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Re: Screen Readers as a Development Tool for Web Developers

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From: Paul Bohman
Date: Jul 17, 2015 1:40PM

It's true that screen readers are complex, especially when you take into
account different brands, versions, browsers, bugs, and user settings.

Even so, when a developer creates an ARIA widget, *someone* has to test it
with a screen reader, because in approximately 100% of the cases where a
developer who doesn't know how to use a screen reader creates an ARIA
widget, it is flawed, and often badly unusable.

Whether an organization has on on-site designated screen reader testing
person (or team) or whether they expect developers to test it themselves,
someone has to do it, or it's essentially guaranteed to be broken.


Paul Bohman, PhD
Director of Training, Deque Systems, Inc
https://DequeUniversity.com
703-225-0380, ext.121


*Join us at our Mobile Accessibility "Bootcamp!" *
August 6-7 in Austin Texas
https://dequeuniversity.com/events/2015/mobile
Topics include responsive web design, native apps, & more

On Fri, Jul 17, 2015 at 2:58 PM, Andrews, David B (DEED) <
<EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> On the whole I agree with Jennifer -- as I usually do! Anyway, as others
> have pointed out, this is a complex issue, and if I had to do so, I could
> argue it either way. I have even worked with developers, and given
> demonstrations at conferences, to developers, on using screen readers for
> testing.
>
> However, in the end, I think it doesn't work well. Unless you use a screen
> reader on a regular basis, you simply aren't going to be very good at it.
> In an ideal world, developers would be able to test using screen readers,
> but they already have a huge amount on their plates, so I think it is
> unrealistic to expect them to be experts in this too.
>
> Jennifer's visual tools are ultimately the best solution, but until they
> exist, we may just have to rely on accessibility professionals to do
> testing.
>
> Dave
>
>
>
>