Chrome. Any insight would be great!
Hello ErinVincent,
I have some great news to share! We just released Storyline 360 Update 97, which includes the fix for the bug where screen readers didn't announce text on lightbox slides. Please update Storyline 360 in your Articulate 360 desktop app to take advantage of this fix!
21 Replies
See file for example.
Hi Erin,
Happy to help!When your lightbox appears, try navigating to the text using the Down key on your keyboard. This should allow JAWS to read the text on the lightbox, and you should see something like this on the screen indicating JAWS is reading the text:
I used the latest version of Microsoft Edge and JAWS 2024 for this test, and everything seemed to work as expected. You can check out this article for more information on navigating slide content.
Let me know how it goes!
Hi Jose,
That's not the issue. I have tried everything I know to do and JAWS will not find focus on the lightboxes. I have attached a screen demo for you to view. I have tried with JAWS 2020, JAWS 2023, the last 4 iterations of SL and SL Beta and I am still having the same issue.
Hi Jose,
Please see attached recording. I tested with JAWS 2024 and SL 3.96.33815.0 (Jan 21, 2025) and still get the same behavior.
I recorded the test but this site won't allow me to upload it.
Hello ErinVincent,
I have some great news to share! We just released Storyline 360 Update 97, which includes the fix for the bug where screen readers didn't announce text on lightbox slides. Please update Storyline 360 in your Articulate 360 desktop app to take advantage of this fix!
Hi Luciana,
Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, that update didn't fix the issue. Please see recording I conducted this morning. I look forward to your reply/resolution.
Luciana,
My colleague and I are continuing to troubleshoot and found that if we changed our screen scale to 125% JAWS would read the information using the arrow keys on a lightbox slide. The arrow keys still don't work to access the close button. When the scale is set to 100%, JAWS reads nothing on the lightbox slides. This is the most peculiar experience I have had.
Hi Erin! Thank you for this information. I will give it a try and see!
LucianaPiazza​ and JoseTansengco,
The temporary fix I had is no longer working. Any new information on this issue?
Hello ErinVincent,
Thanks for following up with us in this discussion! I see that you've opened a support case and that you are currently working with our colleague Dexter. You're in excellent hands.
We'll continue the conversation over in your case.
Have a wonderful afternoon!
Hi, everyone!
I have some great news to share! We just released a new version of Storyline 360 (Update 101), which included a fix for this issue:
- Screen readers skipped some lightboxed content if the browser window was maximized or the system display scaling was set to 100%.
To take advantage of this update, launch the Articulate 360 desktop app on your computer and click the Update button next to Storyline 360. You'll find step-by-step instructions here.
Please let us know if you have any questions by posting here or reaching out to our Support Engineers directly.
