How to Fix Accessible Names in Storyline 360

Overview

Every button, link, and custom control needs a name a screen reader can announce, separate from how it looks. An icon-only button (a magnifying glass with no text) is meaningless without one. So is a button labeled "Click here" or "Learn more," a screen reader user tabbing through several of these in a row hears the exact same thing every time and has no way to tell them apart.

Step-by-step instructions

1. 1

   Right-click the button, link, or control.

2. 2

   Choose Size and Position.

3. 3

   Open the Accessibility tab.

4. 4

   Check the Accessible Name field. If it's blank, or just repeats generic text like "button," it needs a real name.

5. 5

   Write a name that describes what the control actually does, "Play the introduction video," not "Play."

6. 6

   For icon-only controls especially, make sure the name describes the action, not the icon, "Close this dialog," not "X icon."

7. 7

   Repeat for every custom or icon-only control on the slide.

Screenshots

Tips

• If you're tempted to write "Click here," ask "click here to do what?" and use that answer instead.
• Two different buttons should never share the same accessible name, if a learner can't tell them apart by ear, the names aren't specific enough.
• Storyline's built-in buttons often already have a reasonable name from their visible text, this mainly matters for icon-only controls and custom hotspots.

Common mistakes

• Icon-only buttons with no accessible name at all.
• Generic labels like "Click here" or "Learn more" repeated across multiple different controls.
• Assuming visible button text is automatically the accessible name, for custom objects it sometimes isn't, always check the Accessibility tab directly.

Why it matters

A screen reader announces a control by its name alone. If that name is missing, generic, or just an icon, the learner has no idea what it does.