Accessibility Issues (tab order, alt text)

Hey discolisa , 

You’re not doing anything wrong — this is actually a common point of confusion with Power BI accessibility.

The Tab Order pane only controls keyboard navigation order (when you press Tab). Screen readers like Windows Narrator don’t strictly follow that tab order when reading the page. Instead, they often follow the underlying structure (DOM) that Power BI Service generates when the report is rendered. Unfortunately, that reading order isn’t something we can fully control, which is why it can seem random even though your tab order is set correctly in Desktop.

A couple of other important points:

Edge “Read Aloud” isn’t a true screen reader. It reads visible page text, not the accessibility metadata behind Power BI visuals. So it won’t reliably read alt text.

Alt text is only read when the visual receives keyboard focus. If the screen reader isn’t navigating via Tab (or is in the wrong mode), it may ignore the alt text.

If decorative shapes or lines are still visible on the canvas (even if removed from tab order), screen readers may still detect them. If they’re purely decorative, either:

Hide them completely using the Selection pane, or

Give them blank alt text ("") so they’re ignored.

Also make sure you’re testing in Power BI Service (not just Desktop), using keyboard navigation with Narrator in scan mode. That will give you the most accurate result.

Unfortunately, full control over reading order isn’t currently possible in Power BI Service, so some inconsistencies are a known limitation rather than a setup issue on your side.

If you’re using any custom visuals, those can also behave differently from standard Microsoft visuals.

If it solved your issue, feel free to mark it as the solution so others can benefit too.

Thanks for being part of the community.