Rise 360 - Screen Reader testing - Accessibility

Aug 30, 2023

Hugh King
By Hugh King

Hello, we recently developed a course in Rise 360 and had it tested by a screen reader user. They found a number of accessibility issues so we are sharing them here so that Articulate is aware.

Text and Font

  • Superscript (for references) is not read as superscript by the screen reader,  which can be confusing. The user was also expecting link to follow each point immediately.
  • Text block – information. Screen reader detects the "i" icon in information box but does not read anything, user advised it leaves them wondering what the screen reader detected.

Storyline blocks

  • For Storyline items inserted into Rise, sometimes the screen reader reads the storyline item file name.
  • Text in Storyline slides seems to be read twice. There is some kind of marker the screen reader picks up on the slide before the text boxes which reads all the text on the slide, then the cursor moves to the text boxes on the slide and reads the text again.

Knowledge Check questions

  • Knowledge check feedback sometimes reads a period as "dot" even at the end of a sentence, and it isn’t clear why.
  • Audio files duration is not read in a regular manner. Screen reader reads time of 1:04, as “one-oh-four” (not 1 minute, 4 seconds) and does not say "duration" or something similar. User was not clear what “one-oh-four” meant or was, and said it should read “duration 1 minute, 4 seconds”.
  • Multiple response (select all) checkboxes read each checkbox choice twice. The user said they have encountered this many times before in other products, but it should not be read twice.
  • Single response (multiple choice) radial buttons are read twice like checkbox items but the user advised they usually are not read twice in other products. It also re-reads the question after every option, which the user advised is not normal or desirable.
  • Feedback of "Correct" or "Incorrect" is not formatted as a heading and could not be navigated to directly and easily by the user.

Images

  • Images are automatically formatted by Rise to include a Zoom feature and the screen reader reads info about the Zoom option after every image. The user advised this is not necessary.

Navigation Bar

  • Drop-downs in the navigation bar cause screen reader to say “same page” but it really means "same drop-down" in the navigation bar

Accordions

  • If accordions are used in conjunction with a Continue button to require completion, the accordions do not indicate which drop-downs have already been opened or not opened.

Continue buttons

  • If Continue buttons are the last thing on a page, selecting the Continue button takes you to the next page instead of a link that is from the navigation. (which is normal if the page does not end with a Continue button) The user advised the navigation bar type link should be the final item on every page for consistency and to avoid confusing the user.
3 Replies
Marvie Mulder
8 months ago09/11/23 at 10:00 pm (UTC)

Hi Hugh!

Thanks for dropping by! We appreciate your feedback as it definitely helps us improve our accessibility. I'm hoping to share some insights for each of the items you have specified.

