Transcript

Hi! I’m Peter Berg. I’m the University of Illinois-Chicago’s ADA Coordinator. I am blind, and I use a screen reader. A screen reader is assistive technology. It’s a program that allows me to access digital content.

The reason I am showing this website is to demonstrate that this website does not have proper structure. What I mean by that: for a screen reader user, having headings on a website is a way that a screen reader user is able to easily navigate through a website and understand the various sections and information that is provided on that webpage. So, if I do a keystroke command to see what headings are available.

“No headings found.” If you just heard that there, it said “No headings found” – meaning that there is no proper structure to this website. This is a difficult page to navigate in that – as a screen reader user – I have to go line by line to figure out what is on this webpage.

“Links List dialogue.” That is a list – that is a keystroke command that I am able to do with my screen reader. What it has just done – it has pulled up all of the links on this webpage. It allows me to arrow up and down this list to see the various links. As you can hear me going through here.

So, another important aspect of a properly-constructed structured website is that links have appropriate text associated with that link so that a screen reader user knows “Hey, if I click on this link, I know that I am going to another federal agency website. I am going to get information about home ownership, or I am going to get information about rental assistance.” And that is critical information for a screen reader user. Just providing the URL is not useful. And, as a screen reader user, I have no idea where I am going to go if I click on a link if the link simply says “Click here.” Again, not useful information because it does not allow me as a screen reader user to know exactly where I am.

What I am displaying now is an untagged PDF document. And a structured document is much quicker, easier to navigate for someone that uses a screen reader, like myself.

There was a student that used a screen reader in this course and wanted to get to a particular section because they know that section contains the information they need to complete a work assignment associated with the reading assignment for this particular document. That individual using a screen reader would have to arrow down throughout the entire document. So what you are hearing there in the background is my screen reader as I arrow line by line by line.