When reading feedback from screen reader users, or having meetings with screen reader users, here are some terms you might encounter, and what they mean: On a Mac, all screen reader commands require the user to hold down a special key combination (usually command + option), leaving all other keystrokes free for the OS and web browser. If a Windows user wants to pass keystrokes on to the browser, they must indicate this by placing the screen reader into a specific mode. Only if the keystroke is not a screen reader command, will it be passed on to a website. By default, Windows screen readers will intercept every keystroke a user makes, and attempt to interpret it as a command. Mac and Windows screen readers are also slightly different. For example, swiping left or right with a single finger, always moves to the next or previous element on the screen.

On mobile, screen readers define special touchscreen gestures instead of keyboard commands. On desktop, a screen reader user may navigate by using the tab key, arrows, or other shortcut keys on the keyboard. Mobile screen readers are quite different from desktop screen readers. Things that change from platform to platform If you have not provided this semantic information, screen reader users will become confused. For example, all screen readers allow users to skip directly to the next and previous heading or the next and previous link/button. They provide shortcut keys to make navigating easier: Shortcuts help users to quickly navigate using the semantic structure of a website.Making sure focus is managed correctly, and tab order is set up properly, helps give the screen reader a linear pathway to navigate your website. While a sighted person can glance at a screen and understand content as a whole, someone listening to a screen reader cannot. They read content in a linear fashion: Screen readers generally read out the contents of the screen using text to speech.For this reason, alt-text on images, and labels on icons, are crucial. They depend on text: As pieces of software, screen readers generally cannot make sense of graphical content.The best way to emulate use is to do the same.While the exact operation differs from screen reader to screen reader, and platform to platform, all screen readers have the following things in common: The content read aloud is displayed in a dark grey box.ĭesktop/laptop screen reader users navigate websites with a keyboard or other non-pointing device. VoiceOver both reads aloud and displays content.

You can also toggle VoiceOver on and off with fn+command + F5. To access VoiceOver, go to System Preferences > Accessibility > VoiceOver. MacOS comes with VoiceOver, a built-in screen reader.

Accessibility screen reader definition