Forum Discussion

PhoenixRainBird's avatar
PhoenixRainBird
Community Member
14 hours ago

Making animated text more accessible

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help with this. I have a storyline project with a ton (a ton!) of animated text that I'm trying to make more screen-reader friendly. Here is what I've thought through so far:

  • The training is narrated and includes a draggable seek bar and play/pause button. This works for a lot of folks but not those with very low or no vision. We do provide a full transcript but it's a very different experience. 
  • The text moves in and out throughout the slide so it won't work to have the learner simply skip animation and jump to the end of the timeline, as they would miss content.
  • A lot of the text overlaps so changing all slide layers to show until end and covering them with shapes is a possibility but a messy, complex one.
  • If I split up the slides so there is only one chunk of information on each, it feels like you're clicking the next button way too much.
  • If I auto-advance the slides to reduce button clicks, it's no longer accessible.  

Would it be possible to set up an offscreen button that advances the learner to a specific timepoint, allows them to interact with the content, moves them to the next timepoint etc. and finally brings them to the next button when they've finished the slide?

Can one button do it all or would I need a separate button for each marker?

Is there any way to make buttons visible only to screen readers but not keyboard only users? (I think not, right?)  

Is there anything else that might work? Does anyone have experience with this?

Thanks so much!

accessibility
advice
storyline 360
  • SamHill's avatar
    SamHill
    Super Hero
    7 hours ago

    Hi PhoenixRainBird I think you might be overthinking this a bit unless I'm not understanding fully.

    If you have audio narration, screen reader users can use the audio narration instead of the reading the text that animates in and out in this instance. It would be too fiddly to try and complete the content this way, or with a button that advances them to each key area. Provided you have the play/pause/volume controls, this is accessible. Providing the text transcript is also a good solution.

    I would consider hiding the text on screen completely from assistive technology, as it is not easy to consume using assistive tech, and the audio track or text transcript would be preferable.

    If you wanted to make the audio narration more accessible, you can also include the audio narration with a description track as well that describes what is happening on the screen.

    If you wanted to make the text transcript more accessible, you can include descriptions within it, if necessary.

    You should also include (I'm sure you are) captions on the audio too.

    When it comes to slides like this, I treat them more like video (captions, transcript, audio track).

    FYI: You can have hidden buttons for screen readers users, but they will also be keyboard accessible. I sometimes had screen reader only content off screen, or behind a mask on screen.

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