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Re: The punctuation and typographic symbols that screenreaders don't read

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From: Léonie Watson
Date: Jan 21, 2014 3:00PM

Paul Bohman wrote:
"Screen readers can do a lot better job at reading punctuation and
typographic symbols. I decided to document what screen readers do and don't
read. The results are not very encouraging."

Have commented on the post, but in case it's of interest to the discussion
here...


There are definitely improvements that the TTS engines used by screen
readers could make in terms of punctuation. A couple of thoughts on the
rest...

For new screen reader users, too much punctuation can be overwhelming. It
adds to the "noise" of the page, and can actually make it harder to
understand content.

The default punctuation settings are only used when reading content in
chunks (page, paragraph, sentence etc.). If someone wants to know what
punctuation is being used, they can navigate the content by character to
find out.

In my experience, the reaction from web developers is always strongest when
there is too much punctuation being announced. It's completely unexpected
because most sighted people assume a screen reader will talk like someone
reading aloud. The inevitable result is that (with every goodintention)
developers stop using punctuation properly.

Léonie.