WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Detecting screen reader types and versions?

for

From: Bergel, Marguerite
Date: Apr 13, 2006 3:00PM

Hello,

Does anyone know if there's script to detect what screen reader and
version a user is using to access your site?
We've seen the detection script on WebAIM (for detecting the more recent
MSAA-capable versions of JAWS and WindowEyes).

We're interested in getting more granular data because, for better or
for worse, our company is developing more and more applications in Flash
and Flex and we know certain versions of JAWS (version 5.0, 5.1, and
6.0) don't work well with Flash. We're interested in seeing if we can
possibly serve up content in another form to users on those versions as
a possible work solution for the time being. We're aware that this is a
slippery slope. We are currently working to educate our developers on
accessibility issues and want to, in the meantime, weigh all the
possibilities.

Thanks very much,
Marguerite