Ashleigh: partially sighted screenreader user
Published 25 October 2017
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I couldn바카라 사이트™t buy my sister the present she really wanted for her birthday because none of the fields were labelled on the website
Ashleigh is 24 and lives in Surbiton. She recently finished an arts degree and now works as an administrative assistant for a local children바카라 사이트™s charity.
Ashleigh is partially sighted, having lost most of her sight in her teens due to a genetic condition. She uses a screen reader to help her read web content.
She has a support worker at her job for 3 mornings a week to help her with paper-based work. People there use Google Drive and Google Docs but she prefers to be sent Word documents as they work better with her screen reader.
Devices and technology
Ashleigh has been using JAWS for about 8 years - it바카라 사이트™s a screen reader, which converts text into speech so blind and partially sighted people can read web content. Ashleigh uses it on a notebook at work and a Windows desktop computer at home. Before JAWS she used ZoomText (a screen magnifier), but it became too difficult as her sight got worse.
She has an iPhone 6 which she set up by herself. It바카라 사이트™s got some good features like VoiceOver and Speak Screen, which help her find her way around her phone.
She바카라 사이트™d like to get a MacBook in the future so she can have the same kind of features on a laptop, but she would need to save up for a long time.
Goals and wishes
Ashleigh wants to be able to use any website she wants.
She also wants to be more independent.
Frustrations
Content that can바카라 사이트™t be read by JAWS
When something on a website doesn바카라 사이트™t work with Ashleigh바카라 사이트™s screen reader, she has to look for a phone number to call or ask someone to help her, which she finds annoying.
Her screen reader can바카라 사이트™t read forms if they don바카라 사이트™t have proper labels. Sometimes she바카라 사이트™ll guess what she needs to enter, but she won바카라 사이트™t do that for things like financial transactions where it바카라 사이트™s too risky.
Sometimes when she바카라 사이트™s shopping online, she can바카라 사이트™t visualise the item she바카라 사이트™s looking at because there바카라 사이트™s no description that her screen reader can understand.
Content that바카라 사이트™s hard to navigate quickly
Ashleigh uses a keyboard instead of a mouse or trackpad, and gets annoyed when she바카라 사이트™s forced to tab through lots of things before she gets to the content she바카라 사이트™s looking for.
She finds it hard to tell quickly what바카라 사이트™s on a page if there aren바카라 사이트™t good headings.
Making things work for Ashleigh
| What to do | Further reading |
|---|---|
| Follow best practice for accessible form design - for example, make sure fields are labelled and can be read by screen readers. |
for user interfaces, part of the 바카라 사이트 Design System. from W3C. , post on the GDS Accessibility blog. |
| Test to make sure any new information that appears on screen is announced by screen readers - this includes error messages, and progress or confirmation messages. |
Testing with assistive technologies, guidance in the service manual. , video tutorial by Google Chrome Developers. , guidance on Web Fundamentals (Google). |
| Make sure people can use your service with a keyboard. Try out some common user journeys. | , on the GDS Accessibility blog. |
| Write headings that help users find what they바카라 사이트™re looking for quickly. Write descriptive links and page titles. | Structuring your content, guidance on 바카라 사이트. |
| Use alt text for images that describes the image바카라 사이트™s content or conveys the same information (unless it바카라 사이트™s ). |
Writing alt text, guidance on 바카라 사이트. by W3C. , blog post on AbilityNet. |
| Do user research with people who use screen readers. |
User research for government services: an introduction, guidance on 바카라 사이트. , post on the GDS Accessibility blog. |
More reading
You may find the following resources useful:
- 바카라 사이트˜Designing for users of screenreaders바카라 사이트™ is one of a set of posters designed by the Home Office. You can
- , post on the GDS Accessibility blog
- , article by WebAIM
- , post on the GDS Accessibility blog
Statistics about sight loss
Nearly 2 million people in the UK are blind or partially sighted.
Only one-third of people registered blind or partially sighted are in paid work.
Over one-third of blind or partially sighted people also have depression, making it the most common secondary condition for those with sight loss.