Understanding the Screen Reader Experience

Every accessibility decision you make shapes someone’s experience reading and navigating your documents. This session offers a real-world look at how screen reader users experience digital content, helping you better understand the human impact behind accessibility standards and testing workflows.

Follow along as screen reader user Karen McCall demonstrates and discusses how adaptive technology interprets headings, links, alt text, reading order, tables, and other common document elements in real time. Hear what works, what creates confusion, and how structure and organization directly affect usability.

You’ll leave with a clearer understanding of how screen readers interact with digital documents and how to make more informed accessibility decisions in your own work.

You’ll learn how to:

• Understand how screen readers navigate digital documents
• Recognize common accessibility barriers for screen reader users
• Identify reading order and navigation issues more effectively
• Evaluate accessibility from a real user perspective