Forum Discussion
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 fa...
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.
