Ever wondered how a person with a visual impairment uses a computer? Surf the web? Read a book or an article? I know many people who shy away from asking these questions. The important thing is to realise that there’s no harm in asking these questions. The real harm is in not bothering to find the answers to these questions. A request to our visually impaired readers: please pass this article on to all your sighted friends. And dear sighted readers, walk with me through this simple simulation of the experience of a visually impaired person.
The most popular, specialized software program used by people with visual impairments to consume electronic content – documents, web pages and other computer programs is a type of computer software known as a screen reader. The screen reader has two major functions – Navigation and Text-to-Speech (TTS).
A screen reader aids in navigation by guiding the user in moving from one page to the other, from one paragraph to the other and so on. It aids in TTS by converting electronic text to sound – basically it reads out text. The biggest stumbling block for screen reader software are programs and content that is difficult for navigation.
A large majority of computer programs and electronic content that are used by the visually impaired, are created by sighted people – programmers, content writers, editors etc. If you happen to fall into this category of very powerful people, and if you are unfamiliar with screen readers, I would definitely encourage you to try this little experiment. Now, if you don’t, you might still want to do it – because it can open your eyes a little bit into an unfamiliar world. All you need is a computer, working eyes and an old newspaper.
Here you go:
- Turn on your computer
- Browse to Google news or your favorite online haunt OR open a large word document
- Now get an old newspaper – take one full sheet and open it up
- Make a rectangular incision 3 inches long and half inch wide at the center of the paper
- With both hands, hold this newspaper against and in front of your computer display, so that you can see the screen through the rectangular hole
- Now start reading through the hole. Move the paper to the right to continue reading
- Try to jump to sections that you are interested in by moving the paper around
- Read the whole page
- Rinse and repeat with familiar and unfamiliar pages
- That’s it.
Hope you enjoyed the experience :) .. Now we need some feedback from you:
- How easy was it to find something that you are looking to read?
- What would have made it easier to find what you were looking for?
- Is the experience different between familiar and unfamiliar pages?
- How would you change the design of your document/site/application after your experience of carrying out this experiment?
This is great! I’ll bet people could learn a lot from this, including some non-screenreader users I know.
Hello Jake!
Thanks for the comment! Do pass this on.
Cari,
This is a great article. I teach creating accessible PDF files and accessible web pages and this is a great way to describe the screen reader experience to someone who doesn’t need a screen reader to view content. Great job!
Thanks for the comment Chad!
I’m one of those people using a screen reader to navigate the computer screen and the Internet. My biggest complaint is the lack of labeling of non-text items. Many blogs, websites, and even newsletters use graphics without labeling them. The screen reader I use either ignores these unlabeled graphics completely, or with graphics turned “on”, will only say “graphic”. This is annoying, frustrating, and downright “rude” on the part of “non-handicapped” people. It’s like saying, this is “mine” and you can’t have any. Didn’t mean to be so judgemental, but this is a sore point with me. How do others using screen readers feel about the nonlabeling of non-text items?
I never gave it a thought on how visually impaired individuals used computers. I knew about readers but I didn’t consider them being used for computers. (I apologize for my ignorance).
Those of us who have all our senses don’t realize what life would be like if we didn’t have a particular sense, especially vision. We take so much in life for granted and forget about those who have not.
Perhaps it’s time for every one to step up to the plate, or screen in this case, and think about making our sites user friendly not only for the general public but also for those facing challenges such as yourself.
Hi again. I’m responding to the question about unlabeled text and such. This is one thing I absolutely cannot stand! Another thing I absolutely cannot stand is inaccessible CAPTCHA’s. You probably know what I’m talking about, but for those who don’t, I’m referring to those little boxes with squigglies in them that one has to try their utmost to make out in order to pass through security on certain websites. I can think of numerous examples. I wanted to become a Twitter and/or Facebook user. Well actually I think Facebook was first, I can’t remember. But both times I had to have help from people with perfect vision due to the stinking word verifications. BTW, I’m using the System Access screen reader to type this comment and it reads the “Comment” part of these fields as “Website.” Rather confusing to some I would think.
Jake