Screen reader demonstration with Jordie: Video transcript

Jacinta: Screen reader demo with Jordie.

Visuals: 'Screen reader demo with Jordie' is displayed on screen in yellow text on a blue background, Vision Australia, Blindness. Low Vision. Opportunity. Logo is displayed in bottom right hand corner.

Jordie: Hello, my name's Jordie, and I'm a braille music transcriber at Vision Australia, and I love to sing. I sing most regularly at a busy church in South Yarra where I use braille to read scores and sing choral music.

Visuals: Jordie is speaking directly to the camera, she has blonde curly hair that is down over her shoulders, she is wearing headphones and is sitting in front of a white wall with a window behind her.

Jordie: A screen reader is software that sits on top of Windows or another OS, and it renders the visual information into an accessible format such as synthetic speech or braille, and you can customise the screen reader so that you can have it at a different speech rate. You can have it using reading selected information, and it just makes the computer accessible to a user who's vision impaired or blind.

I use a screen reader called JAWS for Windows version 2022. I find it an invaluable tool. I've got some experience with other screen readers as well, but JAWS for Windows is my preference.

Visuals: Jordie is sharing her screen while on a page of the Vision Australia website. There is a thumbnail with her video in the top right corner of the screen.

Jordie: For example, the webpage that I'm on now, which according to the refreshable braille display that I have in front of me says Primary School Years - Vision Australia, and if I use my down arrow key, I can explore the top elements of that page.

Visuals: Jordie’s screen reader moves through items in the navigation region at the top of the web page.

Screen Reader:
Same page, link, skip to main content.
Visited link, Vision Australia Logo.
Menu Button.
Search.
Escape, virtual PC -, Search, button.
Link, phone number.
Link, Login to MyVA and Library.
Link, donate now.
Breadcrumb navigation region.
List of four items.
Visited link, Home.
Link, services for children.
Primary school years.

Jordie: You'll notice that my computer is speaking very fast.

Screen Reader:
Link enquire about services.
Main region.

Jordie: I use JAWS for Windows at speech rate, 75% but I can slow that right down so that people have some hope of understanding it.

Visuals: Jordie moves down the page. Her screen reader is now moving through a navigation region on the left-hand side of the page with links to headings on the page.

Screen Reader:
Navigation region.
Heading Level two link.
Services for Children.
List of four items.
Link, Early Years.
Visited link, Primary school years.
Link, High School and beyond.
Link, Experts you'll work with.

Jordie: The nice thing about using JAWS on the web with a well-structured webpage is that you can skip via heading, so you know what the most important bit of information is and drill down to the subheadings within those important pieces of text. For example, if I press the quick key H, it will take me to the main body of this article.

Visuals: Jordie's screen reader is moving through the main text content on the page.
Screen Reader: Primary school years heading level one.

Jordie: If I move a bit further on.

Screen Reader: Services for Children heading level two link.

Jordie: It's telling me that Services for Children is a heading level two, and if I keep going with quick key H.

Screen Reader: On this page heading level two, keep on growing, heading level two.

Jordie: And then if I want to know about what's in this particular heading, I can just use the down arrow key to read the text that's involved.

Screen Reader: Further develop reading and literacy skills, physical coordination, sociability, and independence.
We can offer you the tools, advice and support to create the best environment for your child, helping them navigate the new world of school and unlock their potential on their terms.

Jordie: Alt text is a really important feature on the web for someone who is blind or has low vision. Here is an example of some very good alt text that describes the image that I'm focused on.

Visuals: Jordie’s screen reader is now on a feature image on the webpage.

Screen Reader: The three Bradley Boys in their Karate whites graphic.

Jordie: I know that's a graphic and I know that's three boys in their karate whites. It's very concise and easy to understand. Sometimes we can navigate to webpages with a lot of graphics, particularly at the top of pages. Might have logos or banners, and it might just say, graphic 3254m, whatever, and it's not useful at all. We have no idea what's on the page.
So to enhance the user experience, it's really important to label any graphic with concise and useful alt text.

Jacinta: Prepared by Digital Access, Vision Australia

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Pub: 28 Feb 2023 04:40 UTC
Edit: 24 Apr 2023 06:06 UTC
Views: 499