What are screen readers?

Screen readers are software programs that allow blind and low vision people to read the text that is displayed on the computer screen with a speech synthesizer or braille display. Screen readers can also be used by people with cognitive disabilities.

There are several different types of screen readers for both desktop and mobile. The most commonly used screen readers are NVDA, JAWS, TalkBack, and VoiceOver. It takes time to learn each screen reader and to train yourself on the commands - take your time, start with one, and build up your knowledge as you go.

Common issues identified during screen reader testing

  • Non-descriptive links. Links should make sense out of context. The link destination should be clear from the link text.
  • Images without alt text. An image should either be marked decorative if there's no context to provide to a screen reader user or it should have a description that provides what would be visually missed by a screen reader user. If the image is read as "image," it has neither been marked as decorative or assigned alt text.
  • Missing heading structure and landmarks. Screen reader users heavily on headings and landmarks to skip over content on a page.
  • Status information and error messages that are not communicated to a screen reader user. If a page is processing and that processing notification is not read to the screen reader user, it must be coded to do so. In addition, any error message that appears on the screen, whether a pop-up or an inline form error, should receive proper focus so that it is read by the screen reader.
  • Missing control labels or the use of placeholders instead of form labels. Sometimes, even though there is a visual label on the page, there is no form label set behind the scenes or in the case of radio buttons, the form label hasn't been grouped correctly.

Testing Resources for Desktop Screen Readers

NVDA

NVDA is an open source screen reader for Windows computers. It operates on both Firefox (main browser) and Chrome. 

JAWS

We have limited licenses to JAWS. You can request access to JAWS through the UITS Digital Experience team if you are a President's Office employee. If you are a campus employee, please contact your Campus Help Desk.

VoiceOver

The wonderful thing about Apple is they build assistive technology right into their devices, so there's no need to bolt on a tool. You can enable VoiceOver directly through Siri by saying, "Turn on VoiceOver," or you can go to your System Preferences and enable it under Accessibility Settings.