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Testing with Screen Readers

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Why testing with screen readers is important #

People with a visual impairment or cognitive impairments, such as dyslexia, rely on screen readers to read aloud webpage content and assist them in navigating through different pages, screens, sections, and interactive elements like form fields and controls.

Using a screen reader to test a website or app is one of many approaches to help us gain a different perspective on how others consume information and interact with it. It can help us to identify issues early on and address them as soon as possible.

Choosing a screen readers to test with #

Many screen readers are freely available, and are built-in to most operating systems for macOS, Android, iOS, iPadOS and Windows.

Screen readers for Mac #

VoiceOver is on all macOS computers as well as devices running iOS ot iPadOS.

Follow the guidance relevant to your system on apple.com for how to enable it:

Sometimes new users of screen readers can find the voice output overwhelming to begin with if they're not dependent on it. You can use the VoiceOver Utility within System settings to change the voice, speech rate and even mute it temporarily if you need to.

Screen readers for Windows #

Narrator is a screen reader included with every copy of Microsoft Windows.

Guidance is slightly different on how to use depending whether you use Windows 10 or 11:

Another screen readers that's freely available for Windows 8.1 and above is NVDA. You can download NVDA (external link) direct from the vendor's website, NV Access.

Whilst not free, JAWS (external link) is one of the most commonly used screen readers and include a time-limited trial per use for non-commercial users. There are different licenses available depending on your reason for it, and location.

Screen readers for Android and iOS #

Both of the main operating systems for mobile and tablet devices include a screen reader.

What should I be testing for? #

Use a screen reader to check that all content is accessible by giving particular attention to a website's structure, images, buttons and form controls.

Learn the keyboard shortcuts and touchscreen gestures #

Screen readers include a predefined list of keyboard shortcuts and gestures, some of which can also be customised to user preference.

Deque University provides a list of shortcuts and gestures for all the most popular screen readers and how to setup keyboard navigation where required for some web browsers.