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DLearning's avatar
DLearning
Community Member
29 days ago
Solved

Screen reader cannot read Text Entry input elements' alt text/placeholder text by default (S360)

When I created courses in Storyline 3, it would publish course files such that by default Text Entry input elements' placeholder text would be read out by screen readers, making it easy to understand to screen reader users what is supposed to be entered in the Text Entry input element.

However, in Storyline 360, published course files don't read off the placeholder or alt text of any Text Entry input elements, only announcing "Edit" for any input element.

Expected behavior: Storyline by default codes Text Entry input elements such that their placeholder text/alt text is read correctly by screen readers by default.

Steps to reproduce issue:

  1. Open the attached input_box_read_placeholder_text_for_articulate.story file
  2. In the Storyline Editor, on slide 1.1, right click on the Text Entry element, then select "Accessibility..."
  3. Observe that "Object is visible to accessibility tools" is checked and in the Alternative text entry field, the placeholder text "enter the chip name here" is pre-populated
  4. Click the Close button
  5. Publish as an xAPI or SCORM 2004 file
  6. Upload to your LMS or SCORM Cloud and start the course as a learner using Google Chrome browser
  7. Start screen reader (I used NVDA but should behave the same in JAWS)
  8. Use the down arrow to read off slide elements. Observe how it reads off the Text Entry input field as "Edit" only and does not say "enter the chip name here"

Steps to observe a strange workaround:

  1. Close without saving input_box_read_placeholder_text_for_articulate.story to discard any changes
  2. Reopen input_box_read_placeholder_text_for_articulate.story
  3. In the Storyline Editor, on slide 1.2 (which is a clone of slide 1.1), right click on the Text Entry element, then select "Accessibility..."
  4. Observe that "Object is visible to accessibility tools" is checked and in the Alternative text entry field, the placeholder text "enter the chip name here" is pre-populated
  5. In the Alternative text entry field, add a single space after the text "enter the chip name here". You'll notice the text color becomes darker. Then delete the space you just added to revert it back to "enter the chip name here". Notice the text color reverts to a lighter gray color.
  6. Click the Close button.
  7. We would expect that steps 4,5,and 6 shouldn't have made any change to the slide because the additionally-added character was immediately deleted, returning the Alternative text back to its original value.
  8. Publish as an xAPI or SCORM 2004 file
  9. Upload to your LMS or SCORM Cloud and start the course as a learner using Google Chrome browser
  10. Start screen reader (I used NVDA but should behave the same in JAWS)
  11. Once you get to slide 1.2, use the down arrow to read off slide elements. Observe how it now reads off the Text Entry input field as "enter the chip name here - Edit", which is the desired behavior.
  12. Compare this to slide 1.1 which still reads the Text Entry input field as "Edit".

I sometimes create courses with many freeform Text Entry question slides, and it is not sustainable to have to use a workaround like above to get the screen reader to read off Text Entry input elements correctly.

For comparison, you can fire up Storyline 3, create a freeform Text Entry question, enter some placeholder text like "Enter the ID number here." into the text entry field. Then after publishing and entering the course as a learner, you'll notice the screen reader reads the Text Entry input element as "Enter the ID number here - Edit"  (the desired behavior).

  • Hello DLearning​,

    I have some great news to share! We just released Update 104 for Storyline 360, which includes new features and important fixes.

    This update includes a fix for the bug you reported, where screen readers did not announce the default alt text for text-entry fields.

    To get the latest update, open the Articulate 360 desktop app on your computer and click Update next to Storyline 360. You can find step-by-step instructions here.

    Please let me know if you need any additional help.

4 Replies

  • Hi DLearning,

    Thank you so much for the detailed description, the testing you’ve done, and for sharing your Storyline file with us. That really helped!

    I was able to confirm that this is a bug in Storyline 360. I tested it on my end as well, both with your project file and with a brand new Storyline course, and saw the same behavior. I also published to Review 360 and tested with NVDA, and the results matched what you described.

    I’ve reported this to our product team so they can investigate and work on a possible fix. We’ll update you here in the community if any changes roll out that might help.

    Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have additional questions.

    • EricSantos's avatar
      EricSantos
      Staff

      Thank you, DLearning! We’ll keep you posted here in the community if there are any updates from our product team on this.

      In the meantime, feel free to reach out if you have any other questions or run into anything else.

  • Hello DLearning​,

    I have some great news to share! We just released Update 104 for Storyline 360, which includes new features and important fixes.

    This update includes a fix for the bug you reported, where screen readers did not announce the default alt text for text-entry fields.

    To get the latest update, open the Articulate 360 desktop app on your computer and click Update next to Storyline 360. You can find step-by-step instructions here.

    Please let me know if you need any additional help.