Re: Screen Readers, Braille Displays and Live Regions

Well, the good news for you is that NVDA, JAWS and VoiceOver (Mac) all have a Braille Viewing feature, for the latest JAWS and VoiceOver versions, I believe you can see the Braille dots and a translation of those, I am not sure about NVDA. So, you can see the actuall behaviour. Depending on the content type, most screen readers will update content dynamically on the braille display  where  it would usually be considered dynamic. So if the Braille cursor is on a slider, if that slider changes value, the Braille display will change fairly dynamically as its value changes. Note, I mentioned a Braille cursor, for JAWS and NVDA What is in the Braille display can be quite different from what audio is being produced. However as mentioned by others, Braille displays might show flash messages, these are messages that will appear on the display for a couple of seconds (configurable by the user) I believe live regions are categorized as things to show in flash messages.
Jonathan Cohn


On Nov 10, 2020, at 10:14 AM, Andrews, David B (DEED) <david.b.andrews@state.mn.us<mailto:david.b.andrews@state.mn.us>> wrote:

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Braille Displays are controlled by screen reading software – they are not separate entities in one sense.

Having said that, screen readers may treat audio, and Braille messages etc. differently. For example, in Braille a message may appear, and is displayed for five seconds, then disappears!

Dave



From: Taliesin Smith <talilief@gmail.com<mailto:talilief@gmail.com>>
Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2020 9:01 AM
To: W3C WAI ig <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org<mailto:w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>>
Subject: Screen Readers, Braille Displays and Live Regions


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________________________________
Hi Folks,
I have a few very general questions about screen reader software (SR), braille displays (BD), and ARIA live regions.

1. Is it safe to assume that text is text and that the screen reader software (SR) and braille display devices (BD) handle or display text-base content in the same way, i.e. through the same channels simultaneously?

2. In theory, is text marked up in an element properly designated as an aria live-region in some way different than text marked up in a paragraph tag? I mean really different once the text is recognized by the SR or the BD.

3. Since users often use both SR and BD together, are there special situations that web developers should be aware of to ensure text is accessible and deliverable by both technologies simultaneously? Especially, in the case of custom interactions and where aria live-regions are being employed.

Thanks for any thoughts or resources people may know about.

I was just reading this resources from MDN which mentions “channels”
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility/ARIA/ARIA_Screen_Reader_Implementors_Guide<https://gcc01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdeveloper.mozilla.org%2Fen-US%2Fdocs%2FWeb%2FAccessibility%2FARIA%2FARIA_Screen_Reader_Implementors_Guide&data=04%7C01%7Cdavid.b.andrews%40state.mn.us%7C47344a1fefda47f108b708d8858a290c%7Ceb14b04624c445198f26b89c2159828c%7C0%7C0%7C637406175732048449%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=OCeFtEkboqeNQutOulCXQ38IuojLTot51aujAetaS8Y%3D&reserved=0>

Taliesin

Taliesin Smith
talilief@gmail.com<mailto:talilief@gmail.com>

~.~.~
Also reachable at:
Taliesin.Smith@colorado.edu<mailto:Taliesin.Smith@colorado.edu>
Inclusive Design Researcher
PhET Interactive Simulations
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/accessibility

Physics Department
University of Colorado, Boulder