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dtodd77
Known Participant
January 22, 2017
Question

Accessible text in Captivate 9?

  • January 22, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 3094 views

Is there a way to have the HTML5 Captivate published training course with the text accessible? I have students who are dyslexic and who use an app to have the text read to them as they read. Currently, the text is not selectable and so it can not be accessed by the reader app.

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1 reply

DrPooja
DrPooja
Participating Frequently
January 22, 2017

Hi,

You can add accessibility text for each slide and each object in Captivate. For adding accessibility title and description for a text caption, select the caption, go to the Properties Inspector and click the dropdown button next to the caption name, and select Accessibility. Uncheck Auto Label and add the accessibility name and description. 

Visit this help page for more details: https://helpx.adobe.com/captivate/using/creating-accessible-projects.html

Also, if you have access to Lynda.com, here's a step-by-step demo on Enabling Accessibiliy for Captivate projects: https://www.lynda.com/Captivate-tutorials/Enabling-accessibility/534416/571296-4.html?srchtrk=index%3a1%0alinktypeid%3a2%0aq%3apooja%0apage%3a1%0as%3arelevance%0asa%3atrue%0aproducttypeid%3a2

Hope this helps!

Pooja

Justenuf2bdangerous
Justenuf2bdangerous
Inspiring
January 23, 2017

Hi - I'm not sure what type of app your students are using, and it can make a difference in the end user experience based on the app. The process described above by Poojah is a solid approach, but can have some unintended consequences, specifically when dealing withtext captions.

 

For example, if the user is using a JAWS or NVDA screen reader to access text captions in a accessibility enabled Captivate project, it reads the text captions automatically (autofill in this case actually works to your advantage!) - inserting the text into the alt text boxes in the accessibility dropdown will cause the screen reader to read the text on screen, then repeat it again when it accesses the alt text you inserted. Bbecause both of these screen readers are format aware as well (they are used for reading text documents) - they will look for the title, subtitle and content in that order and allow the user to move quickly between the blocks, so use your text caption formats as needed.

M
mferguson192291
Inspiring
May 11, 2017

Hi Everyone,

I am having the same issues as the initial poster. I have entered content and run the NVDA screen reader over this with the published html5 version of mu course in scorm cloud. I cannot get the screen reader to include any of the content. Some of my other issues with trying to get accessibility to work include: tabbing not consistently working and the enter key not allowing me to select when I am on a button that should take me to the next slide. Has anyone else had any of these issues?

I have enable accessibility on, and am using buttons that have the enter key as the shortcut. I do not set the 'restrict keyboard tabbing to slide items only' as this severly limits the user to not being able to clode the course and come back to it at a later stage if they wish.


(1) Text captions issue. You cannot use tab navigation setup to get screen readers to focus on the text. Captivate's tab order is only set up for objects deemed interactive (i.e. buttons). You have two solutions. Screen readers come with built in shortcut keys that are not otherwise available to standard users. You can use the up and down arrow keys while using screen readers to navigate your Captivate course according to the "Z-Order" (your slide's timeline from bottom to top). The problem with this is that there is no keyboard focus field when using the up/down arrows to navigate. So it fails 508 compliance there. OR the better option is to do away with text captions altogether. Use ShareShapes. Put Text in the ShapeSmart as well as in the Accessibility box. Activate Use as Button option. Disable/Delete Down and Rollover states. Make sure "No Action" is selected upon the Action tab. And there you go, you have a functioning text box that can be included in the tab order. This only works in HTML5 because in SWF screenreaders identity your SmartShape pseudo-button Text Object as a button for some reason. But in HTML5, the screenreader only identifies your SmartShape textbox as "Clickable" which is technically true since by clicking the "use as button" feature makes it interactive.

(2) Tab Order. Again the Tab order only involves interactive elements such as buttons. It won't tab through everything on the Captivate screen so you need to use the Main Slide Accessibility box or use invisible SmartShape as Button TextBoxs to add alt text into the tab order.

(3) For some reason, for those using screen readers, in order to activate buttons you need to press SHIFT + ENTER. The Enter key by itself won't work, except on the default playbar it does work.

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