I have been using the Mac OSX's built in screen-reader for testing my site, I know it's not the best but it's all I have for now. But I'm finding it isn't pausing at the end of elements... which makes sense; but I'm finding myself placing hidden periods to make things readable:
<div class="breakdown">
<strong>35</strong> New<span class="visuallyhidden">.</span><br>
<strong>4</strong> Overdue<span class="visuallyhidden">.</span>
</div>
I feel really dirty doing this, but if I dont then either it ruins the design, or it is read in a continuous sentence which is not comprehensible.
Does anyone have an experience of this kind of thing to offer?
If you format your code semantically, it should work fine. By the looks of your HTML structure, you're using a <br>
tag for presentational purposes. This is not what line breaks are meant for, and thus is not a semantic use of markup.
You specifically want each line to be separate, so you should put them in wrapping block level tags. You could wrap each line in a p
or div
tag, and then the screen reader will separate them properly.
I suggest using aria-label
when you need the screen reader to speak something different than what appears in the html markup.
I would update your code to be:
<div class="breakdown">
<span aria-label="35 New.">
<strong>35</strong> New
</span>
<br>
<span aria-label="4 Overdue.">
<strong>4</strong> Overdue
</span>
</div>
With this, a screen reader will speak the following with full pauses at each period:
35 New. 4 Overdue.
We are specifically targeting ChromeVox, but this should work for all screen readers.
Thoughts on aria-label