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Re: Differences Between Testing With JAWS And NVDA

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From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Mar 18, 2022 8:11AM

NVDA is better for testing because it does not try to make up for
missing or incorrect coding, specifically it does not try to guess the
intended label of an unlabeled form control.
Jaws does that, which makes a lot of sense for regular users, but is
bad for testers, it hides a real problem. Also Jaws gets it wrong
sometimes, about 5 to 10% of the itme, in my rough estimate.
I love testing with Jaws because I can quickly find the problematic
element by using the displayAdvancedElementInfo script with a keyobard
key, it gives me instant insight into where the problem lies and helps
me find the element more quickly in the developer tools (presing
shift-f10 does not always work to get there).
Whether I'm using NVDA or Jaws, I often force the app into
forms/application mode (to test whether a custom element can be
activated with the keyboard, if you are in browse mode and press enter
or spacebar, the screen reader sends a click event, not a keyboard
event, to the element, so you can activate an element with a screen
reader that you couldn't with the keyboard only).
I also change the display graphics setting in Jaws to "show all
images" to see which ones do not have alt text and also I have to
alter the settings to see all the ARIA landmarks.

Other than that I try to test with the default values, that is the
most predictable screen reader user experience.
Cheers
-B

On 3/18/22, Jim Homme < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Hi,
> I usually do accessibility testing with NVDA. For those of you who test with
> JAWS, what differences do you notice when comparing the results between the
> two screen readers and what JAWS settings do you change from the defaults?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Jim
>
> =========> Jim Homme
> Senior Digital Accessibility Consultant
> Bender Consulting Services
> 412-787-8567
> https://www.benderconsult.com/
> Support the dreams of independence through employment for students with
> disabilities with your Amazon purchases.
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