Everything you need to know about the WebAIM screen reader survey

Quick Links

A few things to note
What's the most popular screen reader?
Accessing the internet
General navigation
What are the biggest issues screen reader users face online?
Other interesting data from the WebAIM Survey
Digital accessibility trends
The future of screen readers

A few things to note

In this survey, WebAIM received 1,539 responses. Those responses came mostly from North America with 717 and Europe with 467. Other regions had less, with Asia in at 97, South America at 96, and Africa and the Middle East at 78 responses. At the end of the list we have Australia and Oceania at 50, and Central America and the Caribbean in last place with 20 responses.

While we have a nice sample size from America and Europe, it is worth noting that there was a much lower level of responses from other parts of the world. As we move forward, just keep that in mind.

Most of those taking the survey are of working age, between 21 and 60. A total of 584 responses were from those between 21 and 40, with 553 between 41 and 60.

89.9% said they had a disability, which was made up of 76.6% blindness and 19.9% visual impairment or low vision. This has some interesting impacts later on which we’ll discuss in due course. 16.7% of respondents had multiple disabilities, with 5.3% being both blind and deaf/hard of hearing.

All this to say that while the WebAIM survey gives us fascinating insight into screen reader usage and preferences, it’s far from perfect. It’s not controlled, so some of the data may be slightly skewed.

But with that said, let’s get into the interesting stuff.

What's the most popular screen reader?

On desktop, 40.5% of people use JAWS as their primary screen reader, followed by NVDA with 37.7%. However, NVDA has a slightly higher satisfaction rating at 97.6% vs 95.6% for JAWS.

On mobile, iOS was by far the most popular operating system for respondents at 70.6% vs 27.6% for Android. This 70.6% use Apple’s VoiceOver, with Google’s TalkBack also getting regular use at 34.7%. Interestingly, 10.1% are commonly using Commentary/Jieshuo, showing the power of third party screen readers on the Android side.

While very few people – only 2.4% – use Orca for Linux as their main screen reader, it’s being commonly used by 8.3% of respondents. A fascinating statistic is that more people say they commonly use Orca compared to ZoomText Fusion, which is used only by 7.5% of respondents.

It’s possible that this is due to many respondents being blind as opposed to having low vision, but it’s interesting to see so many preferring Linux with Orca. Tux the penguin would be very proud of you all.

71.6% of respondents say they use multiple screen readers, with 17.4% using four or more. This emphasises the need for content to be digitally accessible across all platforms, which is why we use a variety of screen readers for testing here at Vially.

81.4% work with the same primary screen reader at home and in the workplace. It would be interesting to know if the employers are making this decision or if it’s left to their employees, but it’s good to see most seem to be using a solution they’re comfortable with at home.

45.8% use the screen reader they do as a result of existing familiarity, with 26.5% saying their choice is based on features. In good news for JAWS, just 9.2% of respondents base their decision on price, which is an area NVDA has a massive advantage in by the nature of the fact that it’s free.

Around the world, JAWS was ahead of NVDA in both the USA and Australia, but NVDA was ahead everywhere else including Europe. In their home markets, JAWS had 55.5% usage in the states, while NVDA had 37.5% usage in its home market Australia. It’s interesting that JAWS is still beating NVDA in its own backyard with 45.8% of the Australian pie, but who knows if we’ll see this change in the next survey.

Accessing the internet

As far as I can tell this survey was completed online, so that will mess with these stats a bit, but when asked about their internet proficiency, 71.6% considered themselves advanced. 26.4% were intermediate and 1.8% were beginners.

Those without disabilities considered themselves to be more advanced internet users, but disabled people make up for this by being significantly more advanced screen reader users. So yeah, take that, able bodied people!

In terms of browser usage, Google Chrome is miles ahead with 52.3%, while Microsoft Edge has 19.3%. Firefox is in at 16%, which is double the 8% using Safari. I’ve got to give a shoutout here to the 0.9% of respondents using Internet Explorer, that’s impressive dedication.

Dedicated disability focused browsers don’t get any attention here really, with no mention for the likes of WebbIE.

Most people use JAWS or NVDA with Chrome, but Firefox does get a bit more love from NVDA users. 10% use NVDA with Firefox, but just 2.6% use it with JAWS.

