[Athen] Video showing screen reader and common page errors?

[Steve Green via athen-list]

Unfortunately, I can't share any of the recordings of our user testing sessions, but there are hundreds of different issues. Screen reader users tend to ignore anything they don't understand, otherwise tasks would take far too long.

In theory, they can read words and phrases letter by letter or word by word if they don't understand them, but in most cases it's not worth the effort. Likewise, they could use AI tools to identify the contents of images, but they have to decide if it's worth the time it takes. Speed usually takes priority, and they learn to live with the resulting errors. This doesn't usually matter, but there are obviously times it has very bad consequences.

If you're going to record screen reader users, one of the skills you need to develop is to identify when they should have encountered a problem they didn't mention. You need to carefully probe them on the point without letting them realise what you're doing. Beware of users who tell you every little thing - they are probably thinking as a tester, not as a user.

Whether you're using the screen reader yourself or working with a screen reader user, the simplest way to record a session is to use Zoom or Teams. They give you the option to save the recordings locally, but if you record to the cloud, it's much easier to give other people access to them. At least it is with Zoom. Teams is sometimes locked down so no one outside your organisation can view the recordings.

Obviously, you have to share the screen to make the recording, and you must also share the computer sound when you do this. Zoom and Teams both have a checkbox for this on the screen sharing dialog.

We used to have our own UX lab, but we do all our user testing this way now. The main difficulty is that recording screen readers on mobile devices is stupidly difficult because the Zoom mobile app is a piece of garbage. If you record ZoomText, you get the unmagnified version regardless of what was on screen at the time. If you want to record a screen magnifier, you need to use Windows Magnifier, which gets recorded correctly.

If you're recording with NVDA screen reader, make sure all the focus indicators are turned on so you can see where the actual and virtual focuses are. This is now a feature in NVDA 2025, but you used to need a separate plug-in in earlier versions. Without the focus indicators, it can be difficult for observers to understand what they are hearing.

Whoever is using the screen reader needs to keep a constant commentary explaining what they are going to do (including which keys they are going to press), what they expect to happen and what actually happened. Most people are terrible at this at first and often go silent after a while. They also tend to only talk after they have done something, so people watching the recordings have to rewind to make sense of what they previously saw.

Finally, be aware that people often did not do what they say they did and they misunderstand what happened. If they suggest a solution, it's very often going to be wrong. There's no doubt they had a problem, but you need to investigate to identify the real cause and the real fix.

Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd


From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman22.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Matson, Eric (ecmatson at uidaho.edu) via athen-list
Sent: 01 December 2025 23:46
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Athen] Video showing screen reader and common page errors?

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving break!

Does anyone have any videos showing common errors encountered by screen reader users?  Bad link text, bad / missing image alt text, weird emojis etc. Our Faculty have asked for examples of what happens when they format things wrong, so figured I'd ask here before figuring out how to screen record with a screen reader.

Anyone have any tips for screen recording with a screen reader? I haven't looked into the best way to do it, so just looking for anything that might be a snag.

Thanks,

Eric Matson | Assistant Director - Assistive Technology & Accommodation Operations
Center for Disability Access and Resources
Division of Student Affairs
The University of Idaho
Phone: 208.885.6307 | ecmatson at uidaho.edu|<mailto:ecmatson at uidaho.edu%7C> Message me on Teams<https://teams.microsoft.com/l/chat/0/0?users=ecmatson@uidaho.edu>
Bruce M. Pitman Center 127
Fax: 208.885.9404
Campus Zip: 4257

Treasurer - Idaho Partnership on Higher Education and Disability
Pronouns: He / Him / His

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