How Screen reader behave with <hr> <b> <i> <big> <small> <br /> ?
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59answers:
2
+1
A:
Really depends on the screen reader. Typically they will ignore tags they're not expecting, read some tags and change the tone of text surrounded by others.
The best way to find out is to run it through the one you're intending to support. For example, JAWS (a widely used screenreader) has a 40 minute demo that you could use. Bear in mind that this will be different for other screenreaders.
The rule of thumb is to make sure your markup is as semantic as possible and also conforms to what users of screenreaders are expecting (trying to be clever or overly helpful can actually be counterproductive if it is different from every other site your visitors have been to).
FinnNk
2009-11-18 13:22:24
I mostly make sites for UK and Europe . Do you know which screen reader is most popular is that region? If you don't know then how we can know ?
metal-gear-solid
2009-11-18 13:24:53
JAWS is the most popular - not just in the UK but worldwide, so if you're going to focus on one that should be it. In the UK Hal from Dolphin software is second (close behind JAWS), followed by Window-Eyes. I believe globally Window-Eyes is the 2nd most popular.
FinnNk
2009-11-18 19:49:06
Ok. But I can't afford to buy commercial screen reader software. is there any other way to test our site accessibility with screen reader.
metal-gear-solid
2009-11-19 03:24:14
I suggest using the demo, it'll work for 40 min (after which you'll need to reboot for another 40 minutes etc). Unfortunately there isn't really a substitute (and to be honest even that isn't as good as getting a screenreader user to provide feedback). You could try using a text only browser (e.g. Lynx) and make sure it isn't a pain navigating. Bottom line though, is make content as semantic as possible (See Jared's comments to understand why). BTW always use emphasis tags (which have semantic meaning) rather than <b> or <i> etc which have none.
FinnNk
2009-11-20 21:11:45
+2
A:
I am a jaws user and tags such as
<b> <big>
etc are not read in any special way to distinguish them from the rest of the page by default. If you want to point out a specific region of a page follow the stackoverflow example and use headings. I can quickly go from question to question since they each have there own heading, and when viewing a question can quickly jump from the question to the answers. ANother good example of heading usage is the way that google reader gives each headline it's own heading.
Jared
2009-11-18 21:50:00