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We have a presentation that is built in storyline. We have narration on a slide and the text on the screen can be tabbed through and read by a screen reader, but it is not because others here are saying that because the narration is basically stating what the on screen text says, it does not need to be read by a screen reader. However, I am arguing that it does need to be read by the screen reader.

I believe all on screen text should have the ability to be read by a screen reader regardless of if narration gave an overview of the slide. Am I wrong? What does 508 compliance say regarding all on screen text? Should it be read by a screen reader even if narration has spoke of it? (The text on screen does not exactly match that of the narration, it's more of a resource of list of items).

Nick0989
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I'm not familiar with Storyline (I presume you're talking about the product from Articulate), but I just tried a sample one and the end result is viewed in a browser, so it's essentially a web app (and a "single page app" (spa) to be specific). The one I tried was pretty awful with a screen reader. None of the images had alt text and there was a lot of stuff I could tab to that was not interactive. And the questions weren't tagged so they weren't read when my focus moved to an answer. It was kind of like playing "Jeopardy" that I'd hear an answer but didn't know the question. However, all those problems could be the result of the author not using the tool correctly. (Although I tried a 2nd presentation and it had similar problems.)

Part of the problem is the lack of understanding of how a screen reader user navigates the web. You don't have to make static text focusable in order for a screen reader user to hear it. In fact, if an object is not interactive, it should never receive focus. A screen reader user can navigate by elements, such as headings, tables, lists, etc. (provided you have proper html markup).

Now, with all that being said, going back to your OP, if you have static text on your presentation, it will be available to a screen reader by default (as long as you haven't hidden it from a screen reader via the aria-hidden attribute).

If your question is whether the static text should be focusable/tabbable, the answer would be "no", regardless of whether you have narration or not.

slugolicious
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  • If I have an animation on screen with text that isn't narrated, then that text will never get read because it's part of an animation. In this case I would say yes, it needs to be. I would also say yes to questions/answers being tabable because sometimes you need to hear the question multiple times. We use alt text on images in storyline. I told the developers to make any on screen text readable through the screen reader because the whole presentation is basically an interactive animated piece of content. It seems it uses a lot of SVG graphics even for text on screen. So I don't really know. – Nick0989 Aug 23 '18 at 14:27
  • Ok, I misunderstood part of the question. If there is text in the animation, then you are correct that that text should be available to screen readers. The question text is already available to screen readers. It doesn’t have to be tabbable. However, it should be a `role=“group”` around the answer so that it’s read when you tab to the interactive part of the answer. – slugolicious Aug 25 '18 at 13:49
  • That's what I thought. 508 compliance shouldn't be hard to understand, I'm just trying to create a checklist of items. The issue is I'm not the one working within Storyline so I don't know its limitations. I am just the web developer here and I'm trying to figure out a easy, basic understanding of this for the others who say they know, but keep missing key points. – Nick0989 Aug 27 '18 at 13:05
  • feel free to bounce accessibility ideas off me if you want. my contact info is in my profile. – slugolicious Aug 28 '18 at 01:43