The Legend of the Typical Screen Reader User

The Legend of the Typical Screen Reader User Jared Smith http://webaim.org Thursday, November 12, 2009

Screen reader users prefer... Thursday, November 12, 2009

Thursday, November 12, 2009

http://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey and http://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey2 Thursday, November 12, 2009

Disclaimers • The sample was not controlled • Respondents are likely to be more technical • Safe to consider the sample representative of connected, tech-savvy screen reader users? Thursday, November 12, 2009

Survey #1 January 2009 1121 Respondents Survey #2 October 2009 665 Respondents Thursday, November 12, 2009

There is NO typical screen reader user Thursday, November 12, 2009

Prevalence of Disability No 10% Yes 90% Thursday, November 12, 2009

Screen Reader Proﬁciency Beginner 4.7% Intermediate Advanced 42.8% 52.5% Thursday, November 12, 2009

Those with disabilities were 6X more likely to report themselves as “Advanced” screen reader users Thursday, November 12, 2009

Internet Proﬁciency Beginner 1.5% Intermediate 33.6% Advanced 64.9% Thursday, November 12, 2009

Primary Screen Reader 75% 50% 25% 66.4% 0% 10.4% 8.9% 4.9% 2.9% 2.6% JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver SA or SAToGo NVDA Zoomtext Thursday, November 12, 2009

Screen Readers Commonly Used 75% 50% 75.2% 25% 23.5% 22.3% 25.6% 0% 14.6% 7.5% JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver SA or SAToGo NVDA Zoomtext Thursday, November 12, 2009

Screen Readers Commonly Used 75% January 2009 October 2009 50% 74% 75% 25% 23% 24% 26% 0% 15% 6% 8% JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver NVDA Thursday, November 12, 2009

Screen Reader Updated in the Previous Year? No 16.4% Yes 83.6% Thursday, November 12, 2009

Screen Reader Updates • Increased from 75% to 84% in 10 months • 6% using a screen reader > 3 years old Thursday, November 12, 2009

How did you learn to use your primary screen reader? 100% 75% 50% 25% 72.9% 0% 32.9% 24.2% 10.5% Self-Taught Informally Training Other Thursday, November 12, 2009

Browser Usage 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 32% 26.2% 18.8% 0% 12.7% 8.3% IE8 IE7 IE6 Firefox 3+ Safari Thursday, November 12, 2009

Mobile screen reader usage 50% 40% 30% 20% 50% 10% 0% 12% January 2009 October 2009 Up over 400% in 10 months! Thursday, November 12, 2009

Do you see free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) as currently being viable alternatives to commercial screen readers? I Don’t Know 32% Yes 47.8% No 19.7% Thursday, November 12, 2009

Javascript Disabled? I Don’t Know 15% No Yes 74.9% 10.4% Thursday, November 12, 2009

Problematic Items 1.CAPTCHA 2.Inaccessible Flash content 3.Links or buttons that do not make sense 4.Images with missing or improper alt text 5.Complex or difﬁcult forms 6.Lack of keyboard accessibility 7.Unexpected content changes 8.Missing or improper headings 9.Too many links or navigation items 10.Complex data tables Thursday, November 12, 2009

Progress over the previous year Less Accessible No Change 33.3% 20% More Accessible 46.3% Thursday, November 12, 2009

Which of the following do you think has a bigger impact on improvements to web accessibility? Better assistive technology 31.4% Better (more accessible) web sites 68.6% Thursday, November 12, 2009

Use of ARIA Landmarks Sometimes use landmarks 32% Use landmarks when present Not supported 20.5% 5% Unaware of landmarks 42.1% Thursday, November 12, 2009

Social Media Usage 50% 40% 30% 20% 47.7% 51.3% 42% 38.2% 10% 0% 13.4% 9% Blogs Facebook LinkedIn MySpace Twitter YouTube Thursday, November 12, 2009

Social Media Accessibility Accessible Inaccessible Blogs Facebook LinkedIn MySpace Twitter YouTube Thursday, November 12, 2009

General Social Media Accessibility Somewhat Inaccessible Somewhat Accessible Very Inaccessible I Don’t Know Very Accessible Thursday, November 12, 2009

Likelihood of Flash Accessibility Somewhat Likely Somewhat Unlikely Very Likely I Don’t Know Very Unlikely Thursday, November 12, 2009

Headings 76% always or often navigate by headings 50.8% use headings as the primary method of ﬁnding information in a page Thursday, November 12, 2009

Other Notables • Text-only versions are not commonly accessed. Screen reader-only content is accessed only slightly more often. • Majority have difﬁculty with pop-up windows. • Prefer “Skip to main content” or “Skip to content” over “Skip navigation”. Thursday, November 12, 2009

What suggestions do you have for developers/manufacturers of screen readers? Thursday, November 12, 2009

“Focus on web standards (e.g., ARIA)” Thursday, November 12, 2009

“Be more open. Listen to your customers.” Thursday, November 12, 2009

“Lower your prices or I’ll switch to Screen Reader X (as soon as it’s fully useful).” Thursday, November 12, 2009

“Spend more time ﬁxing bugs than implementing new features I’ll never/rarely use.” Thursday, November 12, 2009

“Support/ﬁx Flash accessibility.” Thursday, November 12, 2009

“Remove JAWS demo mode restrictions on evaluation and testing.” Thursday, November 12, 2009

“Keep up the good work. I can’t imagine life without these wonderful technologies!” Thursday, November 12, 2009

There is NO typical screen reader user ... but we can learn much about typical behavior Thursday, November 12, 2009

The survey results pages have much, MUCH more http://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey and http://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey2 Thursday, November 12, 2009

Thank You! Jared Smith http://webaim.org twitter: @jared_w_smith AHG hashtag is #ahg09 Thursday, November 12, 2009

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The Legend of the Typical Screen Reader User

by Jared Smith

Accessibility

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