Re: Screenreader says....

> I was wondering if there is some sort of documentation out there that helps writers and developers know what the screenreaders will say when certain code is used. For example when <li> is used JAWS automatically tells the user, 1 of 2...

I would avoid that if possible, screenreaders deal with elements differently and even within a particular version the user can personalise how things are read out.

Instead, I’d make sure the writers understand what the semantics of the available mark-up should be used for.

For example, <img> tags are treated as inline content, so punctuate appropriately. E.g.
<p>I <img src=”heart.png” alt=”love”> New York.</p>

That would generally be read out as: “I love (image) New York”. However, declaring the image might be skipped if the user has set a low verbosity setting, so it still makes sense without that.

If it were a picture of something that is separate from the text, I’d add a full stop at the end of the alt text.

In the case of bullets, I’d give a general statement that: If bullets or numbering are used visually then the appropriate structure must be used. That structure allows screenreader users to skim the content quickly (e.g. skip the list) and get an idea of how many items there are at the start of the list.

BUT, you should not be definitive about how things are read-out because you cannot predict or control that directly, and you don’t want the writers to rely on that single interpretation.

Kind regards,

-Alastair