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Tami Midzinski
Known Participant
January 14, 2016
Question

JAWS screen reader not reading captivate file caption text

  • January 14, 2016
  • 3 replies
  • 3262 views

Hi,

I have a file that when I publish the file (and I have ensured accessibility is correctly checked before publishing) then when I test the .htm file in Internet Explorer either JAWS will allow me to just tab through the browser top menu bar or allow me to view the browser bar and the captivate player (forward, play, stop, back) functions. It will not allow me to view my caption text that I setup to be accessible via the properties pane window in captivate 8.0 and also tried publishing from captivate 9.0

I have tried multiple ways and cannot seem to be able to use JAWS to preview my file and use the tab key or up/down arrows to navigate the slide fully. Anybody seen or had this same issue? How would you recommend I fix this issue. Today I ensured my flash player and captivate programs were all current versions so I am up to date on my software. I'm using windows 10 and IE 11, JAWS 16.0 or JAWS 17.0... Help me please nothing is working for me.

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3 replies

S
Sherry0570
Inspiring
November 1, 2017

Hi. If this is still an issue, try my solution. Force the text into the tab order by creating a smartshape button. Then remove all actions and button states from your new smartshape button. Disable the click sound. Put the text into that button and add the same text to the accessibility. To ensure correct tab order, place the thing you want to be read first on the bottom of the timeline with the next one above that and so on. This method passed the VA's gold standard of 508 compliance.

    M
    mferguson192291
    Inspiring
    August 2, 2017

    When you look at the Tab Order of any of your slides, you will notice that none of your text captions are included. That is because text captions are static elements in Captivate. Only buttons are tabbable elements and so when you tab with JAWS, you will be skipping any static elements on the page such as text captions and images. The solution is to stylize your text captions as smartshapes activated as buttons. Make a smartshape, stylize it to look however you want, insert your text, then copy and paste that same text in the Accessibility Box, then activate use as button option, turn off rollover/down states, disable click sound, and put No Action under the Action tab. Now when you tab through the slide with JAWS, JAWS will recognize the text caption and read whatever you put in the accessibility box. Do not publish SWF! HTML5 only! For images and other static content that you want JAWS to recognize, you should have an invisible smartshape button with the same conditions as before layered over the image or object with whatever accessibility text you want JAWS to read.

    I hope in future updates, Adobe will be able to allow more than just buttons to be included in the Tab Order so we don't have to take these extra steps to make Captivate course 508 compliant.

    RodWard
    RodWard
    Adobe Expert
    January 14, 2016

    Adobe has quite a bit of information on their website about Captivate and accessibility.

    Start here:

    Adobe Captivate 8 Voluntary Product Accessibility Template

    T
    Tami MidzinskiAuthor
    Known Participant
    January 14, 2016

    I have gone through the forum and conversations. Even spoke to chat support and someone via phone today again about this issue they could not help me. They didn't even know how to use JAWS so they didn't understand what I was meaning or asking on how to ensure my file was accessible or as to why JAWS in HTM view skips over the actual body content of the slide.

    Do you have any other suggestions? And thanks for offering a comment.

    RodWard
    RodWard
    Adobe Expert
    January 14, 2016

    In my latest e-book about Troubleshooting Adobe Captivate 8 and 9 I included a full chapter about Accessibility issues.  About a dozen pages of info. 

    Are you wasting too many hours troubleshooting annoying issues in Adobe Captivate? | Infosemantics Pty Ltd

    Sadly most of the issues surrounding JAWS remain unsolved at this point. 

    The best advice I can give you is NOT to attempt to make your Captivate SWF modules accessible.  You won't completely succeed.  There are too many things you simply cannot control.

    Try to get your client to agree to allow you to create an accessible document version of each course module and provide that as a "text-based alternative" for users that require fully accessible content.  This approach is completely allowed within the Section 508 guidelines and will be far more economical to do than spending huge amounts of project time and money on trying to do the impossible. 

    If your client insists that it must be the multimedia course component that is accessible, forget about using SWF, use HTML5 instead and reduce your course down to a simple page-turner.  That's the only way you can have any chance of success.

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