Screen Reader User Survey #10 Results

Introduction

In December 2023 and January 2024, WebAIM surveyed preferences of screen reader users. We received 1539 valid responses. This was a follow-up to 9 previous surveys that were conducted between January 2009 and June 2021.

A few disclaimers and notices:

• Totals may not equal 100% due to rounding.
• Total responses (n) for each question may not equal 1539 due to some respondents not answering a particular question.
• The sample was not controlled and may not represent all screen reader users.
• We hope to conduct additional surveys of this nature again in the future. If you have recommendations or questions that you would like us to ask, please contact us.

Demographics

Primary Desktop/Laptop Screen Reader

The following chart shows historical trends for primary screen reader usage.

Historically JAWS usage had been in decline until 2019 when JAWS and NVDA were nearly the same. The 2021 survey saw an increase in JAWS usage and decrease in NVDA usage, but in 2024 the usage of both are again nearly the same at 41% for JAWS and 38% for NVDA.

Respondents with disabilities are more likely to use JAWS and NVDA and less likely to use VoiceOver as their primary screen reader than respondents without disabilities. 8.2% of respondents with disabilities primarily use VoiceOver (up from 5.5% in 2021), compared to 23.7% of respondents without disabilities.

Primary usage varied greatly by region. JAWS usage was higher than NVDA in North America (55.5% vs. 24.0%) and Australia (45.8% vs. 37.5%), though JAWS usage was lower than NVDA in Europe (29.7% vs. 37.2%), Africa/Middle East (23.3% vs. 69.9%), and Asia (22.9% vs. 70.8%).

Beyond the three most popular primary screen readers, other screen readers comprised a total of 12.2% of usage.

Screen Readers Commonly Used

NVDA is again the most commonly used screen reader at 65.6% of respondents outpacing JAWS at 60.5%. Narrator—freely available in Windows for several years—is the primary screen reader of only .7% of respondents, but is commonly used by 37.3% of respondents.

71.6% of respondents use more than one desktop/laptop screen reader. 43% use three or more, and 17.4% use four or more different screen readers. VoiceOver users most commonly use additional screen readers.

Browsers

Browser usage remains mostly unchanged since 2021, with Chrome and Internet Explorer seeing small decreases in usage and Safari a small increase in usage.

Screen Reader / Browser Combinations

There are many combinations of browsers and screen readers in use, with JAWS with Chrome the most common.

Operating System

Respondents without disabilities were nearly 3 times more likely to use Mac OS than respondents with disabilities.

JavaScript

JavaScript support was detected with the survey form submission. Nearly all respondents had JavaScript enabled.

Reason for Use

Existing comfort and features went down slightly, and Availability, Cost, and Support went up slightly.

Screen Reader Satisfaction

Respondents indicating that they are very or somewhat satisfied by their primary screen reader:

• NVDA - 97.6%
• JAWS - 95.6%
• VoiceOver - 92.4%
• Narrator - 88.9%

Home vs. Work

31% of VoiceOver users reported using a different screen reader at work/school vs. home, versus 19% for NVDA, and 15% for JAWS.

Braille Output

Because it would not generally be expected that users without disabilities would use Braille, they have been omitted from these data. Braille usage at 38% is up slightly from 33.3% in 2017 and 27.7% in 2012. 54.2% of VoiceOver users used Braille compared to 42.4% of NVDA users and 35.1% of JAWS users.

Free/Low-cost vs. Commercial

While the positive perception of free or low-cost screen readers has increased significantly from 48% in October 2009, responses to this question over the last several years have been largely unchanged.

Only 67% of JAWS users answered "Yes" compared to an overwhelming 91% of VoiceOver users and 94% of NVDA users. Those that use free or low-cost screen readers as their primary screen reader have a much better perception of them than those who do not. Respondents with "Advanced" screen reader proficiency were also more favorable of free/low-cost screen readers.

Mobile Screen Readers

Web Accessibility Progress

Perception of the state of web accessibility decreased slightly since 2021. Respondents without disabilities tend to be more positive about recent progress (45.9% thought it has become more accessible) than those with disabilities (33.4% thought it has become more accessible).

Impacts on Accessibility

Over time, more respondents have answered "better web sites" to this question—68.6% of respondents in October 2009, 75.8% in December 2010, 81.3% in January 2014, 85.3% in 2021, and now 85.9% on this survey. This change may reflect improvements in assistive technology. It certainly indicates that users expect more accessible web sites.

Contacting Website Owners

The majority (67%) of respondents never or rarely contact web site owners about barriers. Respondents without disabilities reported nearly the same likelihood to contact website owners as respondents with disabilities.

Social Media Accessibility

Perceptions of social media accessibility are generally unchanged over the last several years.

Descriptions in Virtual Meetings

The majority (68.2%) of respondents do not prefer descriptions of appearances in online meetings.

Landmarks/Regions

After steady decreases in the frequent usage of landmarks/regions was seen from 2014 (43.8%) to 2021 (25.6%). In 2024 the reported frequent usage has now increased to 31.8%.

Finding Information

The usage of headings for finding information has increased over time, and it remains the predominant method. Those with advanced screen reader proficiency are much more likely to use headings (78%) than those with beginner proficiency (47%). Beginners are 2.5 times more likely to use the "Find" feature than those with advanced proficiency.

While 31.7% of respondents indicate that they always or often use landmarks when they are present, only 3.7% use this as a primary method for finding information on a lengthy web page.

Heading Levels

The reported usefulness of heading levels for navigation has increased over time, and 88.8% of respondents find them very or somewhat useful.

Problematic Items

The survey asked respondents to select their most, second most, and third most problematic items from a list. In giving each selected item a weighting, the following chart shows the overall rating of difficulty and frustration for each item.

In order, the most problematic items are:

1. CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user
2. Interactive elements like menus, tabs, and dialogs do not behave as expected
3. Links or buttons that do not make sense
4. Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
5. Lack of keyboard accessibility
6. Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
7. Complex or difficult forms
8. Missing or improper headings
9. Too many links or navigation items
10. Complex data tables
11. Inaccessible or missing search functionality
12. Lack of "skip to main content" or "skip navigation" links

The order and indicated difficulty for the items in this list are largely unchanged over the last 14 years. CAPTCHA remains the most (by a notable margin) problematic item indicated by respondents. Respondents with disabilities were twice as likely to rank CAPTCHA as a problematic item than respondents without disabilities.