• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

bVisual

  • Home
  • Services
    • How Visio smartness can help your business
    • Visio visual in Power BI
    • Visio Consulting Services
    • Visio Bureau Services
    • Visio Training and Support Services
  • Products
    • Visio Shape Report Converter
    • SS Plus
    • LayerManager
    • visViewer
    • Metro Icons
    • Rules Tools for Visio
    • The Visio 2010 Sessions App
    • Multi-Language Text for Visio
    • Document Imager for Visio
    • multiSelect for Visio
    • pdSelect for Visio
  • Case Studies
    • Case studies overview
    • Visualizing Construction Project Schedules
    • Visio Online Business Process Mapping
    • Nexans Visio Template
    • CNEE Projects, WorldCom
    • Chase Manhattan Bank
  • News
    • Recent news
    • News archive
  • Resources
    • Articles➡
      • ShapeSheet Functions A-Z
      • Comparing Visio for the Web and Desktop
      • Customising Visio Shapes for the Web App
      • Key differences between the Visio desktop and web apps
      • Using the Visio Data Visualizer in Excel
      • Using Visio in Teams
      • Creating Visio Tabs and Apps for Teams with SharePoint Framework (SPFx)
      • Designing Power Automate Flows with Microsoft Visio
      • Innovative uses of Visio Lists
    • Webcasts ➡
      • Visio in Organizations
      • My session and other Visio sessions at MSIgnite 2019
      • Power up your Visio diagrams
      • Vision up your Visio diagrams
      • The Visio 2010 MVP Sessions
    • Visio Web Learning Resources
    • Books➡
      • Mastering Data Visualization with Microsoft Visio
      • Microsoft Visio Business Process Diagramming and Validation
      • Visualizing Information with Microsoft Visio
  • Blog
    • Browse blog articles
    • Visio Power BI articles
    • Visio for Web articles
    • A history of messaging and encryption
  • About us
    • About bVisual
    • Testimonials
    • Bio of David Parker
    • Contact Us
    • Website Privacy Policy
    • Website terms and conditions
    • Ariba Network
You are here: Home / Visio / Narrated Text in Visio for Accessibility

Published on July 5, 2019 by David Parker

Narrated Text in Visio for Accessibility

One of the ways that Visio supports accessibility is to provide text that is read out by a screen reader, such as Windows Narrator or JAWS. This Alt Text can be set using Format Shape / Size & Properties tab using the Title and Description text boxes. The Title is the initial text that is read out when a shape is attentioned, and the Description will only read out if the user pauses. The Description text box only allows 255 characters to be entered and displayed, but this is not actually the limit!

VisioAltText

The Alt Text / Description text box only displays 255 characters and it will not allow more than 255 characters to be typed in.
However, it can hold much, much more than that, but these need to be pushed into the User.visAltDescription cell with code or by a ShapeSheet formula.
In this example, I am using the ScreenTip dialog to enter more than 255 characters, which is then stored in the Comment cell. Normally, I would enter a formula such as the following in to User.visAltDescription to pull the value in:

=GUARD(Comment)
VisioAltText2

However, this does not look good for this particular cell because the Alt Text panel displays the formula rather than the actual text. This is confusing to the Visio user, but the screen reader still narrates the correct words.
 

Therefore, I prefer to push the text into the User.visAltDescription cell with a formula like the following in another User-defined Cell:

=SETF(GETREF(User.visAltDescription),Comment)
VisioAltText1

Note that only the first 255 characters are displayed in the Description panel, but it looks better than seeing just the formula.

The screen reader still gets all of the text, and not just the first 255 characters.
Accessibility support for Visio
NB At the time of writing this article, Windows Narrator fails to read out the Alt Text / Description in Visio Online, but JAWS does. I am assured that Microsoft will fix this….

Related

Filed Under: Accessibility, Shape Data, ShapeSheet Formulas, Visio, Visio Online Tagged With: Accessibility, ShapeSheet

About David Parker

David Parker has 25 years' experience of providing data visualization solutions to companies around the globe. He is a Microsoft MVP and Visio expert.

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. Multiline text in Visio Shape Data | bVisual - for people interested in Microsoft Visio says:
    August 8, 2019 at 10:38 am

    […] Narrated Text in Visio for Accessibility […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Recent Posts

  • Update to LayerManager add-in for non-English users
  • Pushing Data Visualizer in Visio beyond its limits
  • Pushing Data Visualizer in Visio to the limits!
  • Teams Tuesday Podcast Recording about Visio
  • Linking Data to Visio Shapes in Code

Categories

Tags

Accessibility Add-Ins Connectors Containers Data Export Data Graphics Data Import Data Visualizer Educational Excel GraphDatabase Hyperlinks Icon Sets JavaScript Layers Legend Link Data to Shapes Lists MSIgnite MVP Office365 Org Chart PowerApps PowerBI PowerQuery Processes Shape Data Shape Design ShapeSheet ShapeSheet Functions SharePoint 2013 SQL Teams Themes Validation VBA Video Visio Visio 2007 Visio 2013 Visio for the Web Visio Online Visio Services Visio Viewer Webinar

Footer

bVisual Profile

The UK-based independent Visio consultancy with a worldwide reach. We have over 25 years experience of providing data visualization solutions to companies around the globe.

Learn more about bVisual

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Search this website

Recent posts

  • Update to LayerManager add-in for non-English users
  • Pushing Data Visualizer in Visio beyond its limits
  • Pushing Data Visualizer in Visio to the limits!
  • Teams Tuesday Podcast Recording about Visio
  • Linking Data to Visio Shapes in Code

Copyright © 2023 · Executive Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in