Captivate 9 smart shapes and 508 compliance

[noble78006]

I am reading in some forums that Captivate smart shapes are not 508 compliant and produce a ghost shape or button for 508. Is that true with Captivate 9? If this is true, is there a work around?

J Noble

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

It's been my experience that Adobe Captivate 9 projects that end up not being 508 compliant is because of user error.

Follow the directions on these two pages and I'm sure you will not have any problems:

https://helpx.adobe.com/captivate/using/creating-accessible-projects.html

http://www.adobe.com/in/accessibility/products/captivate/best-practices.html

[Lilybiri]

Sorry Paul, but there are/were indeed compliance issues with smart shapes, I would not say so bluntly that it is due to user error.

Since I'm not in the USA, 508 compliance is not very relevant to me, will not answer that type of questions but felt compelled to mention what I did read on the forum many times. Although Captivate is doing quite well, it is not perfect for 508 compliance.

[Justenuf2bdangerous]

Have to agree with Lieve here - the pages linked are simple overviews of some, not all, elements of 508 compliance.

Smart shapes placed on a master slide may or may not be tabbable (depends on the browser, the settings, the OS, the screen reader, etc), but cannot be selected using the enter key under any combination I have tried. Shortcut key combinations are not workarounds when a screen reader is in use, unless you're planning on finding combinations that are not already in use by the browser or the screen reader (there are hundreds of combinations listed in the JAWS documentation alone that will be hijacked by the screen reader rather than trigger an interaction).

Smart shapes placed on a page must have any text included inserted in the alt text area of the accessibility box, or the screen reader won't see it. These smart shapes are normally tabbable, but again, I have not yet gotten them to work using the "tab/enter" default combination for accessibility.

Maybe newer version of some screen readers in combination with Captivate 9 overcome the issues (I've only tested with JAWS 14 and NVDA 2016), but I am not aware of that progress at this point. As good as Captivate is, it has inherent limitations when it comes to accessibility that needs to be addressed when designing for 508 standards.

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

Okay so maybe user error is too strong a phrase but it does come down to users knowing how to design an Adobe Captivate course so it passes 508 compliance testing. There are certain things you must do and there are certain things that you cannot do. Justenuf2bdangerous gives some great examples of this. Using the links provided is a good first step if you are required to design with 508 in mind.

[Justenuf2bdangerous]

Here's your work-around if you want the look and feel of smart shapes in a button:

1. Create the smart shape and make it accessible (but NOT as a button). You can create separate accessibility text for each state if you want the shape to change the look and content when the button is selected. If all you want to do is change the color of the "button" when it is selected, make sure you uncheck the auto-fill box in the accessibility pop-up so the screen reader ignores the shape altogether.

2. Create a transparent text button that fits over your smart shape. Create your action here - add the command to change the smart shape state to your advanced action if you want it to appear as if the button is actually the smart shape (make sure you take care of your button states appearance as well) Add alt-text to the button that explains what the user can do if the object is selected.

3. You can group the two objects together to avoid misplacing them (also cleans up the timeline a bit).

Your screen reader will now read the button command, then read what is underneath the button. When you select the button, the reader will read the new alt text associated with the new state of the smart shape.

Hope that helps - going to post a blog about smart shapes and 508 soon.

[NHCC-Online]

Is there any reason or advantage to using SmartShape over a Button if we want users to select something on the screen and based on their selection action occurs? JAWS detects Buttons and enables to interact without additional workarounds that would be required if a content creator uses SmartShapes.

[Justenuf2bdangerous]

Lieve Weymeis' blog is the best, most comprehensive discussion of the use of smart shapes as buttons I've ever run across. You are absolutely right about JAWS - the simplest way forward is to simply use the button types that JAWS is currently identifying and can be accessed using standard keyboard commands.

If I could make smart shapes accessible, I would not use any other method to trigger interactions, because the flexibility they provide in look, size, and state settings is exceptional. I've asked to have this addressed multiple times, but it must be a heavier coding lift than Adobe is willing to take on right now.

[Sammykins777]

Hello,

I saw this on elearning guild. It was demoing making a captivate module accessible.

Was wondering what your thoughts were. I was looking for tips and tricks like these. This example does mention smart shapes and I'm wondering if the accessibility issues may have been addressed in the new versions of Captivate. We are still using Captivate 9.

Thanks.

[Lilybiri]

Thanks for pointing to my blog. I may be the first fan of shape buttons because:

• They are much more flexible than the old style buttons (styling)
• They can be used on master slides
• They can be used on quiz/score slides
• They can be timed for the rest of the project.

I will never use an old button, except when the not yet changed design of Captivate requires it: for the embedded buttons on quiz/score slides.

[Justenuf2bdangerous]

I agree wholeheartedly with everything you said, Lieve - smart shape buttons are great. They just don't work in an environment that requires WCAG 2.0 or Section 508 compliance.

[sdwarwick]

watch out,  some standards for 508 assume the ability to copy/paste any text on the page.   in this specific case,  none of the captivate output can be compliant.   this is a different requirement than screen reader access to alt-text.  it is also a deep consequence of how captivate renders all objects and is not really talked about anywhere.