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Re: Incorrect reading behaviour by JAWS and NVDA for the same PPT slide.

for

From: nick
Date: Mar 13, 2023 2:51AM

The two panels are linked - if you move an item in one pane it moves it correspondingly in the other. The Selection pane controls the visual layering of content on a slide. Content at the bottom of this pane appears on the bottom layer of the slide - this is the same layering when you use the commands 'Send to Back', 'Bring Forwards', etc, in the Shape Format > Arrange menu. Anything on a higher layer will overlap it visually and be read by screen readers after. If you develop a slide where laying of content is important, i.e. you want some items to appear on top of other items for a certain visual effect, this link can sometimes cause problems.

In terms of Reader View, one thing I noted is you get a different experience depending on your screen reader. In Normal View, both JAWS and NVDA (and probably others) ignore content that's pulled through from slide masters, but in Reader View JAWS does read slide master content whereas NVDA does not. So not only does this mean that some users will either miss out on potentially important content or hear unimportant content (like repeated footer copyright information), but the reading order may also be affected by the presence of slide master content. For users who are viewing a third-party presentation (i.e. not editing their own) I don't know how common Reader View is compared with Normal View (would be good to hear about any data on this), but it's something to consider when thinking about slide design and the structure of your content.


Nick