Screen readers

Also called Screen reader, VoiceOver, TalkBack, NVDA, JAWS, Narrator

Software that reads the screen aloud and lets a person drive a device by touch and keyboard without seeing it. Free on every phone, and a different way of thinking.

What it is

A screen reader speaks what is on the screen: the text, the buttons, the headings, the state of a checkbox. The person moves through the screen with gestures or keys, hears each item, and acts on it. It is not the same as text-to-speech, which only speaks text it is given; a screen reader speaks the whole interface and lets you operate it.

Every major platform has one built in and free: VoiceOver on Apple, TalkBack on Android, Narrator on Windows, and the free NVDA screen reader for Windows is used worldwide.

Who it can help

Blind and partially sighted people, and people whose vision makes a screen unreadable for other reasons: a field loss after stroke, cortical visual impairment, some brain injury. It also helps some people with severe dyslexia or a reading disability who take in speech more easily than print. And for a person who uses AAC and cannot see the screen, a screen reader is how they know what their own device is showing.

It is a skill, not a switch to flip: the gestures and keys take weeks to learn, and a person with a new sight loss may need to grieve before they are ready. It is a poor fit for someone with both sight loss and significant hearing loss, for whom a braille display is the parallel route. And it does not make a badly built app accessible; it can only read what the app labels.

How it works

The screen reader asks the operating system for the accessibility tree: every element, its role (button, link, text field), its label and its state. It then presents that tree one item at a time. On a touch screen, a single finger drags over the screen and each item is announced; swipe right moves to the next, double-tap activates. On a keyboard, the tab and arrow keys move and Enter activates. Headings, links and form fields can be jumped between directly.

Speech rate is usually set fast; experienced users listen at 300 to 500 words a minute. Some screen readers also send output to a refreshable braille display. An app is only as usable as its labels, which is why a symbol board with unlabelled pictures is silent to a screen reader, and why AAC apps for blind users need auditory scanning or proper labels built in.

Getting started

Turn on VoiceOver or TalkBack in the accessibility settings and work through the built-in tutorial for twenty minutes. Learn three gestures: explore by touch, swipe to move, double-tap to activate. Then use the phone to make one call and send one message with the screen off.

If you are supporting a person who is newly blind, do the tutorial yourself first so you can help without taking the phone out of their hands. And if the person also uses a communication aid, test it with the screen reader on and find out what is not labelled; that is a fault to report to the maker, not a limit on the person.

Where to get help

AbilityNet publishes step-by-step guides to VoiceOver, TalkBack, Narrator and NVDA and runs free tech support for disabled people at home. RNIB's helpline and technology teams train people in screen reader use; ask your local sensory impairment team via the council for a referral. Sense supports people with both sight and hearing loss, including braille display use.