Safari dominates on mobile with 58.2%, followed by Chrome at 27.9%. Everything else has under 5%, with only Firefox coming close at 4.6%.

99.8% had JavaScript enabled. This was measured automatically when the survey was submitted.

Overall, nothing terribly surprising here. Everything has remained relatively the same with only small moves.

General navigation

Lots of people like navigating by landmarks and regions, and this has picked up again after a steady decrease in the past few years. 17.9% say they navigate this way whenever available, with 13.9% saying they do it often. 31.5% only sometimes navigate by landmarks/regions, while 20.6% say they use these seldomly.

When trying to find something on a page, 71.6% of people, a vast majority navigate by heading. This shows the importance in developers providing a good heading structure on a page. 13.6% use the Find function and just 6.4% read through the page. Only 4.8% of respondents use links to navigate, so really it’s all about the headings.

Speaking of headings, 57% of respondents find heading levels very useful, while 31.8% find them somewhat useful. That’s a combined 88.8%.

What are the biggest issues screen reader users face online?

Before I answer this question, I need you to tell me which of these fire hydrants is the right way up. I’ll also let you listen to nine songs and tell me which three have a consistent rhythm if you prefer. If you take more than 90 seconds, I’ll make you start again.

CAPTCHAs are the most problematic issue reported by users by a country mile. They can be frustrating for many people, but for those with disabilities they can be a total game stopper.

Other points of frustration include interactive elements, link labels that don’t make sense, and changing content on screens.

These things are all relatively easy to fix, so it can certainly be frustrating when you face these silly accessibility roadblocks.

Other interesting data from the WebAIM Survey

While most questions on the survey relate to screen readers, some other questions were also asked.

One of the more interesting questions related to virtual meetings. When asked if people should describe what they look like in virtual meetings and webinars, the majority said no. Some do like it though, as 31.8% said yes.

In data that I personally found interesting, Braille usage with screen readers is on the rise. 38% used Braille as an output for their screen reader, up from 33.3% in 2017.

The most popular screen reader to use with Braille was VoiceOver, at 54.2%. Meanwhile 42.4% of NVDA users and 35.1% of JAWS users work with Braille. I think this is another one of those stats getting slightly twisted by the high proportion of blind respondents, but it’s clear that many people are working very successfully using Braille.

People are more likely to use mobile apps compared to websites, with 58% preferring apps compared with 42% choosing the web for common tasks.

Digital accessibility trends

When asked what would have a bigger impact for accessibility online, a massive 85.9% mentioned more accessible websites. That compares with just 14.1% referencing better assistive technologies.

The main reason Vially exists is to help make the web more accessible to everyone, so this statistic is really interesting to us. It shows that screen readers and other assistive technologies have matured to a stage that it’s now down to individual websites to ensure they’re accessible.

With legislation like the European Accessibility Act coming next year and mandating digital accessibility, things are hopefully about to get way better.

Interestingly, the WebAIM survey shows that more and more people are referring to better website accessibility as having a greater impact on their use of the Internet. If you want to discuss your website’s accessibility, please do reach out to us at Vially. We can check your websites, documents, and apps to ensure they comply with the highest accessibility standards.

People have mixed views on accessibility over the past year, with 34.6% saying they think things have improved. 46.8% however saw no major change. 18.6% think things have actually gotten worse, which is really bad news. That’s nearly one in every five people, so more clearly needs to be done.

The future of screen readers

There are loads of stats in the WebAIM survey, but hopefully we’ve covered all the main bits.

It’s cool to see people using some of the lesser known screen readers like Orca and Jieshuo, and it’s fantastic that screen readers generally look to be reaching maturity.

I hope that web accessibility improves more consistently going forward, and I’d like to think Vially can be part of that solution.

As for the future, who knows what we’ll see in the next survey. Will we start looking at screen readers on other platforms like VoiceOver for Vision Pro? Or will we be using JAWS on some fancy new AI-powered gadget yet to be imagined? Time will tell.

For now, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about the current state of play in the screen reader world. Be sure to share your thoughts with us over on LinkedIn and if you’d like an accessibility audit of your website or app, just reach out to us. We’d love to hear from you!