The results of WebAIM’s 10th Screen Reader User Survey are now available. This survey was conducted in December 2023 and January 2024 and had 1539 respondents.
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Here are some of the notable items from this survey:
- JAWS remains the highest reported primary desktop/laptop screen reader at 40.5% of respondents, though usage dropped compared to NVDA which is now the primary screen reader for 37.7% of respondents. VoiceOver usage remains relatively stable at 9.7%.
- Primary screen reader usage varies by region with JAWS being most popular in North America and Australia and NVDA being most popular in Europe, Africa/Middle East, and Asia.
- NVDA is the most commonly used screen reader, again surpassing JAWS usage.
- Chrome continues to dominate as the most common desktop/laptop browser at 52.3%.
- JAWS with Chrome, NVDA with Chrome, JAWS with Edge, and NVDA with Firefox are the most common screen reader/browser combinations.
- 99.8% of respondents had JavaScript enabled.
- 78.1% of respondents consider free or low-cost desktop screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) as being viable alternatives to more expensive commercial screen readers.
- 91.3% of respondents use a screen reader on a mobile device, with VoiceOver being the most popular by far at 70.6%.
- Only 34.6% of respondents indicated that web accessibility has improved over the last year, a decrease from 39.3% in 2021.
- 68.2% of respondents indicate that individuals should not describe what they look like during a virtual meeting or webinar.
- Reversing a decade-long trend of decreased usage of landmarks/regions for navigation, respondents indicated an increased usage of 31.8% (up from 25.6% in 2021).
- Navigating through headings on a page remains by far the most common (71.6%) method of exploring page content. Heading levels (heading 1, heading 2, etc.) are reported as being very useful.
- CAPTCHA is by far the most problematic barrier reported by survey respondents.
We hope the survey results are interesting and useful. There is much more data and commentary available in the survey results article.
When reading PDFs, how many screen reader users use PDF bookmarks as the primary means to navigate documents? How many are aware of the bookmark function for PDFs?
I ask because HHS.gov used to advise that if a “[PDF] document contains at least 10 pages and does not contain proper bookmarks” then it is in “violation of section 508 and WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 2.4.5.”
Some professionals have advised this.
But SC 2.4.5 advises that “more than one way is available to locate a Web page within a set of Web pages except where the Web Page is the result of, or a step in, a process. (Level AA).”