Web Site Accessibility Blog

Well, not really a rant, but a well-defined list of problems with screen readers.
Each falls under the four categories of; Failing, Ignoring, Mispronouncing or Misunderstanding. There are some surprises in there that I didn’t think of, but I’m sure that regular screen reader users will shout with glee as someone understands their frustrations.

There has been a lot of call for screen reader technologies to improve and do a better job of interpreting websites. Currently, the feeling in the industry is that “ screen readers suck“, and again “screen readers suck 2“. Designers who are aware of the differences have to make allowances for screen readers not acting as a seperate user-agent rather than a screenreader acting like a browser and interpreting the information for the user.

AccessIT at the University of Washington comments on how screen readers react differently from each other, even though a site’s code is up to standards. A specific example is the “longdesc” attribute, which was recommended by the W3C in 1997, but not implemented until Jaws 4.01 release in 2002.

Access IT also links to a research article by CAMO pour personnes handicapées, on “How Assistive Software Supports Web Accessibility.”