WebAIM Screen Reader User Survey #9 (opens in new tab)

(webaim.org)

48 pointsd4kmor4y ago9 comments

9 comments

I'm totally blind and use a screen reader. Was surprised to see this on HN as I normally see this sort of thing just in accessibility spaces on Twitter or similar! Hopefully more mainstream coverage will mean that accessibility gets on the radar of more developers.

cookiengineer4y ago

Is there a way to contact you? I would have hundreds of questions that come to mind on how you use the Web.

I'm building a web browser [1] that tries to make the semantics of the web automateable, so its goals are kind of aligned with blind people in regards to semantics and extraction.

My knowledge of how blind people use the web is kind of outdated, though. Is JAWS still a thing?

(My web browser is far from being stable, lots of things don't work yet and there's a ton of work left)

[1] https://github.com/tholian-network/stealth

mwcampbell4y ago

I'm not the OP, but you can contact me if you like; my email is in my profile. I'm not totally blind, and I don't use a screen reader exclusively. But I use one a lot when browsing the web. Also, I worked on the Windows accessibility team at Microsoft for three years, and I wrote a Windows screen reader and a talking web browser before that.

Edit: To answer your other question, yes, JAWS is still maintained and widely used, but it's not as dominant as it once was. On Windows, the NVDA open-source screen reader is quite popular, and the built-in Narrator screen reader is on the rise (though of course I'm biased, since I worked on it). iOS with its built-in VoiceOver screen reader is also quite popular among blind people, at least in the US.

1 more reply

codeofdusk4y ago

JAWS is still a thing although it is definitely declining in popularity. My email is my HN username at gmail dot com, and I'm also my HN username on lots of other social media sites.

miki1232114y ago

I'm also a (totally blind) screen reader user. My email is just my HN username followed by @gmail.com.

willio584y ago

I'm a firm believer that web accessibility should and will become more mainstream. I don't see web accessibility laws becoming less stringent.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

9 comments

codeofdusk4y ago

cookiengineer4y ago

Is there a way to contact you? I would have hundreds of questions that come to mind on how you use the Web.

I'm building a web browser [1] that tries to make the semantics of the web automateable, so its goals are kind of aligned with blind people in regards to semantics and extraction.

My knowledge of how blind people use the web is kind of outdated, though. Is JAWS still a thing?

(My web browser is far from being stable, lots of things don't work yet and there's a ton of work left)

[1] https://github.com/tholian-network/stealth

mwcampbell4y ago

1 more reply

codeofdusk4y ago

JAWS is still a thing although it is definitely declining in popularity. My email is my HN username at gmail dot com, and I'm also my HN username on lots of other social media sites.

miki1232114y ago

I'm also a (totally blind) screen reader user. My email is just my HN username followed by @gmail.com.

willio584y ago

I'm a firm believer that web accessibility should and will become more mainstream. I don't see web accessibility laws becoming less stringent.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse