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Screen readers 0:54
A 54-second explainer of Screen readers, narrated over the same demo you can try yourself.
Try the interactive Screen readers demo
What this video covers
A screen reader presents on-screen content through speech and/or a braille display, letting blind and low-vision people use a computer. Users can read sequentially, but they also jump through headings, landmarks, links, form controls, tables and search - they rarely listen to a whole page top to bottom. Good source order, accessible names and meaningful markup are what make that navigation possible.
Step through the layout the way a screen reader can and the neat 2D grid becomes a single-file queue - unless your headings and landmarks let people jump straight to what they want. That's why source order, accessible names and structure matter so much: by ear, they're what turn a linear stream into something navigable. The picture you see is not the page they get.
