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More new accessibility features in Esri Story Maps

By Owen Evans

Note: This blog covers the classic Esri Story Maps. Story authors are encouraged to use the new ArcGIS StoryMaps to create stories; however, Esri will continue to maintain the classic templates for your use. For more information, see the Product road map.


Over the last several months, the Story Maps Team has focused on improving the accessibility of stories created with Esri’s Story Map templates. The June 2018 update marks the release of additional work in this area.

Here’s a list of enhancements added in this update:

  • Story Map Series has improved keyboard navigation and the default theme for each layout meets WCAG 2.0 AA contrast guidelines
  • Story Map Cascade and Story Map Series provide authors the ability to add alternative text for media elements
  • Story Map Series, Story Map Tour, and Story Map Shortlist have improved screen reader support

Several existing blog articles have been updated to provide more information about these new features; see the links to related articles, below.

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