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Re: Screen reader testing on language switching components.

for

From: Dean.Vasile---
Date: Apr 28, 2025 10:14AM

Recently, I was testing a website.
And it had two different language selectors one was a language translation and the JAWS behavior even with auto forms mode turned off. Focus would automatically pop into this window, and when I was navigating by form element inadvertently typed the letter F and the language automatically changed to French.
I then had to locate the field again activated intentionally press the letter, E and then select English.
Then there was another language selector when signing up for this app where the user was required to select the language for emails.
This action opened a very complex model window that did not give the screen reader user notifications, nor was it easily navigable using normal table commands.
Looking at the Dom as Steve recommends, will not actually be able to give you the information that the screen reader user was experiencing . the elements in this modal also appeared as Text. They were not coded as links or buttons.
Dean Vasile
IAAP, CPACC
<EMAIL REMOVED>
617-799-1162

> On Apr 28, 2025, at 11:55 AM, Steve Green via WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> It depends on what the objective of the test is. When testing for WCAG conformance, there is no need to use a screen reader at all. You just look at the "lang" attributes in the switcher and in the resulting pages. You need to check for "lang" attributes throughout the pages, not just in the html element.
>
> If you want to go beyond a WCAG audit and test the user experience, things get really messy because the screen reader behaviour will depend on the synthesizer(s) that are installed. Each synthesizer only supports a selection of languages, maybe only one language. Screen readers can be set to switch between languages automatically, but this only works if both languages use synthesizers from the same vendor.
>
> If you have synthesizers from different vendors, you need to switch language manually. Depending on what the languages are, it may not be possible to get all the synthesizers from the same vendor.
>
> If you have checked that all the "lang" attributes are correct, you only need to do a minimal amount of screen reader testing - I typically only test a few words. To check the "lang" attributes, I usually search the DOM and use some custom CSS with the Stylus browser extension to visually show where the "lang" attributes are on a page. There are probably other tools and bookmarklets that do the same.
>
> Steve Green
> Managing Director
> Test Partners Ltd
>
>