WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: SmartArt and Alt Text

for

From: nick
Date: Feb 3, 2023 2:22AM

I'm working on some PowerPoint accessibility for a client and finding that
screen reader behaviour with Smart Art and grouped shapes in general is
quite poor. I'm using PowerPoint 365 on Windows 10.



When navigating to a piece of SmartArt with NVDA 2022 it just announces
'shape' and does not mention any text within the SmartArt. Pressing Enter
starts navigation within the SmartArt, then the Tab key to move from element
to element, but again there is no announcement of any text. I've not done
exhaustive testing, but there's no reason to believe the behaviour will be
much different with different types.


JAWS 2023 announces the text of SmartArt (in its entirety). Again, pressing
Enter enters navigation and as you move from block to block with Tab, JAWS
announces the text, along with heading/list level info, and sometimes
numerous instances of 'blank'. The reading order is often incorrect and
there's no way to change it because the Reading Order pane treats it as a
single object.



There is no semantic information about the structure of the SmartArt (not
that I would really expect this), so users have no idea what how each piece
relates to each other (e.g. whether there's a hierarchical relationship,
whether it's a linear process, etc). You could add alt text, as this is read
out before the text contained within the SmartArt, and this may or may not
clarify - it all depends on the specific diagram and its complexity.


I don't like using SmartArt in general as it doesn't allow me the level of
fine tuning I need in layout. I would generally create individual shapes to
build up a diagram, but that itself has issues. For instance. If you group a
bunch of shapes and provide suitable alt text for this group, both JAWS and
NVDA then navigate through the individual elements within that group and
announce what they are, even if they are individually marked as decorative.
It's potentially very confusing for the user. A quick workaround for a
multi-component shape is to create and group the elements, then use
PowerPoint's in-built 'Save as picture' functionality to create a png (you
can do the same thing with SmartArt too). Then insert the png, add alt text,
and delete the original version. You could of course create the image in a
proper illustration package as you'll have more control over image quality,
but this is a quick way round if you don't have access/time for that.





Nick

- - -

Nick Bromley

Director & Accessibility Consultant

Red Kite Digital Accessibility Ltd