How Do Screen Readers Work?

How Do Screen Readers Work? Screen readers convert text that is displayed on a computer into a usable format for those who cannot read it.Text-to-Speech, where the words are read directly to the user, or. Braille Display, where the user can read the output through a tactile pad that translates the words into Braille.

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How do screen readers read websites?

Screen readers read letters out loud as you type them, but say “star” or “asterisk” for password fields. Screen readers announce the page title (the element in the HTML markup) when first loading a web page. Screen readers will <strong>read the alternative text of images</strong>, if alt text is present.</p> <h2><span id="What_does_a_screen_reader_see">What does a screen reader see?</span></h2> <p>Typically, a screen reader will start at the top of a <strong>website or document and read any text (including alternate text for images)</strong>. Some screen readers allow the user to preview information, like the navigation bar or all the headings on a page, and skip the user to the desired section of the page.</p> <h2><span id="Do_screen_readers_read_top_to_bottom">Do screen readers read top to bottom?</span></h2> <p>Screen readers makes sense of information in a linear way. They <strong>read tables from top to bottom, left to right</strong>. Some screen readers will repeat the row and column headers as users navigate the table.</p> <h2><span id="How_do_screen_readers_read_numbers">How do screen readers read numbers?</span></h2> <p>A US phone number is normally written as “(703) 555-1212”. A screen reader will read this number as “<strong>seven hundred three (pause) five hundred fifty-five minus one thousand two hundred twelve</strong>.” The digits are read as large numbers. The reader treats the exchange and number as a math equation.</p> <h2><span id="Do_screen_readers_read_capital_letters">Do screen readers read capital letters?</span></h2> <p><strong>Screen readers may interpret capital letters as acronyms, and read them out letter-by-letter</strong>. Some developers brush this off as par for the course of using a screen reader. They say that it’s a minor annoyance people who use screen readers are used to, just as we’re used to our GPS mispronouncing street names.</p> <h2><span id="Do_screen_readers_read_hover_text">Do screen readers read hover text?</span></h2> <p>Some tooltips appear automatically on <strong>hovering</strong> and/or focusing the described element. Their contents are announced immediately by screen readers; as such, screen reader users usually do not even have to know about the existence of such a tooltip.</p> <h2><span id="Can_Screen_readers_read_symbols">Can Screen readers read symbols?</span></h2> <p><strong>You Can’t Count on</strong> Screen Readers to Read Most Punctuation or Typographic Symbols.The NVDA screen reader, for instance, doesn’t read hardly any typographical symbols at all in its default configuration, making common symbols like asterisks and plus symbols essentially useless to NVDA users.</p> <h2><span id="How_fast_do_screen_readers_read">How fast do screen readers read?</span></h2> <p>The normal rate of natural speech ranges between 4-8 syllables per second. Frequent screen reader users speed this up a lot, some even <strong>up to 22 syllables per second</strong>!</p> <h2><span id="What_is_the_most_popular_screen_reader">What is the most popular screen reader?</span></h2> <p><strong>JAWS</strong><br /><strong>NVDA</strong> is now the most commonly used screen reader among survey respondents.<br />Screen Readers Commonly Used.</p> <table> <tr> <th>Screen Reader</th> <th>% of Respondents</th> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>NVDA</strong></td> <td>72.4%</td> </tr> <tr> <td>JAWS</td> <td>61.7%</td> </tr> <tr> <td>VoiceOver</td> <td>47.1%</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Narrator</td> <td>30.3%</td> </tr> </table> <h2><span id="How_does_a_screen_reader_read_a_button">How does a screen reader read a button?</span></h2> <p>When the button role is used, screen readers announce the element as a button, <strong>generally saying “click” followed by the button’s accessible name</strong>. The accessible name is either the content of the element or the value of an aria-label or element referenced by an aria-labelledby attribute, or description, if included.