SVG with selectable text in storymap

Question

Is it possible to embed SVG images with selectable text in story maps? I'm interested in using more infographic style images in these products, but would like to use SVGs with selectable/copiable/searchable type enabled in the browser to increase accessibility. Is this possible in the new storymap builder?

KayceeFaunce · Accepted Answer

Hi Owen - thanks for your response. One feature of SVGs that is particularly useful is that the text in the SVG can be rendered in the browser so that it can be selected, searched, copied, and read by screen readers (just like the text in this paragraph I'm typing), rather than displaying as an image of the text which cannot be interacted with, which is an accessibility issue. In the example I provided in my post, the text that is selected (blue), is actually part of the image. Is it possible to enable interactive text paths in SVGs in story maps?

I have used SVGs in story maps in the past (made using Illustrator) and uploaded through the image block, but text interaction is not enabled (assuming it has to do with displaying through an img tag versus something else - like an object tag?). I'm trying to figure out if this just isn't possible in these products, or if there's a workaround. If it's not possible, perhaps this is something the development team could consider.

oevans_storymaps · Accepted Answer

@KayceeFaunce - We looked into this a bit. Unfortunately, it's not currently feasible for us to support this because stories deal with images in a different way than how you might add an SVG directly to a web page you're building via code.

It may work if you host the image on your own simple webpage and then embed that page in your story, but I haven't tested this and I'm not sure if that's a feasible.

We can consider this for the future, but we haven't heard any other requests for it, so it's not a priority at this time. It might be helpful for you to add this as an idea on the Ideas Board so others who might be interested in this feature can register their support.