CODEWITHSUNDEEP
drupalaccessibilitydrupal-8screen-readers
Santhosh J
Santhosh J

Reputation: 368

How to find out if a user is using screen reader on my website

Is there are a way (a library) with which a web page can detect a screen reader being used on it? This can be just for a reporting/analytics purpose.

PS: A Drupal 8 website.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 4157

Answers (2)

Adam
Adam

Reputation: 18807

No. You can't. Definitely not.

One thing you can do is detecting if a user uses his mouse. This does not mean that he uses a screenreader or that he doesn't but is quite an indicator (but this should be categorized as "keyboard only users" not "screenreader users"). And that's, in my opinion, a question more interesting than knowing if a user uses a screenreader.

There are a lot of discussions about the wrongdoing of detecting screenreaders :

Upvotes: 3

Skerrvy
Skerrvy

Reputation: 912

No. It is not possible. Screen readers operate as an application on the computer - this would be similar to trying to find out if someone viewing your website also had their calculator open - it is a privacy restriction. Also many of these users may be using Voiceover or Talkback on their mobile devices and there is no way to detect that either.

Your website should instead strive to follow web standards and work equally for all users.

I'm also curious as to what your specific goal is in detecting this, as screen readers are only one part of the accessibility tools that many people use - and focusing on just the screen reader user will not make your site accessible.

Upvotes: 4

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