Dear Support,We are currently using Adobe RoboHelp 2020 for our project and are in the process of upgrading our Output to comply with WCAG accessibility standards. We have a couple of queries regarding accessibility features:Navigation Landmarks:Is it possible to define ARIA landmarks such as:Marking the TOC (left panel) as a section landmark?Marking the main content/topic area as a main landmark?Can these landmarks be implemented or customized within RoboHelp 2020, either through the UI or by editing layout files?Thumbnail Image Accessibility:We are using the thumbnail image feature for all images in our topics.Currently, images can be opened with the keyboard (Enter key) but cannot be closed using the keyboard.Are there any built-in settings or best practices that allow us to:Shift keyboard focus to the image pop-up for accessibility?Provide an option to open the image in a new tab instead?We would appreciate any guidance or recommendations regarding these concerns. If there are any workarounds, script customizations, or updates we should consider, kindly let us know.Thank you for your support.

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Question

Accessibility Support in RoboHelp 2020 – Navigation Landmarks and Thumbnail Image Interaction

Forum|Forum|8 months ago
May 5, 2025
6 replies
519 views

Dear Support,

We are currently using Adobe RoboHelp 2020 for our project and are in the process of upgrading our Output to comply with WCAG accessibility standards. We have a couple of queries regarding accessibility features:

Navigation Landmarks:
- Is it possible to define ARIA landmarks such as:
  - Marking the TOC (left panel) as a section landmark?
  - Marking the main content/topic area as a main landmark?
- Can these landmarks be implemented or customized within RoboHelp 2020, either through the UI or by editing layout files?
Thumbnail Image Accessibility:
- We are using the thumbnail image feature for all images in our topics.
- Currently, images can be opened with the keyboard (Enter key) but cannot be closed using the keyboard.
- Are there any built-in settings or best practices that allow us to:
  - Shift keyboard focus to the image pop-up for accessibility?
  - Provide an option to open the image in a new tab instead?

We would appreciate any guidance or recommendations regarding these concerns. If there are any workarounds, script customizations, or updates we should consider, kindly let us know.

Thank you for your support.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

For accessibility, Frameless is the better option.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

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Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Nobody here suggested using Responsive HTML5 help, which makes me think you still believe you are talking to Adobe Support. You are not, you are posting in a forum where replies are from other users such as yourself.

Personally I would have gone with a frameless output as going forward Adobe will be focussing development on frameless outputs. Other than bug fixes, it is unlikely there will be any changes to HTML5 outputs. It should be as simple as creating a frameless preset and template.

One more thing before responding to your specific points. I have been assured that the frameless templates meet accessibility requirements but, of course, the content of your topics is down to you. I think that is also true of responsive templates but I am not 100% sure. I will see if I can find out more.

Global Implementation of Image Expansion

This is a feature known as thumbnails in the RoboHelp world. I don't think there is any way to do this globally but I will look into it and come back to you.

Adding Navigation Landmarks Globally

This is known as bookmarks in the RoboHelp world and I'm sorry to tell there no way to apply them automatically that I have ever seen.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

Use menu (bottom right) to mark as Best Answer or to Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Thumbnails

To use thumbnails, you have to go to Content Properties for each image. There you set the size of the thumbnail and that is likely to be different for each thumbnail. If that is the case then you would need to set each image.

If a standard thumbnail would work, there might be a solution. Here is the code for an image that has been inserted twice into a topic. In one instance a thumbnail setting has been applied. Note that the code here does not include the alt attribute that you must insert for compliance.

If you can find a way of searching for all images and injecting what is shown in red but with your dimensions, then that should work. I haven't tested it but Find and Replace should work.

I emphasise, you must do this only after making a backup copy of your project.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

Use menu (bottom right) to mark as Best Answer or to Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.

S

Sirisha25579532oy1eAuthor

Participating Frequently

Update:

We have upgraded RoboHelp to the latest version as per your suggestion and have verified the functionality. The image expansion feature is now working correctly with the addition of the required HTML code and JavaScript.

We would appreciate your input on the following points:

Global Implementation of Image Expansion:
Given the size of our project and the number of topics involved, is there a way to implement this functionality globally across the project, rather than manually updating each topic? We are specifically looking for a scalable method that would:

Automatically apply the modal image expansion to all relevant images.
Minimize manual changes while ensuring consistency across topics. Could this be achieved through a master page, global script, skin customization, or any other recommended RoboHelp method?

Adding Navigation Landmarks Globally:
Is there any quicker or global method to add navigation landmarks (for accessibility compliance) to the Responsive HTML5 output? Manually adding them to each topic is not practical due to the volume of content, so we’re looking for an efficient way to apply them project-wide.

We look forward to your recommendations on best practices to implement these accessibility enhancements efficiently.

Jeff_Coatsworth

Community Expert

Did the image expansion feature work with the upgrade to RH2022 or did you have to add/modify something to make it work? If the latter, can you elaborate on what was done to help others find a solution in the future?

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

@Sirisha25579532oy1e It would be really helpful and useful if you would post back with whatever you find out. There's very little knowledge on this forum about accessibility issues.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

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Jeff_Coatsworth

Community Expert

Another fyi - RH2022 is the current version, so any changes that would have been made around accessibility would be in it, not RH2020.

S

Sirisha25579532oy1eAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks again. But we are currently using RH 2020 for our requirement. Cannot upgrade to 2022 immediately. Hence, we are in search of any workarounds.

Jeff_Coatsworth

Community Expert

Just an FYI - these forums are user-to-user; they aren't Adobe Support. If you need to contact them, see https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/enterprise-support.other.html#robohelp for your Adobe Support options. I'd recommend using the tcssup@adobe.com e-mail address as it reaches a team dedicated to Technical Communication Suite products including RoboHelp.

S

Sirisha25579532oy1eAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thank you. I have already emailed to the abovementioned email ID.

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