  • Superscript (for references) is not read as superscript by the screen reader
    • Our code uses the correct markup for superscripts and subscripts, however, the screen reader support for it appears to be limited and just not there yet. The good news is that NVDA has a setting you can turn on so it recognizes superscripts & subscripts (NVDA -> Preferences -> Settings -> Document formatting -> Superscripts & subscripts)
  • Text block – information. Screen reader detects the "i" icon in information box
    • The information icon is ignored in Voice Over and NVDA, but it looks like JAWS can still navigate on it. We can file an issue to ensure this icon is completely decorative.
  • Knowledge check feedback sometimes reads a period as "dot" even at the end of a sentence, and it isn’t clear why.
    • 🤔I couldn't reproduce this with NVDA or JAWS. Would you mind sending me an example? A screenshot of the feedback that demonstrates this problem will do.
  • Audio files duration is not read in a regular manner.
    • We are using the standard markup for the audio duration. This seems to be one of the nuances of screen readers, where Voice Over announces the value meaningfully (minutes & seconds), while NVDA & JAWS appear to opt for just announcing the numerical value. 
  • Multiple response (select all) checkboxes read each checkbox choice twice. 
    • We are currently exploring ways to improve the checkboxes in knowledge check, quiz & list block, but I thought I'd take this chance to shed some light on why it's announcing the way it does in browse mode. The checkbox is labeled by its option so it announces the whole thing when it's focused. That could have been enough, however, we expose the option text separately because authors can put links in them. In HTML, it's discouraged to place interactive elements inside a form label because it makes it hard to interact with the form input, so we opted to separate them.
    • Alternatively to avoid this, you can tab to the checkboxes (effectively entering focus mode) so that it only announces the checkbox control.
  • Single response (multiple choice) radial buttons are read twice like checkbox; re-reads the question after every option
    • Same reason as above, for the double announcement
    • 🤔 I could not reproduce the behaviour where it re-reads the question after every option, I may need an example for that. The only time it re-announces the question is when screen reader focuses on the radio group. This is expected and is a standard.
  • Feedback of "Correct" or "Incorrect" is not formatted as a heading and could not be navigated to directly and easily by the user.
    • The correct & incorrect labels are not meant to be headings, they are part of the feedback group, which is a paragraph. However, it won't be missed by screen reader users because we have a mechanism to announce them all together. 
  • Images are automatically formatted by Rise to include a Zoom feature and the screen reader reads info about the Zoom option after every image.
    • This is expected. All meaningful, visible elements must be accessible to screen readers. As an author, you can turn off the image zoom if it's not necessary for your use case. 
  • Drop-downs in the navigation bar cause screen reader to say “same page” but it really means "same drop-down" in the navigation bar
    • 🤔 I could not reproduce this behaviour as well in both JAWS & NVDA. The collapsible sections in the navigation sidebar should be announced either as expanded or collapsed. I take that you are using JAWS, but there might be a nuance in the version you are using. I tested this with JAWS 2023.
  • If accordions are used in conjunction with a Continue button to require completion, the accordions do not indicate which drop-downs have already been opened or not opened.
    • This is working as expected. However, as an author, you can ensure that all of the accordion sections have been visited by setting the accordion interaction to "Keep items opened'
  • The user advised the navigation bar type link should be the final item on every page for consistency and to avoid confusing the user.
    • I agree with consistency. This is controlled by the course author. I believe they should remove the continue button at the bottom of each lesson and just opt for the default previous/next lesson links.

 STORYLINE BLOCK

  • For Storyline items inserted into Rise, sometimes the screen reader reads the storyline item file name.
    • Rise 360 uses the Storyline's published title. Please make sure that you are publishing the Storyline project with the correct titles before inserting in Rise 360 as a block.
  • Text in Storyline slides seems to be read twice. There is some kind of marker the screen reader picks up on the slide before the text boxes which reads all the text on the slide, then the cursor moves to the text boxes on the slide and reads the text again.
    • 🤔 We may need to have a look at your Storyline file to troubleshoot and identify why it's not announcing the way you expected. I'd recommend that you open up a case with us for this.

 

Hope this information helps!

Cheers!
Marvie

Michelle Kenoyer
4 months ago01/12/24 at 9:06 pm (UTC)

Hi Marvie (or another Articulate Rise engineer):

Re: the reply above:

Images are automatically formatted by Rise to include a Zoom feature and the screen reader reads info about the Zoom option after every image.

  • This is expected. All meaningful, visible elements must be accessible to screen readers. As an author, you can turn off the image zoom if it's not necessary for your use case.

I'm working on a Rise course now and find that I'm unable to disable the Zoom function in a Knowledge Check image. When I select Format in the Knowledge Check's editing pane, the Enable zoom on image click checkbox is not visible as it is in other blocks with images. Is there another way to disable the image zoom for image blocks? 

Thanks ahead. :)

Jose Tansengco
3 months ago01/15/24 at 1:57 pm (UTC)

Hello Michelle,

Happy to help! 

There isn't a way to disable the zoom option for images in knowledge checks, but I can confirm that this is something we're tracking as a feature request. I went ahead and added your voice to the report so we can notify you here as soon as this feature gets added to our product roadmap! 

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