Accessibility Settings for Individual Elements in Storyline

Last updated: 5/21/2025

In Storyline, the accessibility tool visibility — Storyline's phrasing for whether an element is available to assistive technologies or not — and the alt text of individual elements are controlled through the Accessibility tab in the Size and Position panel (which can be quickly opened in Storyline through the Ctrl + Shift + Enter keyboard shortcut).

There are a few characteristics of these settings worth knowing for accessible design:

  1. Elements can have different settings in different states
    • For example, an element could be visible to accessibility tools in one state and hidden from accessibility tools in another
    • An element could have certain alt text in one state and different alt text in another state — very helpful for conveying statuses like unselected, selected and visited through alt text
    • To change an element's state-specific accessibility settings, enter edit states mode, choose the state to edit and open the Size and Position panel
  2. Elements within another element's State can have their own accessibility settings; that is, if you place an element (child element) inside the state of another element (parent element):
    • If the child element is visible to accessibility tools, assistive technologies will be able to read it and engage with it (if it's interactive)
    • If the parent element is visible to accessibility tools, the child element may be read instead of the parent element, at the parent element's spot in the focus order
    • If the parent element is hidden from accessibility tools, the child element may still be read by assistive technologies
  3. Groups have their own accessibility settings, separate from and in addition to the accessibility settings of individual elements within the Groups
    • If a group is hidden from accessibility tools, its elements may still be visible to accessibility tools, depending on their individual settings

See also within the Checklist