Screenreader Helper

Instructors and students can use the Screenreader Helper feature on their courses to ensure that content on Avenue resources can be read comprehensibly. The Screenreader helper appears in the description section of all resources and activities as well as in the following tools:

• Book
• Glossary
• Lesson
• Quiz questions
• Questionnaire questions 
• Realtime questions 
• Word Card (Feedback)
• Forum posts (advanced)
• Label
• Pages
• Wiki pages
• Workshop

1. On an Avenue course, click on the Turn editing on button.

2. Locate a resource or activity on a course.

3. Click on the Edit link beside the resource or activity.

4. Click on the Edit settings link in the drop-down menu.

5. In either the Description or Page content editors, click on the Show more buttons icon. 

Note: More icons appear in the editing widow.

6. Click on the Screenreader helper icon. 

Note: The Screenreader helper pop-up appears. 

The Screenreader helper reports in a pop-up window. There are three sections to be aware of:

• Styles
• Links
• Images

Note: Potential issues reported in the Screenreader helper sections are listed below.

The Styles section displays styles that are used within a selection. The purpose is to make you aware of how the selection is coded.

There are many HTML style tags, a few are:

P, separate paragraphs

Strong, bold text

EM, emphasis or italics

DIV, a separate section

OL, ordered list or a numbered bulleted list

If there are no style tags in the selected area, the No styles notification displays.

The Links in Editor section reports what a screen reader will read for all of the links within a selection.

1. A text link with no real guidance on where the link is going
2. A full URL displayed
3. A link with the text description of the destination

   
   

The Images section reports what the screen reader will state when encountering images in this file. Note in the following screenshot, the first two images are a simple web address so the end user will not know what the image represents as they were marked as decorative only. Screen readers will skip over this image. The following three images were described and not marked as decoration, so the end user will be able to know what the image is.

Below is image #2, it was marked as This image is decorative only. 

The Screenreader helper can be used to see if an Avenue resource or activity description or content will be read properly by a screen reader.