Screen Reader

A Screen Reader is an assistive technology that reads aloud the text displayed on a screen, helping visually impaired users navigate websites, applications, and other digital content. Screen readers use text-to-speech synthesis to describe content, buttons, and navigation elements, allowing users to interact with the product independently.

Screen reader compatibility is required by law for public sector and many enterprise products (Section 508 in the US, EN 301 549 in Europe), and it's increasingly a procurement requirement for corporate software. Beyond compliance, testing with a screen reader reveals semantic HTML issues that affect SEO and generally indicate architectural problems in your frontend. Doing a screen reader walkthrough of your core user flow takes 30 minutes and often reveals critical accessibility gaps that visual testing would never catch.

VoiceOver on iOS and TalkBack on Android are used by millions of people daily — not just those with visual impairments, but people driving, cooking, or exercising who interact with their phones entirely by audio. Apps that are screen reader compatible capture this significant secondary use case in addition to serving visually impaired users.