</p> <h2><span id="How_do_you_set_up_a_screen_reader">How do you set up a screen reader?</span></h2> <p><strong>For this setting to work, you need to have a screen reader, like NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver, or ChromeVox.</strong></p> <ol> <li>On your Android phone or tablet, open your device’s Settings app Google.</li> <li>At the top, tap Personal info.</li> <li>Under “General preferences for the web,” tap Accessibility.</li> <li>Turn Screen reader on or off.</li> </ol> <h2><span id="How_do_you_code_a_screen_reader">How do you code a screen reader?</span></h2> <p><strong>Writing HTML Code for Screen Readers: 6 Best Practices</strong></p> <ol> <li>Provide Alternate Text for Every Image on Your Website.</li> <li>Writing HTML Code for Screen Readers: Use ARIA Attributes.</li> <li>Declare A Page’s Language in HTML.</li> <li>Keep Your Links Short, but Not Too Short.</li> <li>Use Semantic Tags: Make Your Content Readable and Understandable.</li> </ol> <h2><span id="Can_jaws_read_punctuation">Can jaws read punctuation?</span></h2> <p>Punctuation may sometimes need to be set to something different than the default, which is “most” punctuation. For example, <strong>JAWS does not read question marks</strong>, exclamation marks, periods, commas, or question marks at the level of “most” punctuation.</p> <h2><span id="Can_screen_readers_read_Unicode_symbols">Can screen readers read Unicode symbols?</span></h2> <p>These characters are all legal, and part of the Unicode standard.Those special characters can break accessibility. This includes being able to be read by screen readers and other speech tools.</p> <h2><span id="Can_screen_readers_read_Emojis">Can screen readers read Emojis?</span></h2> <p>But let’s keep it clear by using one emoji in a text or only use them when necessary. Remember that <strong>emojis have alt text descriptions embedded in them</strong> and they will be read out by screen readers.</p> <h2><span id="Is_it_easier_for_dyslexics_to_read_all_caps">Is it easier for dyslexics to read all caps?</span></h2> <p>Readable fonts<br /> Some dyslexic readers may request a larger font.<strong>Avoid</strong> text in uppercase/capital letters and small caps, which can be less familiar to the reader and harder to read.</p> <h2><span id="IS_ALL_CAPS_bad_for_accessibility">IS ALL CAPS bad for accessibility?</span></h2> <p><strong>Avoid using all caps</strong>.<br /> Readability is reduced with all caps because all words have a uniform rectangular shape, meaning readers can’t identify words by their shape.</p> <h2><span id="Is_it_easier_to_read_capitals_or_lowercase">Is it easier to read capitals or lowercase?</span></h2> <p><strong>Lowercase letters</strong> have a more distinctive shape than capital letters, therefore they can be perceived more quickly than uppercase letters. Because readers are frequently exposed to a word, they no longer have to “read” the word, but instantly recognize the meaning by the familiar shape of the group of letters.</p> <h2><span id="Should_Tooltips_be_focusable">Should Tooltips be focusable?</span></h2> <p>A tooltip provides <strong>extra information</strong> about a form field, a link, a button, or other focusable element. It must be triggered by both focus and hover events and remains on the screen as long as the trigger has the focus. The focus does not move to the tooltip.</p> <h2><span id="Are_popovers_accessible">Are popovers accessible?</span></h2> <p>Popover widgets allow for more content than would be appropriate for a tooltip and for the inclusion of interactive elements, such as links (tooltips are not focusable).Modal dialog widgets should be used when the pop-up information must be acknowledged by the user.