Screen Readers

What makes a screen reader different than more lightweight text-to-speech tools? Screen readers can announce alternative text for images, and they will announce the roles of interactive elements to let you know you can interact with them. For example, screen readers will typically announce "link" when you navigate to a link. Screen readers can also provide you with different ways to navigate around a page or document. For example, with a screen reader, you can pull up a list of all the headings on the page and quickly jump between them.

Screen readers are essential for people who are blind and people who have low vision, and they can be important for people with dyslexia or certain cognitive disabilities. If you can see okay, you will likely find that a more lightweight text-to-speech tool is easier to use. However, if you take some time to learn the fundamentals, you might find that screen readers can be a helpful option for when you want to process information in a different way or let your eyes rest.

Screen readers are typically built in by default to your operating system, but there are a couple third-party screen readers you may want to consider if you're using Microsoft Windows.

Using Google Docs with a Screen Reader

You can use Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides with a screen reader, but it is a relatively unique experience that will take some time to learn.

Screen Reader Training Guides

The university has created a number of training guides for students, faculty, and staff outlining how to accomplish key tasks in our IT systems. In particular, we have many training guides for Workday, which students use for registration and employees use for payroll. (See Training Guides for Students and HR Workday Resources.)

These guides can be helpful for everyone, but sometimes they may be less helpful for users of assistive technology. In particular, screen reader users may rely on unique methods to navigate websites and apps and can benefit from customized training guides that focus less on visuals and more on navigating by programmatic regions, headings, and labels. For this reason, here are training guides we have created for the university community that center screen reader users.

Please reach out to OAE if you would like to collaborate with us to ensure your training guides work well for all users or to discuss creating customized screen reader training guides.

• Modify Personal Information in Workday
• Review Candidate Materials in Workday