Connectors > Hotspot Image Connectors and accessibility

Hi Xerte Community,
Am I correct in thinking that a screenreader, eg JAWS will read the name I give the Hotspot when I use Connectors > Hotspot Image Connector?
I am developing a non-linear Xerte which will use a front menu with Hotspots (hotspots on an image with separate topic graphics), and I need to ensure that a screen reader will read out aloud the topic names, which I assume will come from the name I assign to each hotspot? I attach a draft example of an image used for a menu (not being used for the project, just using it to test it out).

Hi Anne
by coincidence we have just today been working on improvements to this which includes a bug fix that won't yet exist in your installation but for which there is a temporary workaround you could use.

Firstly to answer your question yes the screen reader software will read the 'Tooltip Hotspot' you give to each hotspot. The improvement we have been adding is an optional property for each hotspot where you can add longer 'All text' descriptions for each hotspot that will be used instead of the short label if added. That will be part of a future update/release.

The bug we found was with the tab order on the hotspot connector page whereby if a user tabbed to the hotspots the first hotspot in the tree wasn't being picked up. We have fixed this but you will need to use a workaround until the update can be applied to your installation. Simply add a tiny hotspot (perhaps bottom right corner) and keep that at the top of the tree. When a user tabs around that hotspot will not be picked up and when your install is updated in future you can just deleted that temporary hotspot.

I would also install NVDA www.nvaccess.org so that you can test this kind of thing yourself.

HTH
Ron

Can you say more about the bug fix? I'm trying to create a new interactive map which begins with pop-ups about various markers on the map. It insists on keeping the default top left hotspot and that always directs to the very last item on the hotspot list. I can't get rid of this.

I want to release 3.8.4 over the weekend, which will include a fix for this issue.

In the meantime, you can find the fix on github as well:

github.com/thexerteproject/xerteonlineto...torHotspotImage.html

But waiting for the 3.8.4 update will be a bit easier.

Hi Tom,
Great that this fix will be in the 3.8.4 update.

It's on our radar to get the latest release of Xerte, so it is good that we will have this fix included.

Anne

Has the 3.8.4 update been released? I would like to ask one our devops team to update our Xerte installation if so. Where should he go for the update?
I've been asked to create some Xerte alternatives for our previous e-Learning system but this hotspot fix is essential for the first one.