Listen to your content

As educators we spend a lot of time planning and designing the learning environment for our students. Documents and web content are an important part of supporting that learning environment; from the welcome message, the syllabus, the course schedule, directions, stories, assignments, and all the way to our “final exam.”

We spend a lot of time and effort in making this content attractive, clear, and understandable for our students.  Many of our students with no vision, low vision, or visual related learning disabilities use screen readers to understand your content. If you don’t have a vision or learning disability how do you know how these students experience your content? One easy way is to close your eyes and listen.

“Listening to your web content rather than looking at it can be an “eye-opening” experience (pardon the pun) that takes sighted users out of their normal comfort zone. ” webaim.org.

Free Screen Reader Programs

Are you an Apple or a PC? Doesn’t matter, there are free programs for both you can use to take your content for a listen.

• VoiceOver, is a screen reader program that comes on new Mac computers, iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches. A comprehensive  tutorial on how to use this program is available at webaim.org, Using VoiceOver to Evaluate Web Accessibility.
• NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) is a free and open source reader from the Microsoft Windows operating system. A comprehensive tutorial on how to install (or use from a USB) is available at webaim.org, Using NVDA to Evaluate Web Accessibility.

See Screen Reader in Action