Rough Guide: browsers, operating systems and screen reader support – Updated 23/06/2017

October 12, 2014Development

Practical screen reader support by browser and OS (updated 23/06/2017)

When testing aspects of support for new HTML5, WAI-ARIA features and HTML features in general, I often test browsers that do not have practical support for screen readers on a particular operating system. I find they have support for feature X, but lack support for feature Y that is required to enable practical support to web content for screen reader users. While it is useful to test and find successful implementations of discrete features, it needs to be viewed in the broader context of which browsers can be considered usable with popular OS level screen readers.

I found it difficult to get a complete understanding from the resources available on the web, but have put together a high level support table based on information I could glean.

If you have any further information or find any inaccuracies please comment.

Practical support

Practical support for screen readers means that a browser can be successfully used to browse and interact with commonly encountered web content, using current versions of OS level screen readers such as, on Windows; JAWS, NVDA, Narrator. Talkback on Android. On Mac OS and iOS; VoiceOver. On Linux; Orca and on Chrome OS; ChromeVox.

Table legend

  • supported “supported” means that the browser is usable in practice with a screen reader on the operating system (OS).
    Note: in the case of Internet Explorer it lacks support for some important features, but due to its market share screen readers hack around its lack of support.
  • “partial support” lacks support for some important features.
  • not applicable “not applicable” means the browser does not run on the OS
  • not supported “not supported” means the browser does not have practical support for screen readers on the OS.
  • not known “not known” means that accessibility support information is not publicly available.
  • not knownlikely, not supported not known, but likely is unsupported.

Note: The table refers to the current (23/06/2017) versions of browsers and current versions of operating systems.

Practical screen reader support by browser and OS (23/06/2017)
Chrome Firefox Internet Explorer microsoft edge Opera Safari
Windows supported supported supported note partial support partial support not supported
OSX supported partial support not applicable not applicable partial support supported
Linux not supported supported not applicable not applicable not known not applicable
IOS supported, but limited support data not applicable not applicable not applicable not known supported
Android partial support supported not applicable not applicable not known partial support
(Android browser
webkit based)
Chrome OS supported not known not applicable not applicable not applicable not applicable

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References:

Categories: Development

About Steve Faulkner

Steve was the Chief Accessibility Officer at TPGi before he left in October 2023. He joined TPGi in 2006 and was previously a Senior Web Accessibility Consultant at vision australia. Steve is a member of several groups, including the W3C Web Platforms Working Group and the W3C ARIA Working Group. He is an editor of several specifications at the W3C including ARIA in HTML and HTML Accessibility API Mappings 1.0. He also develops and maintains HTML5accessibility and the JAWS bug tracker/standards support.

Comments

JOnathan Cohn says:
October 13, 2014 at 4:15 pm

The column and header rows appeared to not be red correctly OS X 10.9.5 with Safari 7.1.9537.

Steve Faulkner says:
October 13, 2014 at 7:52 pm

Hi Jonathan,

The table is a standard HTML data table, headers are marked up using th elements with scope attributes.

Olly Hodgson says:
October 16, 2014 at 4:52 pm

When your table says “Safari on Android”, does it mean the built-in Android browser (based on Webkit)?

Steve Faulkner says:
October 16, 2014 at 6:14 pm

@Olly, yes have updated, thanks!