Screen Reader and Browser Considerations for Storyline

Last updated: 5/26/2025

Screen reader and assistive technology considerations

Storyline eCourses should be compatible with all screen readers and assistive technologies, but minor differences in behavior have been observed, some of which may be worth addressing through specific techniques and/or describing to users within the eCourse instructions, to help set expectations and avoid uncertainty.

JAWS

As described further in the Button being toggled section of the Implementing screen reader alerts in Storyline page, JAWS has been observed to automatically announce the wrong button state when users read linearly (with their arrow keys) to toggleable in-slide buttons and then press enter or space to toggle them. (Ideally, it would automatically announce the post-toggle button state, and instead, it has been observed to automatically re-announce the pre-toggle button state).

NVDA

Certain versions of NVDA have been observed to behave differently than JAWS when reading a Storyline eCourse in two primary regards:

  1. When a layer opens, NVDA may automatically announce an element other than the element that receives focus, before automatically announcing the element that receives focus; if this occurs, a "read current line" command will accurately convey which element has focus
  2. When closing a layer (including the manual play layer, if that manual play method is employed), screen reader focus may jump to an unexpected position further down in the slide’s reading/focus order; if this occurs, a "read current line" command will accurately convey which element has focus

If either of these behaviors are observed during testing and cannot be resolved via alternative programming, it's recommended they be described in the eCourse's instructions or accessibility-related coverage.

In the past, NVDA was also observed to struggle with focus placement when a layer opened if the first element in the layer was particularly text heavy, such as having more than 150 characters. In such cases, focus may land midway through the first element. This issue could be avoided by splitting the first element into separate elements, with the new first element having fewer than 150 characters. However, this issue has not been encountered or reported with newer versions of NVDA and Storyline.

Other assistive technologies and features

Certain assistive technology features, like high contrast modes, have been observed to only work with Storyline eCourses when Accessible text is toggled on. This may be true for other technologies and features that have not yet been rigorously tested with Storyline by the Checklist team. Thus, it's recommended that Accessible text be toggled on by default and covered in the eCourse instructions.

Browser considerations

Users of both the JAWS and NVDA screen readers have reported an inability to read Storyline eCourses when viewed through certain older versions of Firefox. While this behavior seems to be a rarity — and more often than not, screen reader users experience no difficulty when reading Storyline eCourses in Firefox — it may nonetheless be worth mentioning within eCourse instructions, just in case.

Screen reader users have not reported any difficulty reading Storyline eCourses with Chrome, Edge or other web browsers.

See also within the Checklist