Practical screen-reader testing
Learn focused screen-reader techniques through guided methods and independent Exercises for structure, data tables, controls, images, graphics, language changes, and modal dialogs.
- Level:
- beginner
- Estimated time:
- About 5 hours 20 minutes
The total includes setup, note-taking, reviewing results, and repetition. Individual step times cover the work in that Testing method or Exercise.
What you will learn
- Prepare one compatible screen-reader and browser combination for focused testing.
- Navigate and assess headings and links using sequential and element-based navigation.
- Navigate data tables and assess their names, dimensions, and row-and-column relationships.
- Test common control names, roles, states, values, keyboard operation, and result announcements.
- Evaluate image alternatives, icons, and SVGs according to their purpose and context.
- Investigate language changes while accounting for installed voices and platform support.
- Test modal naming, focus movement, containment, closing behavior, background availability, and focus restoration.
- Record actual announcements and interaction behavior without assuming identical output across screen readers.
Follow the path
Path checkpoint
Prepare your screen reader
Build the supporting skills you need before continuing through the path.
Testing method
Testing page structure and links with a screen reader
Check whether a page title, landmarks, and headings communicate useful structure and links make sense outside their surrounding text.
20 minutes
Exercise
Reviewing structure and links in a community resources directory
Use heading navigation and link lists to assess the structure and link purpose of a community-services directory.
20 minutes
Testing method
Testing data tables with a screen reader
Check whether a data table exposes a useful name, dimensions, navigation, and row-and-column relationships.
25 minutes
Exercise
Testing a community-course timetable with a screen reader
Investigate table names, navigation, headers, and empty cells in a course timetable and compare them with a correctly marked-up venue table.
25 minutes
Testing method
Testing controls with a screen reader
Check whether common controls expose useful names, roles, states, values, keyboard behavior, and changes after interaction.
25 minutes
Exercise
Testing controls in a community events finder
Investigate names, roles, states, keyboard behavior, and result announcements in a realistic event-finding interface.
25 minutes
Testing method
Testing image alternative text
Decide what each image contributes in context and test whether its alternative communicates the same relevant purpose.
20 minutes
Exercise
Evaluating image alternative text in context
Compare meaningful, decorative, linked, missing, and broken-image alternatives on a community-volunteering page.
20 minutes
Testing method
Testing icons and SVGs with a screen reader
Determine whether meaningful graphics have useful names and decorative graphics remain silent.
20 minutes
Exercise
Reviewing icons and SVGs in a community events dashboard
Assess meaningful, decorative, and functional SVGs while managing saved events in a community dashboard.
20 minutes
Testing method
Testing language changes with a screen reader
Check whether content in another language triggers appropriate pronunciation without redundant language markup.
15 minutes
Exercise
Testing language changes on a community library noticeboard
Review Finnish, Swedish, and English notices while separating language-markup defects from voice and platform limitations.
20 minutes
Testing method
Testing modal dialogs
Test modal names, initial focus, keyboard containment, background inertness, closing behavior, and focus restoration.
25 minutes
Exercise
Testing modal dialogs in account settings
Compare an incomplete custom modal with a native dialog while testing naming, focus, background availability, and closing behavior.
25 minutes
You can complete this path independently or use it as a next step after Your first accessibility review. Split it across sessions if that helps you practise each technique with your chosen tools.
The demonstrations provide guided practice within the Testing methods. Each Testing method is followed by an Exercise where you investigate a deliberately created page. Revisit the methods while you practise, and record what your own screen-reader and browser combination does.
Prepare your screen reader
Choose one screen reader that supports your operating system and browser. Use its authoritative help to find the commands you need; you do not need to memorize its complete command reference before continuing.
- Record the screen reader, browser, operating system, and relevant versions you are using.
- Learn how to start, pause or silence, and stop speech.
- Practise moving sequentially through ordinary page content.
- Learn how to navigate by headings and links and open element lists where your screen reader provides them.
- Find out how your tool distinguishes browsing from direct interaction with controls, if it uses separate modes.
- Record what is actually announced, along with the exposed state and interaction behavior.
- Note installed voices, the initial page state, and other setup details when they may affect your results.
Commands, mode names, speech output, and supported behavior differ across screen readers, browsers, and operating systems. Test whether the information and interaction are useful rather than expecting one exact announcement.
Where to go next
Apply the methods together in Reviewing a community conference programme. The journey uses one realistic programme to combine structure, schedule-table navigation, common controls, graphical content, language changes, and modal-dialog testing.
Use Your first accessibility review when you want a broader foundation in automated, keyboard, visual, zoom, and forms testing. You can complete it before or after this focused path.
Each Testing method is followed by an Exercise so you can apply its procedure independently before moving to a broader Testing journey.
Keep the scope in mind
These seven focused techniques do not represent every screen-reader experience or every combination of assistive technology, browser, and platform. For a real service, test with relevant environments and involve disabled people whose experiences and ways of using technology may differ from your own.
Read about the full scope and limitations of the Lab, including what its technical checks can and cannot establish.