Forum Discussion
Tab Order: Storyline skipping first object on non-base layers?
I'm using Storyline 360 v3.26.18601.0 and am having a problem with the tab order.
It appears that when I open a layer from the base layer and hit the tab key, I do not go to the first object listed in my Tab Order panel for that new layer. Instead, Storyline skips the first thing listed in the tab order and goes to the second object in the list. I then have to tab through the entire rest of the page before I am cycled back, finally, to that first object.
Of course, this completely messes up the learner experience since I get to the Next or Continue button before I get to the main content on the page.
Here is a concrete example:
Main Storyline edit screen:
This is a screen from an emergency management course in a module on responding to an earthquake. It consists of a base layer called Drop Cover and Hold On and three feedback layers, one for each of the highlighted regions on the slide. Two are incorrect feedback layers (No: Boxes and No: Bottles) and one is the correct feedback layer (Yes: Good Choice).
The idea is the learner clicks one of the highlighted regions, and in response, a trigger shows the feedback layer associated with that choice. If the learner clicks the correct place to drop, cover, and hold on, then the Yes: Good Choice layer displays:
This layer is set to Prevent the user from clicking on the base layer in its properties panel:
This prevents objects on the base layer from being tabbed to while the learner is on this layer. Also, every object on this layer is hidden from the accessibility tools except for the feedback text box and the Continue button.
Here's my Tab Order panel for this slide:
Here's a Peek video screencast of me trying to navigate through this page using the keyboard only (i.e., navigating with the Tab key and selecting with the Enter key):
Peek video of how this page behaves
The little teeter-totter video clip (meant to suggest the earthquake) at the start of the page in question didn't get captured too well by Peek, but otherwise the video shows the tab behavior quite well. Why does it skip the feedback text box?
Is anyone else experiencing this or am doing something wrong?
Thanks!
-Ray
48 Replies
Hi,
I don't know if a direct answer was ever given for this. But I use the tab order often, the solution that I found for this issue is to move the feedback in the tab order to where it would show. You have to tab extra through all those items because you have the feedback all the way at the top.
So in your scenario, you have the following tab order:
Yes - Text
Yes - Continue Button
No - Text
No - Continue Button
Slide - What should you do?
Option Yes
Option No
Option C
You would instead want this order:
Slide - What should you do?
Option Yes
Yes - Text
Yes - Continue Button
Option No
No - Text
No - Continue Button
Option C
C - Text
C - Continue Button
That keeps the feedback text as the first thing the user tabs to after selecting their answer.
Does that make sense?
I'd been adding an invisible tab item on my layers until I recently discovered a better solution:
Have the tabbable items on your layers not start at the beginning of the timeline. That's it.
I've been setting them to start at 0.01s (right-click object in timeline > Timing) and it has solved the problem. You risk a viewer seeing that 0.01s delay, but Clark Kent isn't taking my courses so I think I'm good.
OH MY GOD. THANK YOU!! This was the work-around I needed! The invisible object hack did not work for our 508 team.
Hi everyone,
Thank you all for continuing to share the crucial need for creating accessible content for all learners. While more work remains, we're at a point where we're confident the job done so far delivers meaningful real-world improvements for learners with accessibility needs.
I've included links below where you can find all the details on what this means for Storyline 360 Update 36:
You'll also see our general FAQ on accessibility in Articulate 360 tools here.
This release makes it significantly easier for those users to perceive, operate, and understand content published with Storyline, while opening up more choices of the browser, assistive technology, and devices for the first time. Learners will benefit from the vast majority of these improvements, even when the course author is not designing their course for accessibility.
If you have any questions or concerns, let us know here or reach out to our Support team. We know there is more to do, so we'll continue to keep you posted about future releases.
Thank you for this update, Leslie. Exciting to see the work being done on accessibility. Two questions...
- Will these enhancements be added to Storyline 3 as well?
- This thread is about a specific tab order bug. Has that bug been fixed in 360 and 3?
Thanks for asking that #2 question Michael! Was wondering the same thing.
Hi Michael and Nicole,
Happy to see your excitement about the accessibility improvements we are working on!
For Storyline 3, we are working on accessibility enhancements as well, and promise to share the news here as soon as they’re ready!
In regards to the tab order bug, this is now addressed with the latest release of Storyline 360. This article provides more details on how slide navigation has been updated in Update 36 for Storyline 360: Storyline 360: Slide Content Is More Accessible.
Adding an invisible object to that layer is not the correct solution for this. The tab order will behave correctly but if the user uses the shift+tab, then the invisible object will get highlighted.
Hi everyone!
You'll want to check out the latest version of Storyline 3 that we released today!
In Storyline 3 (Build 3.10.22406.0), you'll see a fix for the bug where the feedback Layer wouldn't follow the Tab Order specified and the first item wasn't highlighted. You'll need to download the latest version of Storyline 3 to see all the accessibility enhancements included in this update.
Here's a complete list of the release notes!
Has this bug been fixed in Storyline 360? I'm on the latest version and I found this thread because I was having the exact same issue where the focus order is consistently skipping over the first item on each layer.
Hi John!
The bug where the first object wasn't highlighted by the focus rectangle was released in Update 36 (Build 3.36.21213.0). We are currently on Storyline 360 (Build 3.54.25674.0). Which version of Storyline are you using?
If you have a file that you can share, that would be helpful too! You can attach it to this discussion or upload the .story file privately in a support case.
Adding a Text input box in the slide layer has resolved the focus issue in my case. May not be a very good solution, but works. The input box takes in focus immediately (and an extra tab too) and the first item on the slide layer is never missed in that way.
HI Tanmay!
Thank you so much for sharing a workaround in this discussion! I know that will be helpful for others who are coming across a similar issue.
I am still experiencing this issue, it's really really frustrating and I have wasted many hours on it. I think I've worked out it only happens when you have 'prevent user from clicking on the base layer' which is a function I use all the time.
Using prevent user from clicking on the base layer will mean the objects on the base layer cannot get focus. This is by design
