Utah State University Study Finds 53% Use Screen Readers on Wireless Devices

The Center for Persons with Disabilities at Utah State University conducted a new study in October on screen readers, often used by people with vision disabilities to access internet documents and websites. The results reflect responses from over 600 users of screen readers. The easy-to-understand results from this WebAIM study are very interesting.

--75% are self-taught users of screen readers;

--53% reported using screen readers on mobile or wireless devices;

--49% use more than one screen reader and 23% use more than two;

--35% bought their own screen reader with ony 17% reporting their employer paid for it, with 31% of new users reporting using free or pirated screenreaders;

--CAPTCHA and Flash remain the most problematic with "links and buttons not making sense" as a third problem area;

--screen reader users are accessing social media, such as blogs, Facebook, and Twitter.

The researchers conclude that there is no typical screen reader user and that use of NVDA, Voice Over and System Access usage increased tremendously.