Forum Discussion
Storyline and JAWS - setting course up and testing with JAWS
We have a course for a client that needs to be 508 compliant. We've been learning Storyline along with the rest of you (and likely, not as quickly), and trying to set it up correctly to also be 508 compliant. The closed captioning is set up and working based on following tutorials from this community ("Generating Closed Captions" - thank you Steve Flowers!).
Our issue is in getting JAWS to read the course - I'm not sure if it's an LMS issue, or pieces I need to set up in Storyline that I haven't done.
We have tried to have a user who is blind test a sample of the course (5 slides) using JAWS on our LMS and also on ScormCloud. Each time she has tried, she has not been able to get farther than pressing enter to view the course and hearing:
~ the name of the course
~scormdriver_content frame
~scormdriver_content frame end
She tried pressing enter on each thing and nothing would start the course.
Our LMS employee tried to set the course start in a new window, and downloaded JAWS to test on his end. His response was: She is right that nothing plays initially. What she couldn't know is that Jaws is able to read some of the content. When I click on the buttons or Nav links, Jaws reads the buttons. It also reads the titles when I navigate the menu (it reads what I click on though, doesn't read it ahead of time.) When I use the slash key, JAWS Tells me there are no clickable buttons. It doesn't read any of the content either.
I submitted a support case to Articulate to see if there are steps we are missing in the course. I gave the LMS person's response above. After a couple back and forths, the response I have from Articulate is: JAWS will only read the items that are highlighted. It won't read anything ahead. If it did read anything ahead, it would clash with the narration that is already on each slide & only confuse the end-user even more. Finally, our output doesn't support the Slash key in the sense that the slash key will move to the next clickable item. This shortcut key is typically associated with HTML content.
Honestly, I'm still lost. I've looked at all the tutorials I can find, and I'm just not seeing the post that makes it all click and make sense. I realize we must be missing several things here.
Is there someone that has knowledge of working with JAWS that would be willing to either give suggestions or test our sample (published or storyline format) to see what we are missing?
- Are there variables or triggers I need to place in the course specifically related to JAWS - ex. keystrokes, and if so, do those go on the master slides?
- Our course currently has 7 scenes, and within each scene the slides advance automatically. For JAWS, do they instead need to advance by user?
- From what I'm seeing in other posts, someone using JAWS needs to be able to turn the audio off, correct?
- Our quiz questions are all true/false or multiple choice.
- Our full course is about 80 slides (a 40 minute course) with full audio, and 2 1 minute videos at the beginning.
Would greatly appreciate your help.
Hi again Wendy, thanks so much for your patience! I tested this functionality in all versions of Storyline and got some insight from our QA team on exactly what we would expect JAWS to read.
Our output doesn't support a "real time" change in the state of a radio button. In other words, JAWS doesn't read "Radio button selected" as soon as a user selects it in any version of Storyline. So, it's expected that you would have to tab back to a selected radio button to hear that's it's checked.
In my video you heard JAWS read "Use the up and down arrows to change your selection." If you didn't hear the same thing, it's likely because we're using different versions of JAWS. This is a known issue our team is looking into, and I'll tag this thread to be updated as soon as we hear more on that.
Let me know if that helps to clear things up!
- WendyFarmerSuper Hero
Thanks for the explanation Alyssa. I’ll need to add more user instructions I think.
- SusanJorstad-e5Community Member
Is there any update on the issue of JAWS reading "Use the up and down arrows to change your selection"? I'm wondering what is telling JAWS to read that and if there is any way to get rid of those erroneous instructions. In my experience, pressing the up and down arrow keys does nothing; users need to press "enter" or the spacebar to select the radio button, but even then JAWS reads, for a T/F question "True Radio Button Not Checked" even when it is. Using Storyline 3.
Hi Susan,
The Enter/Spacebar is what you'd use to select an item, and as Alyssa mentioned JAWS will only read out that it is selected after you've navigated back to it from somewhere else.Our team is still working on the issue with the reading out of "up/down" so we'll let you know here once that's ready!
- MargaretCrawforCommunity Member
I've subscribed to this post but am also commenting because I'm eager to hear an update on JAWS falsely instructing users to press up or down arrow to change selection on quiz questions. (SL 360, JAWS 2018)
- SerenaPillCommunity Member
HI there,
Has there been any progress on this? If not, perhaps an indication of when this will be fixed?
Hi there, SP. We are still reviewing the arrow key issue as part of broader accessibility improvements we're excited to be making.
The way the Storyline player is currently built, we're able to make incremental improvements, but we want to aim higher. So we're working on a better player structure that'll provide industry-leading accessibility support. We have several enhancements planned to comply with the latest accessibility standards across more screen readers and web browsers.
I can't share details about a timeline yet, but we'll let you know when these features are ready.
- SajnaThomasCommunity Member
Hi,
There is an issue that we are facing with JAWS....pls note we are using latest JAWS and Chrome browser. We notice that at some places JAWS suddenly starts to read the file name and there is overlapping of JAWS audio and the course's slide's video...
The client wants to know why it reads the module name in between suddenly??? For example, it read "More Help Needed Now_Mar-1" More Help Needed Now is our module name....This is not on the course itself, but they wanted to know if it is picking it from the meta.xml file, in which this name is mentioned.
Pls help
Hi there, Hassy. What version of Storyline are you using? Also, are you able to share your file with us for testing?
- CalvinLoCommunity Member
Subscribing here as well. We're being called out for JAWS not working properly with our quizzes.
- SerenaPillCommunity Member
Same here. Clients are not happy with the way JAWS reads the SL quizzes. Along with the false up/down arrow instruction, the invalid feedback message pops up and I cannot seem to find an accessibility (alt text) for this feedback. Hoping this is not an issue once the up/down arrow issue has been resolved.
- TeresaVanderposCommunity Member
Nice to see this update. Please keep in mind how your Tab Ordering works when building an accessible course. I have submitted the issue/request many times. How the Tab Orders window is very inflexible with ensuring the order of items will tab properly with someone using a keyboard. Layers show up in list before base layer, can't see full names of items, can't drag and move items in order, very time consuming one click at a time. Anyway, just a reminder that the Tab Order screen needs help to help the author ensure the course is accessible :) I would love to be part of the beta process.
Hello there, Teresa.
We're so happy to hear of your interest in getting involved with the beta process, and appreciate your insights around the Tab Order!
My teammate, Simon, who is managing this task, received your information and will contact you directly by email soon!
- TeresaVanderposCommunity Member
Thanks Katie, and perhaps Simon can look for my requests re: Tab Order, as I put in a pretty detailed note on my concerns and how it might be improved LOL!
- SusanJorstad-e5Community Member
So glad to see Simon's post and the awareness of others like Teresa who have the same issues I am having. I am glad to hear of the company's commitment to accessibility because it affects my work and learners every day.