</p> </div> <footer class="entry-meta"> This entry was posted in <a href="https://djst.org/category/office/" rel="category tag">Office</a> on <a href="https://djst.org/office/how-do-screen-readers-work/" title="8:07 am" rel="bookmark"><time class="entry-date" datetime="2021-12-28T08:07:24+00:00">December 28, 2021</time></a><span class="by-author"> by <span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n" href="https://djst.org/author/david-tenser/" title="View all posts by David Tenser" rel="author">David Tenser</a></span></span>. </footer> </article> </div> </div> <div id="secondary" class="widget-area" role="complementary"> <aside id="block-2" class="widget widget_block widget_search"><form role="search" method="get" action="https://djst.org/" class="wp-block-search__button-outside wp-block-search__text-button wp-block-search" ><label class="wp-block-search__label" for="wp-block-search__input-1" >Search</label><div class="wp-block-search__inside-wrapper " ><input class="wp-block-search__input" id="wp-block-search__input-1" placeholder="" value="" type="search" name="s" required /><button aria-label="Search" class="wp-block-search__button wp-element-button" type="submit" >Search</button></div></form></aside><aside id="same-category-posts-2" class="widget same-category-posts"><h3 class="widget-title">Featured Questions</h3><ul> <li class="same-category-post-item "><a class="post-title" href="https://djst.org/office/why-are-pivot-tables-useful/" rel="bookmark" title="Why Are Pivot Tables Useful?">Why Are Pivot Tables Useful?</a></li><li class="same-category-post-item "><a class="post-title" href="https://djst.org/office/how-to-make-a-slideshow-with-voiceover/" rel="bookmark" title="How To Make A Slideshow With Voiceover?">How To Make A Slideshow With Voiceover?</a></li><li class="same-category-post-item "><a class="post-title" href="https://djst.org/office/how-to-thank-on-facebook-for-comments/" rel="bookmark" title="How To Thank On Facebook For Comments?">How To Thank On Facebook For Comments?</a></li><li class="same-category-post-item "><a class="post-title" href="https://djst.org/office/what-does-via-text-message-mean/" rel="bookmark" title="What Does Via Text Message Mean?">What Does Via Text Message Mean?</a></li><li class="same-category-post-item "><a class="post-title" href="https://djst.org/office/how-to-get-autocorrect-on-google-docs/" rel="bookmark" title="How To Get Autocorrect On Google Docs?">How To Get Autocorrect On Google Docs?</a></li><li class="same-category-post-item "><a class="post-title" href="https://djst.org/office/does-office-365-have-outlook/" rel="bookmark" title="Does Office 365 Have Outlook?">Does Office 365 Have Outlook?</a></li><li class="same-category-post-item "><a class="post-title" href="https://djst.org/office/what-is-the-1-in-a-phone-number/" rel="bookmark" title="What Is The 1 In A Phone Number?">What Is The 1 In A Phone Number?</a></li><li class="same-category-post-item "><a class="post-title" href="https://djst.org/office/what-time-is-it-pmt/" rel="bookmark" title="What Time Is It Pmt?">What Time Is It Pmt?</a></li><li class="same-category-post-item "><a class="post-title" href="https://djst.org/office/how-to-get-rid-of-maybe-in-contacts/" rel="bookmark" title="How To Get Rid Of Maybe In Contacts?">How To Get Rid Of Maybe In Contacts?</a></li><li class="same-category-post-item "><a class="post-title" href="https://djst.org/office/how-often-should-you-get-a-new-mac/" rel="bookmark" title="How Often Should You Get A New Mac?">How Often Should You Get A New Mac?</a></li></ul> </aside> </div> </div> <footer id="colophon" role="contentinfo"> <div class="site-info"> <a class="privacy-policy-link" href="https://djst.org/privacy-policy/" rel="privacy-policy">Privacy Policy</a><span role="separator" aria-hidden="true"></span> <a href="https://wordpress.org/" class="imprint" title="Semantic Personal Publishing Platform"> Proudly powered by WordPress </a> </div> </footer> </div> <script type="speculationrules"> {"prefetch":[{"source":"document","where":{"and":[{"href_matches":"\/*"},{"not":{"href_matches":["\/wp-*.php","\/wp-admin\/*","\/wp-content\/uploads\/*","\/wp-content\/*","\/wp-content\/plugins\/*","\/wp-content\/themes\/twentytwelve\/*","\/*\\?(.+)"]}},{"not":{"selector_matches":"a[rel~=\"nofollow\"]"}},{"not":{"selector_matches":".no-prefetch, .no-prefetch a"}}]},"eagerness":"conservative"}]} </script> <script type="text/javascript" id="toc-front-js-extra"> /* <![CDATA[ */ var tocplus = {"visibility_show":"show","visibility_hide":"hide","visibility_hide_by_default":"1","width":"Auto"}; 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