User preferences

Understanding user needs and preferences is critical to underline what works and what could be improved. Some commonly reported challenges according to a study of blind participants by Lazar et al. are: 1) page layouts causing confusing screen-reader feedback; 2) conflict between screen reader and application; 3) poorly designed or unlabelled forms; 4) no alternative text for pictures or poor image-recognition capabilities; and 5) three-way tie between misleading links, inaccessible documents (such as portable document files or PDFs), and screen-reader crashes. 16

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Screen-reader user preferences are described in the WebAIM annual user surveys, which are often used as a source of information. The most recent iteration from 2021 is based on 1,568 responses from participants from North America (57.7 per cent), Europe (23.5 per cent) and Asia (8.2 per cent). A few key insights are noted below:

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