Forum Discussion
Recent accessibility improvements in Storyline 360
We know it’s important for you to be able to create accessible e-learning—not just because it’s a compliance issue, but because it’s critical to build training that’s inclusive. And we’re committed to delivering the features you need to help you do that.
We’ve taken some important steps to empower you to create accessible e-learning content. We’ve partnered with accessibility experts, Deque, to audit our products and help us prioritize new features and feature enhancements. We’ve also worked closely with a large, diverse group of early access testers on features and feature enhancements to make sure any changes we’re making are the right approach.
Because of this work we’ve been able to roll out several new features in the past few months like the ability to add alt text and closed captions to your media library assets, as well as the ability to add closed captions to Rise 360 videos.
We’ve also recently released several features in Storyline 360 that are focused on making the course player and slide content more accessible by standardizing the user experience so it’s more in line with other web experiences. These features also ensure that courses work with a broader range of screen readers, web browsers, and devices.
Below is a broad comparison of the user experience before and after these enhancements.
|
Before |
After |
The Course Player |
|
|
Screen reader users and keyboard users tabbed through every button and menu item in the player. This approach was burdensome and inconsistent with other web navigation experiences, particularly for screen reader users. |
The course player has been re-organized to make it easier for users of accessibility aids to understand where they are and move around quickly. This includes the use of ARIA landmarks and regions as appropriate (e.g. navigation regions), as well as restructuring of the player behind the scenes into discrete areas of functionality that follow a consistent order and hierarchy. |
|
The course player in Storyline 360 supported the JAWS screen reader on desktop devices. |
In addition to JAWS, the course player in Storyline 360 supports NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack to view courses on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. |
Navigating Slides |
|
|
Just as they navigated the course player, screen reader users and keyboard users tabbed to move to, or focus on, each individual item on the screen. Then users could use their spacebar to activate interactive elements on the screen like buttons or other controls. This put a burden on users who needed to hit the tab button to navigate each and every item. |
Navigation has been made more consistent with other web experiences. The tab order dialog in Storyline is still used to define the reading order of the page, but the ‘tab’ key will only focus on interactive objects like buttons, controls and links. Screen reader users press their screen reader’s navigation keys (typically the down / up arrows) to move through all text and interactive objects in order. |
|
Most objects in Storyline were drawn as shapes. For example, a radio button would be drawn as a circle with a dot instead of a standard HTML radio button. This allowed for more control over the appearance of published courses in different web browsers, but wasn’t compatible with assistive technologies. |
Now, most objects on your slides are rendered as standard HTML that follows best practices for web accessibility. This means your learners can use a broader array of accessibility aids, such as screen readers, to navigate your courses much the same way they browse web pages. |
Our work in this area is ongoing. We’re digging into all of the helpful feedback you’ve shared with us so far as well as the improvements identified by our outside accessibility experts. We’re also hotlisting and addressing critical bug fixes, and we’re reviewing ideas for more feature enhancements. You can learn more about the steps we’re taking in our roadmap.
We’re on this journey with you and we’re listening. We know new ways of doing things may take some time to get used to—for you and for your learners. We’re here to help and we appreciate your feedback and suggestions.
Hi all,
A few folks have shared this video from community member Diane Elkins and found it really helpful for understanding the recent changes that came with the accessible course player. Let us know if you found it helpful too!
Thanks Simon, great to see a roadmap.
Any chance we can keep the feature that allows users with slower internet that is found in many rural areas the ability to Download to their Tablets so they can view in Offline Mode?
That would really create accessible e-learning content for everyone.. That would be great.
If this in not possible, perhaps an option to export so Modules have a Pre-Loader that loads the entire course before a user begins so that courses would run better even on slower internet.
Good point! Thanks for bringing that up. Where I live there are still many remote areas with limited internet.
Yes, same here Nicole.
One of the main reasons my team decided to use Storyline was because of this option to Download to Tablet. Would be an enormous issue if they don't keep the AMP Download for Offline Viewing option.
Thanks for these updates. I'm just digging into accessibility requirements on some of my courses and I think this will help.
Many of us are seeing weird results when using a screen reader and the focus is on the seek bar sometimes the screen reader will read out a string of numbers and letters (maybe random, maybe it is something from html or some kind of identifier) or it is reading out the seconds which makes it near impossible to hear what the narrator is saying.
Hey there, Cary!
I see that you're working with Phil on our Support team to see if we could understand what's causing the screen reader to read out a series of numbers.
Thanks for continuing to reach out, and I'll follow Phil's troubleshooting!
Thank you for the update Simon!
Thank you - great to know there is progress on this
Thanks Simon, I can confirm that neither JAWS nor NVDA reads the slides properly. NVDA stopped reading the body text after a few slides. JAWS has got too many bags and also sometimes doesn't progress to the next slide (not to mention it reads the slide title 3 times in a row and reads buttons twice). Summarising, the blind people don't have ANY tool to use with the SL courses.
Hi Jacek!
I see that you posted here too! I've replied to you in that discussion. Keep us posted if you have any questions!
I have the exact same problem with JAWS reading the slide name several times. Originally some of my issues were, apparently, a bug in the version of JAWS I was using. I have updated to JAWS 2020, and still have the problem of JAWS reading slide names several times in a row. To be clear, I don't mean slide title, which is visible on the screen. I mean slide name, which should be invisible to the course participant.
I work for the Federal government, and by law all of our courses must be 508 compliant. The version from December of last year is the only one that works for me, which is annoying because I can't get access to the great new features.
Oddly, some of my coworkers also use Storyline and don't have the same problem I have. Because of that, I've tried this on both my work computer and my personal computer, and I have the same problem on both. Could it somehow be an issue in the installation, or some problem with interactions with other software? I do have an open ticket about this. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the software, with no difference in behavior.
Hi Enrich!
I responded to you in that discussion! Let me know if you have any questions.
Any corrections to the this thread: https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/accessibility-bug-in-latest-update-24-1-20
I see Lauren that you have responded to more discussion recently, but has the underlying problem been addressed from when the update was rolled out?
