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Navigating the Internet with a Screen Reader

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Screen Reader Navigation

 

Social Security does not endorse any software products.

The information on this page about navigating the Internet has been tested on JAWS. The instructions may or may not apply to your screen reader. A list of screen readers has been included at the end of this page so you can check with the company that produced your software for additional navigation information.

General Navigation

Traditionally, web pages have been navigated by using the Tab key to move from link to link. CTRL + INSERT + Down Arrow would speak the entire page. When links were mixed with text this is where it started to get a little complicated and confusing.

Since there is no visible cursor in Internet Explorer, it has been very difficult to have JAWS speak lines, mark sections of text or differentiate between text and links. The JAWS cursor was used to move all over the screen but again was not consistent or predictable. Navigating to controls was also accomplished using the Tab key. Using the Tab key will take you to list/combo boxes, buttons, check boxes and radio buttons.

  • The Tab key also takes you from check box to check box. Use the space bar to select or deselect check boxes. You can select multiple check boxes.
  • When you get to a set of radio buttons, use the arrow keys to move from button to button and automatically select one. You can only select one radio button.
  • You can select list boxes or combo boxes by arrowing through the list or using ALT + Down Arrow to open up the box.

Once the highlight is on an item, pressing Enter usually takes you to the selection. You can press the space bar or Enter key to select a button. ALT + Left Arrow will take you back a page and ALT + Right Arrow will move you forward. Later versions of JAWS and then Internet Explorer 5 have incorporated a new cursor, the virtual cursor, which improves navigation and changes things up a bit.

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Virtual Cursor

If you use Internet Explorer 5, the virtual cursor is on when Explorer is loaded. This means that an invisible cursor is positioned at the top of the page and JAWS will start speaking the page. Press the CTRL key to stop the virtual cursor and stop JAWS from speaking. Press CTRL + Z to toggle the virtual cursor on or off.

When the virtual cursor is off, arrowing up or down will scroll the page one line at a time. When the virtual cursor on, it depends on where the cursor is. Pressing ALT + DEL will give you the name of the active cursor and position.

When the virtual cursor is on,

  • you can still TAB to links. JAWS will speak the links, but sighted people will not notice the highlight around the link.
  • and it lands on an edit box, no input is allowed. You must press the ENTER key in order to input data. JAWS will announce "Forms mode on." This is also true with combo/list boxes, radio buttons and check boxes. The virtual cursor must be turned off in order to use these controls.
  • pressing the
    • up or down arrow key will speak the line you move to,
    • left or right arrow key will speak the character you move to, and
    • CTRL + Left Arrow or Right Arrow will speak the word you move to.

If you arrow through text, JAWS speaks the text. When JAWS gets to a link or control it will speak that link or control. When the virtual cursor encounters a graphic with alt text it will speak the alt text. When the virtual cursor is off this does not happen and tables are not spoken as well.

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Tables

When the virtual cursor on, JAWS will announce the number of rows and columns for a table. Pressing

  • CTRL + ALT + Right or Left Arrow, will announce the header information, the cell contents and the column number.
  • CTRL + Down or Up Arrow, will announce the contents, the header information and the row number.
  • CTRL + ALT + NumPad 5, will announce the row, column and contents for the current cell.

If the virtual cursor is off or if the table has not been labeled properly, JAWS will say, "not in a form."

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Reformatting the Page

There is a JAWS keystroke that reformats the page by taking out images and linearizing it. The reformat keystroke, INSERT + F5, only works when the virtual cursor is turned off. When the virtual cursor is on, JAWS will indicate that the reformat function is not available.

You can turn the virtual cursor on or off by pressing INSERT + Z. When the page is reformatted, Press F5 to refresh the page and return it to it's original state.

Note: If the page has frames,

  • INSERT + F5 will only reformat the frame that currently has focus.
  • F5 will restore all frames.

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Forms

When you are in a form, you can use the Tab key to navigate from control to control. Tab will take you to input boxes, buttons, radio buttons, check boxes and list boxes.

  • When you are on a radio button, the arrow key moves from radio button to radio button and selects the button you arrowed to.
  • Tab takes you from check box to check box while the spacebar selects or deselects the choice.
  • INSERT + Control + Home will take you to the first control on the page

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Navigation Keys

Caution: Some selections may not work with every Internet browser. For example, if you use Netscape 4.08, we know you can't use the arrow key to select radio buttons.

IF you want to ... THEN select...
Move forward from link to link or to controls Tab
Move backward from link to link or to controls Shift + Tab
Select buttons Space Bar
Navigate and select Radio Buttons Arrow
Select/deselect boxes Spacebar
Move from box to box Tab
Open a List Box ALT + Down arrow
Read the prior screen CTRL + Page Up
Read the next screen CTRL + Page Down
Go to the top of the page CTRL + Home
Go to the bottom of the page CTRL + End
Close the current window (in Internet Explorer) CTRL + W

Caution: You can use the following selections to navigate through our web pages but you cannot use them in our Online Claims and Services pages.

IF you want to ... THEN select...
Refresh the screen F5
Go back a page ALT + Left Arrow
Go forward a page ALT + Right Arrow
Navigate to & select the text in the address combo box
ALT + D

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Additional Information

The screen reader software we know about is listed below for the convenience of our users. The product names are linked to the web pages of the companies that produce them. (Note: the web pages will open in new browser windows.)

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Last reviewed or modified Monday Jan 14, 2008
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