WebAIM Screen Reader Survey Results WashU Web Accessibility Users Group March 2019

Topics The WebAIM Million WebAIM Screen Reader Survey Results

About WebAIM WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind) found in 1999 Non-profit is one of the leading providers of web accessibility expertise internationally. Organization within the Center for Persons with Disabilities at Utah State University in Logan Utah. Provides free web accessibility evaluation tool (WAVE)

WebAIM Million Intro In February of 2019 WebAIM conducted an evaluation of the top 1,000,000 home pages using their WAVE tool. Evaluated against WCAG 2 compliance

WCAG Conformance 97.8% of home pages had detectable WCAG 2 errors! Includes only automatically detectable errors. Does not include errors requiring manual testing (i.e. keyboard accessible, contextually appropriate alt. text, etc.)

Most Common Errors WCAG Failure Type # of home pages % of home pages Low contrast text 852,868 85.3% Missing alt text for images 679,964 68% Empty Links 581,408 58.1% Missing form input labels 528,482 52.8% Missing document language 329,612 33.1% Empty buttons 250,367 25%

Missing Alternative Text There were 36,713,043 images in the sample, or 36.7 images per home page on average 33.6% of all images (12.3 per page on average) had missing alternative text Not including images tagged as decorative (alt = “”) 18.5% of all images (6.7 per page on average) were linked images with missing or empty alternative text, resulting in both an alternative text issue and a link lacking any description.

Skip Links Skip links are keyboard activated links that allow users to jump to page sections to avoid tab heavy regions. WashU main site (wustl.edu), The Source, and WashU Sites web theme are local examples with skip links. 9.6% of homepages had skip links But of those with skip links, 14% were broken.

Screen Reader Survey Intro First survey completed in January 2009 Received 1,121 responses from screen reader users. Follow up surveys completed in: October 2009 December 2012 January 2014 July 2015 October 2017

Primary Screen Reader Screen Reader # of Respondents % of Respondents JAWS* 811 46.6% NVDA 555 31.9% VoiceOver (Apple ) 204 11.7% ZoomText 42 2.4% System Access or SA to Go 30 1.7% Window-Eyes 27 1.5% ChromeVox 7 0.4% Narrator 6 0.3% Other 60 3.4% *JAWS version 17 Home license $895

Screen Reader / Browser Combos # of Respondents % of Respondents JAWS + Internet Explorer 424 24.7% NVDA + Firefox 405 23.6% JAWS + Firefox 260 15.1% VoiceOver + Safari 172 10% JAWS + Chrome 112 6.5% NVDA + Chrome 102 5.9% NVDA + Internet Explorer 40 2.3% VoiceOver + Chrome 24 1.4% Other Combinations 180 10.5%

Mobile Screen Readers Mobile Screen Reader % of Respondents VoiceOver 69% TalkBack for Android 29.5% Voice Assistant 5.2% Mobile Accessibility for Android Nuance Talks 1.9% MobileSpeak 1.5% Other 3.2%

Mobile vs. Desktop/Laptop Usage Do you use a screen reader most often on a desktop/laptop computer or a mobile/tablet device? Response # of Respondents % of Respondents Desktop/Laptop 528 34.6% I use mobile/tablet and desktop/laptop screen readers about the same 825 54% Mobile/Tablet device 174 11.4%

Finding Information When trying to find information on a lengthy web page, which of the following are you most likely to do first? Response # of Respondents % of Respondents Navigate through the headings of the page 1,180 67.5% Use the “Find” feature 252 14.4% Navigate through the links of the page 118 6.8% Navigate through the landmarks/regions 69 3.9% Reading through the page 128 7.3%

Heading Structures Which of the following page heading structures is easiest for you? Response # of Respondents % of Respondents One first level heading that contains the site name 95 6.6% One first level heading that contains the document title 858 60% Two first level headings, one for the site name and one for the document title 476 33.3%

Locating Search How do you usually locate the site search? Response % of Respondents Jump to the first form element in a page 36% Jump to the first text/edit field on the page 25% Find the word “Search” 18% Tab through page elements until the search form is encountered 8% Read through the page content until the search form is encountered 6% Jump to the first button on the page and go back one element 2% No Response 4%

Problem Areas Users asked to select top three problem areas: CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly Links or buttons that do not make sense The presence of inaccessible Flash content Lack of keyboard accessibility Complex or difficult forms Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text) Missing or improper headings Too many links or navigation items Complex data tables Inaccessible or missing search functionality Lack of "skip to main content" or "skip navigation" links

Problem Areas

Resources The WebAIM Million – Accessibility Analysis of the top 1,000,000 home pages WebAIM Screen Reader Surverys WashU Web Accessibility Users Group