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Screen readers 0:31
A 31-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 speaks or displays on-screen content via braille or speech, helping blind and low-vision users interact with a computer. Users navigate by jumping to headings, landmarks, links, form controls, tables and search - rarely reading from top to bottom. Good source order, accessible names and meaningful markup 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.