Problems with Accessible Quiz Slides in Captivate 9

Report · Jan 26, 2017

From my understanding, The Multiple Choice and True/False quiz slides should be key board accessible; meaning rather than clicking the user should be able to press tab/enter to select answer choices.

I am unable to get this function to work either in the preview mode or after it is actually published.

In the preview mode,

The tab key does give me the ability to "select" the answer but I am not able to choose it as my answer by selecting ENTER. (So basically when I press tab, I get a box around the radio button, but after that I can choose the answer.

After it has been published as HTML 5

I cannot even select the answer with the tab key. Pressing the tab key only works on the play bar.

Please let me know how I can fix this and make it accessible to users who cannot use a mouse.

Thank You!

Report · Jan 26, 2017

Check your Preference settings under Project > Publish Settings to see if you have Hide Selection Rectangle for Slide Items in HTML5 selected. If so, try turning this OFF and test republish to see if you then get some kind of feedback.

You may also need to select the Restrict keyboard tabbing to slide items only (at the same location as above). This is supposed to prevent the playbar from being active for tabbing.

Using the playbar or TOC on a project that is meant to be accessible is usually asking for trouble. I've seen many developers say they avoid the playbar and TOC nowadays and use their own navigation objects (usually Smart Shape buttons) because these are easier to control.

Will your users be accessing this HTML5 content on a mobile device? If so, they won't likely have a keyboard either. The whole question of accessibility on mobile devices is one that I don't think gets enough airplay. It's very much a can of worms.

Report · Jan 27, 2017

Thanks Rod. This did not work. I did notice that after I turned off Hide Selection Rectangle for Slide Items, that it worked better (not great) with the screen reader. I do appreciate your time. I am beginning to think that for now I am just going to have to create a separate accessible powerpoint version.

Report · Jan 30, 2017

The accessibility for the Captivate based quiz slide is as follows:

1. Tab into the slide to read the title and question stem

2. Using your up and down arrow keys, access the radio button objects to preview the answers

3. after choosing you answer with the arrow keys, use the space bar to select the answer.

4. Once you have selected your answer, tab out of the answers to the submit button and select enter to complete your answer, the hit enter again to continue to the next slide.

Try the above to see if it works in your system. If it does, make sure the directions are accessible to your users - different standards could require it to be available once at the beginning of the test, or on each screen - check your policy on this one.

Report · Mar 07, 2018

I'm in Captivate 2017 and publishing to Adobe Connect, and these issues are wearing me out! While I'm not new to eLearning, I am new to accessibility (move from private sector to government is a move into a whole new world), and the learning curve so far has been fairly steep because the functionality doesn't seem to work as many published instructions describe.

That said, I'm testing with JAWS and in Internet Explorer on the direction of our ADA Manager, who is blind.

Here are some things I'm learning:

Tabbing doesn't seem to reliably move me anywhere within the content screen--it only grabs the browser components and player controls most of the time, now and then grabbing a button from my content.
On quiz questions, arrows will move me through the content, but I have to hit the down arrow more than once for each piece of content, and the reader says "blank" between each element. (i.e., "Multiple Choice. Blank. [READS QUESTION]. Blank. A Right parentheses. [READS ANSWER CHOICE B] Blank. Blank. B Right parentheses. [READS ANSWER CHOICE B]. Blank.") This suggests to me that there are images or boxes or something there that I can't see. Anybody else experience this?
I can select the answer choice but then can't submit. Tab will get me to the submit button, but I hit space...no response...enter...no response. I haven't figured out what keystroke was supposed to submit, and believe you me, I've tried all of them. (I may have even clicked some keys repeatedly like a jackhammer in my irritation more than once. )
Our ADA guy told me that visually impaired users are used to pressing "b" to detect buttons and move from button to button, so I'm wondering if I should add that as a shortcut to the submit button? I'm not sure if that would be confusing, as it would not be completely consistent with the rest of the module.
The other thing I'm wondering is what can be done, if anything, about the slide instructions overlapping the course voice over. Is there a way to handle that where the user can listen to one set of instructions at a time? Maybe folks who always use screen readers are used to that, but it makes me nuts!

Report · Mar 07, 2018

Blind users (in my experience) are the hardest ones to provide for and require a solution that is tailored for their specific needs. I personally feel it is better to offer an accessible text-based document containing the same information as the solution to fill the learning needs of blind users. This is allowed by the accessibility standards and is often much preferred by the end users.

A multimedia e-learning authoring tool like Captivate is not specifically designed for creating 100% accessible content. Accessibility is something of a retrofit 'feature'. If your client insists that you MUST use the same learning content for both normal users AND blind users then you are definitely in for a rough ride. Your best solution is to make a plain vanilla 'page-turner' course structure without using the Captivate playbar or TOC and forgetting about including lots of creative interactivity that might have made it more engaging.

Ironically, to accommodate the small number of disabled users (especially the blind ones), you may end up being unable to offer a solution that provides the best quality of learning for your normal users. That's why I now prefer accessible documents for blind users.

Report · Mar 08, 2018

I still have to try to get the slides working with keystrokes for all non-mouse users, which includes those with mobility issues.

Mary

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