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Page source order
January 17th, 2006
Is page source order important for screen reader users? Roger Hudson, Russ Weakley and I recently completed some work examining this very question. However, we did not want to stop with one line of inquiry while we had screen reader users to work with - so we decided to investigate the usefulness of skip links and structural labels at the same time.
During this project we worked with some remarkable people who were incredibly generous with their time and knowledge. I have been involved in task-based testing with screen reader users several times before, however this testing involved a number of new experiences for me.
First of all I got to see Bruce Maguire navigate our sites using his BrailleNote – a device that allows him to read every line of text on the page in Braille. It was amazing to watch someone interact with the web in this way – the speed at which he read and navigated the site was astounding.
Secondly, for this study we decided to recruit a relatively inexperienced screen reader user who had only been using JAWS for a few months. We felt this was important, as often user testing with blind users involves those who are proficient at using their technology. By working with a person who had lost her sight late in life we learnt many more interesting things about how screen reader users interact with the web and what practical problems they encounter. While observing this inexperienced user operate JAWS I could feel her frustration with learning this technology and for the first time understood how hard it is to master.
So if you ever get the chance to observe someone use an assistive technology - do it! It truly brings home the importance of adhering to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines as well as expanding your understanding of how people access your site.
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