[Athen] [EXTERNAL] - Demonstration of accessibility overlay

[Hayman, Douglass via athen-list]

Tisha,

If you land upon a site using an accessibility overlay that has the pseudo-screen reader on by default, it would be a good instance of an element of an overlay interfering with the user's assistive technology.

A screen reader user going from web site to website expects to use their preferred screen reader (JAWS, NVDA, Voiceover) and does not expect to have to turn it off to then use some clunky piece of junk screen reader that they need to learn new commands for.  It is akin to having a customized electric wheelchair and arriving at one retail store that tells you that you'll need to leave your chair by the door and instead use their electric scooter...and to make things worse, the joystick may be on the wrong side, work differently that your controller did and the seating also is not set up to your particular needs.

Perhaps many of these installed overlays are better set up to not have their screen reader talking as you land on the site but instead expect the user to toggle it on, then proceed.

Most features these overlays have are either built in to the operating system, or available in the web browser or lastly what you'd use in almost all cases on your computer activities and not just at one site.

Doug Hayman
IT Accessibility Coordinator
Information Technology
Olympic College
dhayman at olympic.edu<mailto:dhayman at olympic.edu>
(360) 475-7632



From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman22.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Tisha L. Marzewski via athen-list
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2025 8:47 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] - [Athen] Demonstration of accessibility overlay

CAUTION: This email came from a non-OC system or external source. Beware of phishing and social engineering!

Hello everyone, curious to know if there is a video demonstrating how accessibility overlays interfere with an user's own accessibility software.  Can anyone direct me to anything?  I have found alot of videos talking about why and how accessibility overlays do not help, but have not came across a recorded demonstration.  Thanks so much, Tisha.

Tisha L Marzewski | Coordinator of Disability Services
Arkansas State University-Beebe
tlmarzewski at asub.edu<mailto:tlmarzewski at asub.edu>
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