> Must know accessibility tips for developers
> 1. Learn to use a screen reader

No. This is never the first step. The first step is understanding the spectrum of needs that your code works with. Screen readers are only an itsy bitsy tiny part of the overall experience. And you don’t need to use them at all to write good code for 90+% of all situations.

#accessibility #a11y

@yatil

If you use good practices and clear semantic HTML, screen reader users will be fine. It might not be great, and there might be obstacles. And you should try to improve, always.

But remember, screen readers are made to work with the worst the web has to offer, they will often work around issues that other assistive tech can/does not work around. Or reveal information oblivious for other tech.

@yatil

In reply to @lauren.

@lauren @fireborn @adora So by way of example, Seeing AI from Microsoft uses AI now for image recognition. I use it sometimes to try to figure out, say, what a label on a can says, or what color my shirt is. It sometimes gets these wrong and I need to double check with a sighted person. There's also OCR, which is technically in this category and which all too frequently still has to be manually corrected for readability/accuracy of text.

We shouldn’t talk about screenreader access like it’s basic or simple. We call it basic to encourage people to follow web/OS standards, but esentially lying about the challenge helps no one. Nor are screenreaders simple to use! We tech literate people are used to them but it’s nothing compared to the UX of glancing at a screen and tapping/clicking a mouse. Good luck teaching the modern web to a blind person who’s 65 and thinks “the big blue e” is how to access the internet.

@objectinspace