[Athen] Word 2016 and JAWS/NVDA Image ALT text

[Karlen Communications]

I've had this problem for more than a month. Since the first iteration of
JAWS 18. I am using the Office 365 desktop applications with fast insider
builds and the behaviour has not changed since the first iteration of JAWS
18.

 

It is similar to what I experience using JAWS with PDF documents since JAWS
17.JAWS tells me there are no images in the PDF document despite the fact
that there are and I've given them Alt Text. In the case of the PDF
documents, none of the JAWS graphics related keyboard commands can "find"
any graphics in my documents.

 

Cheers, Karen

 

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On
Behalf Of Pratik Patel
Sent: February 22, 2017 10:18 AM
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network'
<athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Word 2016 and JAWS/NVDA Image ALT text

 

Can I ask the following to those experiencing the issues?

1.	What exact version of JAWS are you running?
2.	What specific version of Word 2016 are you using?

This could be related to a potential change that the Office team has made
recently. A month or so ago, the Office team had discussed fixing the alt
and image issues in Word.

 

Pratik

 

 

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On
Behalf Of Karlen Communications
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2017 8:22 AM
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network'
<athen-list at u.washington.edu <mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu> >
Subject: Re: [Athen] Word 2016 and JAWS/NVDA Image ALT text

 

We have to continue to add the Alt Text for images. JAWS is not the only
adaptive technology being used by people. There are other screen readers and
Text-to-Speech tools that can access the Alt text. We have to focus on the
best practices/standards, and not a specific adaptive technology where a
tool/feature might be broken from one version to another. Also, as indicated
by someone, the reading of Alt text is working for them using the same
version of JAWS, so this may be a device problem or something else that is
going on.

 

Bottom line is that we make documents as accessible as they can be using the
tools in the document format/application and when something breaks from one
version to another, we let the adaptive technology developers know and lobby
for getting it fixed.

 

In this case, even though JAWS is not reading the Alt Text for the images in
a Word document, if I press Ctrl + Shift + letter O, I get a list of objects
and the images are listed by their Alt Text. It is just when I go through
the document in a logical manner that the problem surfaces.

 

Cheers, Karen

 

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On
Behalf Of Preast, Vanessa
Sent: February 22, 2017 8:05 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu
<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu> >
Subject: Re: [Athen] Word 2016 and JAWS/NVDA Image ALT text

 

If this is the case.. How does this change our recommendations/instructions
for alt text in Word?

 

I'm about to distribute some instructions to our institution on how to add
Alt text to Word document images. I want to make sure my instructions are
accurate and functional.

 

Should I tell them to add the description in 1) The title, 2) the
description box, or 3) both?  Until this point, it sounded like #2 is what
most accessibility experts are recommending.

 

Best,

Vanessa

 

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On
Behalf Of Karlen Communications
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2017 1:35 PM
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network'
<athen-list at u.washington.edu <mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu> >
Subject: Re: [Athen] Word 2016 and JAWS/NVDA Image ALT text

 

Yes, in my case JAWS 18 either says nothing or says "question" when it comes
across an image with Alt Text.so not in your imagination.it isn't
consistently reading the Alt text.

 

Cheers, Karen

 

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On
Behalf Of Joseph Sherman
Sent: February 21, 2017 1:02 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu
<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu> >
Subject: [Athen] Word 2016 and JAWS/NVDA Image ALT text

 

In Word 2016, using JAWS 18 standard settings, JAWS will not read the ALT
text that is in the Description box. If there is text in the description box
it simply reads "Blank". It will read text in the Title box if it exists.

 

NVDA on the other hand, will read text in the Description box, and only read
Title box if no Description exists.

 

Am I doing something wrong or is this a JAWS bug?

 

Joseph 

 

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