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TechBash Workshop Tips

The following resources and tips are meant to help with the 2024 TechBash workshop, Accessibility Testing with Screen Readers and More. Many of the links on this page will open in new tabs/windows because they go to sites external to this one.

Bookmarklets

I will add some links and information here specific to the workshop, but in the mean time you can check out the "Reporting/Testing Resources" section of my A11y page.

Desktop Applications

I will add some links and information here specific to the workshop, but in the mean time you can check out the "Reporting/Testing Resources" section of my A11y page.

Screen Readers

I will be using the NVDA screen reader for my demonstration, but most of what I show will have an equivalent on other screen readers. Some keyboard shortcuts, customization options, or how things are viewed may just differ.

Some key things to note:

Installing Screen Readers

Narrator & Voiceover Installtion

If you use Narrator (Windows) or Voiceover (MacOS/iOS), installation is not necessary because they are built into their respective operating systems. No additional isntalls are required aside from possible voice/language packs that may be available. Navigate to the Manually Turning on a Screen Reader section to learn how to start either of these.

NVDA Installtion

In addition to a regular installation,NVDA can be installed as a portable version on a flashdrive or just a folder on your computer. This can often allow you to install it on a machine that doesn't allow you to install applications normally, but you don't get all the same auto-start options necessarily.

If you want to install NVDA:

  1. Download the NVDA installer Opens in new window from the NV Access website.
  2. Run the installer and follow the prompts to install NVDA. Select the portable install option when it is presented if that is how you wish to install it.
    • Note that there is also an option at the start to perform a portable install if you want to install it on a flashdrive.
    • The portable version can also be used to install NVDA on some computers where installation would otherwise be blocked because it doesn't add entries to the system registry.
    • The portable version will not allow for some of the automatic startup options because it doesn't add system registry entries.
  3. Once installed, you can run NVDA via the NVDA shortcut (on the desktop or in the start menu), or by activating the main executable (exe) file.

During installation there are options to enable/disable whether NVDA starts on the login screen or after you login. It is suggested that you disable the start on login screen if you share a machine. If you need to disable these settings after installation, see the Disabling the Run on Login Screen and/or Login option section.

JAWS Installation

You can download the JAWS installer on the Freedom Scientific site Opens in new window. The cost can be a bit prohibitive for some. However, you may be able to get it for free, or at a discount, through your employer or school.

JAWS can be used without being activated in a 45 minute mode. However, it will only work for the first 45 minutes after the machine was powered on, not from when the program was started. If it has been more than 45 minutes since you powered on your computer, it will not run. In those instances, you will need to reboot the machine before you can run JAWS again.

Manually Turning on a Screen Reader

Most screen readers will have an application shortcut you can access from the applications list (i.e. Applications on MacOS or Start Menu on Windows), and they will have a keyboard shortcut.

Enable/Disable Screen Reader to Automatically Start Before/After Login

NVDA and JAWS both provide options for enabling the option to auto-start them at the login screen and/or after login during installation. All screen readers have auto-start options in their settings.

It is important to know that changing whether a screen reader starts automatically after sign-in typically does not require administrator rights. However, starting a screen reader automatically on the login screen does. This is because changing this after sign in is just impacting the individual user registry/settings, and not the system-wide registry/settings the way setting it to start on the login screen does.

Auto-Start Narrator

These steps are in Windows 11, but it should be fairly close to the same in Windows 8 & 10.

  1. To edit the Narrator auto-start options, you will first need to access Narrators settings, which can be done with Windows key + Ctrl + n.
  2. From there, expand the "Use Narrator" section.
  3. Depending on your needs you can check / uncheck the "Start Narrator before sign-in" and/or "Start Narrator after sign-in" to set Narrator to start on the login screen or after you login. The "after sign-in" option will only impact the user currently logged in. You will have to login to other accounts to set this for other users. However, those users can use the manual start option to start Narrator after sign-in to set the option if needed.

Auto-Start Voiceover

  1. Choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click Lock Screen in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.)
  2. Click Accessibility Options on the right.
  3. Turn on VoiceOver. You may need to enter an administrator name and password.
  4. Click Done.

Auto-Start NVDA

  1. Start NVDA.
  2. Right-click (Shift + F10 or Shift + Enter) on the NVDA icon in the notification area.
  3. Select Preferences > Settings.
  4. Check/uncheck the boxes for "Start NVDA after I sign in" and/or "Use NVDA during sign-in (requires administrator privileges)" to adjust when/if NVDA automatically starts.

Auto-Start JAWS

  1. Open JAWS.
  2. Open the Options menu, and select the Basic Settings.
  3. Select the "Automatically Start JAWS..." button.
  4. Check/uncheck the boxes for the "Start JAWS at the logon screen" and/or "Start JAWS after logon for all users" options as needed.
    • Note that since the checkbox for starting JAWS after logon says "...for all users".
    • As a result, if you check/uncheck this setting, it may require administrator rights because you are changing it for everyone.
    • If you just want JAWS to start for the logged in user, you change the setting in the drop-down menu labeled "Start JAWS after logon for this user:".
  5. Click OK to confirm the setting changes.

Turning on Speech Viewer

Narrator Speech Viewer

Narrator does not have any way to visually show the speech announced to my knowledge.

Voiceover caption panel

VoiceOver has a few different options related to visual output of the spoken output. The first is the caption panel, which adds a small caption box to the screen with some minimal customization options. Then you have a few different copy/paste options.

To show/hide the caption panel:

  1. Open the VoiceOver Utility (VO+Fn+F8).
  2. Click the Visuals ctegory.
  3. Click Panels and Menus.
  4. Select the "Show caption panel" checkbox.
  5. Then press VO + Fn + Command + F10. The Fn, or Function, key will be on keybords that features the Fn key.

To resize the caption panel:

  1. Press VO + Shift + Fn + F10 until you kear the action you want to perform.
  2. Press the VoiceOver modifier key with the arrow keys to move or resize the caption panel.
  3. When you are done, press the Escape key or Fn + Tab.

If using all of them, you can show/hide the caption panel, Braille panel, and VoiceOver cursor by pressing VO+Fn-Command+F11. You can learn more about the caption panel from the Use the VoiceOver caption panel on Mac Opens in new window doc in the Apple VoiceOver User Guide for MacOS.

Additionally, in VoiceOver, press Option + Control + Shift + c to copy the last item that was announced to the clipboard. Press Option + Control + Shift + z.

NVDA Speech Viewer

  1. Start NVDA.
  2. Right-click (Shift + F10 or Shift + Enter) on the NVDA icon in the notification area.
  3. Select Tools > Speech Viewer.
  4. This will start the Speech Viewer.
  5. You can then set it to always show when you start NVDA, by checking the box labeled "Show Speech Viewer on Start Up".

JAWS Speech Viewer

JAWS doesn't have an active speech viewer that I can find. However, it does have a speech history viewer that shows the last 50 missages read off by JAWS. This can be accessed by pressing Insert + Spacebar + h. You can learn more about Speech History in the following Tutorial Opens in new window.

Screen Reader Guides

General Resources