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Re: Web development; How to identify if a screen reader is in use

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From: Jennifer Sutton
Date: May 11, 2017 11:43AM

All:

This business of identifying assistive technology users (why are screen
reader users pretty much always the only target here, I wonder) has long
been of deep concern to me.

I am opposed to it for all the reasons that have been cited. And I
especially object (as I have told Jared privately, on at least one
occasion) to the citing of the WebAIM screen reader survey as anything
like "authoritative" in this matter.

I believe the question was poorly framed, i.e. lacked any of the kinds
of scenarios that would really explain/illustrate to most end-users
what the results of such identification would inevitably mean, and trust
me, it sure as heck won't all be for "their good." In fact, I'd say none
of it will be, despite the supposed "good intentions" of the industry.
Anybody remember which road is paved with "good intentions?"

As I believe many of us know, at least those of us who've been around
for a while . . . the WebAIM survey is, indeed, the only research we
have, but it is flawed since sometimes the screen reader vendors and/or
users, themselves, have often encouraged its use (some more blatantly
than others) as a "marketing campaign," i.e. popularity context. That's
not a criticism of the WebAIM team; there's nothing they can do about
it. But it is often context that people who see the survey as
authoritative lack. And it might even play into this question and its
responses. Who can say?

Getting back to the topic at hand:
I wonder how Deaf people would feel if they were tracked, very
specifically, every time they used captions. And I wonder how sighted
people who use screen readers would feel, since we know there are
sighted people (with and without print disabilities) who do. How could
one tell who is who? Let's break out the numbers and track all the
sighted testers who use screen readers, while we're at it. And then,
let's start sending them ads or surveys that we expect them to take for
free to "help" us. I mean, we need *very* specific data about each
screen reader user, so we can target our surveys, don't we?

Does anybody with a disability who reads this list remember how
liberating it was to be able to be on the Internet and not be
identified, unless one chose to? But we should give that up?

It's one thing if an iOS app. knows that I have VoiceOver turned on, but
that information is strictly kept within my personal device. I don't
like how few people actually are aware that, as far as I know, that's
true, but that's the choice Apple has made.

But it's quite another when we're talking about "phoning home to the
mother ship." As has been indicated by others, this is an issue of
privacy, security, safety, misuse/abuse of statistics that will
inevitably lack context . . . plus, I suspect, may result in other
issues we've not even yet anticipated.

Below my name is one of the bazillions of articles that has been written
on this subject; it just happens to be the most recent I've seen.

I think people who use AT are being naive if they believe that this kind
of data gathering would actually result in good. Sorry, folks, but I
learn from history. I do not believe that having this data would improve
people's commitments to accessibility; in fact, I think it would
fundamentally distract people from just "getting the work done."

Jennifer

Notice that this article's title suggests it'll be about people with
disabilities, but really, as far as I recall, it's primarily about
screen reader users. It would really be a good idea if people stopped
perpetuating the myth that the main people with disabilities we help
with web accessibility are blind people. I know most on this list know
that, but please help combat this kind of ongoing and misleading use of
terms.

https://www.mightybytes.com/blog/how-many-people-with-disabilities-use-my-website/