What is Screen reader?
The short answer
A screen reader is software that reads a page aloud or outputs it to braille, letting blind and low-vision people navigate by headings, links and landmarks.
Screen reader, explained
Testing a page with one, such as VoiceOver or NVDA, quickly shows whether structure and labels make sense.
Questions people ask about Screen reader
What is Screen reader?
A screen reader is software that reads a page aloud or outputs it to braille, letting blind and low-vision people navigate by headings, links and landmarks.
Related terms
ARIA is a set of HTML attributes that describe roles, states and labels to assistive technology when native HTML elements cannot express them.
Semantic HTMLSemantic HTML uses elements for their meaning, such as header, nav, main, article, button and h1 to h6, instead of generic divs, so machines understand the page.
Alt textAlt text is a written description of an image in the HTML, read aloud by screen readers and used by search engines to understand the picture.
Web accessibilityWeb accessibility means building sites everyone can use, including people who are blind, deaf, have limited movement or cognitive differences, whatever device or assistive technology they use.
Part of the Web Encyclopedia by Apex Flow Digital. Definitions are general knowledge, kept current, with no invented statistics.