Pew Pew Laser Blog

Screen Reading.

9.10.2007

I was listening to the Boadworld Web Design podcast recently, and there was an eye opening section about screen readers, which included hearing a screen reader attempt to parse some web pages. A screen reader is a piece of software (typically used by folks with no or low vision) that reads a computer screen aloud. The cold staccato Steven Hawking voice of the screen reader had a terrifyingly difficult time reading Amazon's pages in particular. If you want to know why CSS is good, and table based layout is bad, I highly recommend that you take a listen - scroll down to the "Ask an Expert" section. As you listen, consider the internet's most influential blind user of all - Google.