Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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screen reader won't work on online textbook (self.Blind)
submitted by [deleted]
[deleted]
SLJ7 2 points 1y ago
Hi,
Are you talking about Narrator? Which website is the textbook hosted on? Which browser are you using?
My first suggestion would be to try NVDA in case it is a narrator problem. It is probably not, but it's worth finding out for sure. NVDA also has an add-on called NVDA remote that would let another NVDA user take a look at what's going on.
If all of this fails and the book is not readable, they are not in compliance. Even if they have their own read aloud function, you're still not able to navigate by word and have things spelled out, so it's not compliant. If you were a Braille reader and wanted or needed to read it using a Braille display, it also wouldn't be compliant.
Happy to take a look at this via remote if you want. My job involves making sure reading systems are compliant so I don't take too kindly to stuff like this not working.
Are you talking about Narrator? Which website is the textbook hosted on? Which browser are you using?
My first suggestion would be to try NVDA in case it is a narrator problem. It is probably not, but it's worth finding out for sure. NVDA also has an add-on called NVDA remote that would let another NVDA user take a look at what's going on.
If all of this fails and the book is not readable, they are not in compliance. Even if they have their own read aloud function, you're still not able to navigate by word and have things spelled out, so it's not compliant. If you were a Braille reader and wanted or needed to read it using a Braille display, it also wouldn't be compliant.
Happy to take a look at this via remote if you want. My job involves making sure reading systems are compliant so I don't take too kindly to stuff like this not working.
RainyBlueDays 3 points 1y ago
Thank you so much for your reply and message! I'm actually new to having to use a screen reader, I've gotten by with just the windows 10 screen reader for the past year and a half now so I had no idea about other options. I just downloaded NVDA and it's working great! I really appreciate your help, I was worried about how I would be able to study without a screen reader and I feel relieved now. Thank you again!!
gunfart 2 points 1y ago
oh goodness, i couldn't stand having to use windows narrator for more than a few minutes when i need to. nvda is so much better with all sorts of neat functions and gestures once you get the swing of it
TechnicalPragmatist 1 points 1y ago
Work with your disabled students office and ask for an accessible copy in word they will provide it.
Shadowwynd 1 points 1y ago
Is it a PDF or a different type of e-book? I have personally had much better success using adobe acrobat reader with a screen reader that I have with Edge for reading PDFs.
RainyBlueDays 1 points 1y ago
It's on the ATI website. Another user suggested NVDA which is working great so far for me. I'm new to having to use screen readers so I hadn't heard of it before now. Thanks for your advice though! I appreciate it
retrolental_morose 1 points 1y ago
the Basic training NVDA book available from NVAccess for a very reasonable price has some brilliant instructions, easy to follow step-by-step exercises for you to become familiar with using NVDA and Windows from the keyboard.
RainyBlueDays 1 points 1y ago
Thanks for the advice! I'll check it out
cebeezly82 1 points 1y ago
Yep have dropped out of classes because of this.. Pearson was always a big culprit of this. After threatens of lawsuits and lots of cussing them out I think in most cases they've added a reed button that has their own built-in text to speech. It's super obnoxious and you can't even control it. There may be a read button somewhere which is pretty much useless if you can't control the line by line reading speed and all that stuff. Copyright protection will always be an
RainyBlueDays 1 points 1y ago
Yes Pearson has added that god awful read button. Another user suggested NVDA, which I haven't heard of or used until now and it's working great thankfully!
cebeezly82 1 points 1y ago
Oh great! It sucks trying to battle these accessibility issues imposed on visually impaired customers who are paying top dollar. College can move really quickly and there have been times where I never received an accessible version of the book from the publisher for 3 weeks into the class. Always scared me at the beginning of the semester
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