30 days of testing challenge

DAY# 10 -Test with screen reader and share one useful method

Benefits of testing web content with screen readers

Testing my web content for accessibility using a screen reader extremely valuable, especially for more complex or dynamic content.

Listening to your web content rather than looking at it can be an "eye-opening" experience that takes sighted users out of their normal comfort zone. It gives sighted users a chance to evaluate their content from an entirely different perspective: from the perspective of a blind person. A lot of times you'll end up finding mistakes that would have been hard to catch visually. For example, spelling mistakes become very obvious when you hear words mispronounced by the screen reader. Screen readers are also very good for checking the accuracy and quality of image alternative text. Screen readers can also help you identify problems with reading order, table markup, form elements, and many other aspects of accessibility.

Differences between the way sighted users and screen reader users access web content

screen readers accessing web content that is different from the way that sighted people use browsers. If you don't understand these differences, you won't understand what the accessibility challenges are for screen reader users, and you won't be able to design effectively for this audience.

screen readers exclusively or primarily use the keyboard for navigation. Many keyboard shortcuts are available, most of which the user has to memorize. Sighted users are accustomed to using a mouse for navigation. 

screen reader keyboard shortcuts

WebAIM has compiled a list of keyboard shortcuts for JAWS and keyboard shortcuts for NVDA. Other screen readers typically provide keyboard shortcut directions in their help files. Learning just a handful of keyboard shortcuts will allow you to conduct screen reader testing.

JAWS is currently the most popular screen reader, though VoiceOver, NVDA, and others are becoming much more popular due to their features and low cost.

NVDA#Focus and Browse modes

Since screen readers use many of the keys on the keyboard for quick navigation, filling in a form, or interacting with a widget presents a dilemma. For example, when pressing the "H" key, how does a screen reader know if you want to navigate to the next heading or enter the letter into a textbox?

NVDA takes care of this by switching between two "modes." "Browse mode" is the default mode for reading and navigating the page—the mode where the "H" key takes you to the next heading. "Focus mode" passes almost all keystrokes on to the browser—the mode where the "H" key puts the letter H in a text box.

NVDA will toggle between these modes automatically (assuming you are using the Tab key to navigate) based on the type of thing that has keyboard focus. A high-pitched beep announces the change to focus mode. This occurs when you navigate to textboxes or other inputs or widgets that require keyboard interactions. A lower-pitched beep indicates a change back to browse mode.

TIP

Press NVDA + Space to toggle between browse and focus modes manually, though this should not be necessary for widgets that are properly coded.