In December 2017, results of Screen Reader User Survey #7 by WebAIM were released. The survey was conducted in October and had 1,792 valid responses. The survey had less respondents than the previous survey, but had better world-wide representation.
Highlights:
- Primary screen reader usage: JAWS 46.6%; NVDA 31.9%; VoiceOver 11.7%.
- CAPTCHA remains the most problematic item.
- The second most problematic item is now “Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly”. This is surely due to complex designs and SPAs/JS frameworks.
- Web accessibility basics (keyboard access, alt text, forms, headings, data tables) are still in top 10 of most problematic.
- When asked if more accessible web sites or better assistive technology would have a bigger impact on accessibility, 85.3% responded more accessible web sites.
- Sadly, frequent use of landmarks and regions dropped to 30.5%. WebAIM states that this may be “due to infrequent or improper usage of landmarks/regions in pages”.
- 33.3% reported using Braille output with a screen reader.
- 41.4% reported using an external keyboard with a mobile device and screen reader.
I highly recommend you also read WebAIM’s summary of Screen Reader User Survey.
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