Ashleigh: partially sighted screenreader user
Published 25 October 2017
漏 Crown copyright 2017
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I couldn鈥檛 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 children鈥檚 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 - it鈥檚 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. It鈥檚 got some good features like VoiceOver and Speak Screen, which help her find her way around her phone.
She鈥檇 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 can鈥檛 be read by JAWS
When something on a website doesn鈥檛 work with Ashleigh鈥檚 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 can鈥檛 read forms if they don鈥檛 have proper labels. Sometimes she鈥檒l guess what she needs to enter, but she won鈥檛 do that for things like financial transactions where it鈥檚 too risky.
Sometimes when she鈥檚 shopping online, she can鈥檛 visualise the item she鈥檚 looking at because there鈥檚 no description that her screen reader can understand.
Content that鈥檚 hard to navigate quickly
Ashleigh uses a keyboard instead of a mouse or trackpad, and gets annoyed when she鈥檚 forced to tab through lots of things before she gets to the content she鈥檚 looking for.
She finds it hard to tell quickly what鈥檚 on a page if there aren鈥檛 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 188体育 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 they鈥檙e looking for quickly. Write descriptive links and page titles. | Structuring your content, guidance on 188体育. |
| Use alt text for images that describes the image鈥檚 content or conveys the same information (unless it鈥檚 ). |
Writing alt text, guidance on 188体育. by W3C. , blog post on AbilityNet. |
| Do user research with people who use screen readers. |
User research for government services: an introduction, guidance on 188体育. , post on the GDS Accessibility blog. |
More reading
You may find the following resources useful:
- 鈥楧esigning for users of screenreaders鈥� 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.