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Web Page and Document Accessibility | ![]() Navigating the Internet with a Screen Reader |
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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 NavigationTraditionally, 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.
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. [Top] Virtual CursorIf 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,
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. [Top] TablesWhen the virtual cursor on, JAWS will announce the number of rows and columns for a table. Pressing
If the virtual cursor is off or if the table has not been labeled properly, JAWS will say, "not in a form." [Top] Reformatting the PageThere 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,
[Top] FormsWhen 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.
[Top] Navigation KeysCaution: 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.
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.
[Top] Additional InformationThe 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.) [Top]
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Last reviewed or modified Monday Jan 14, 2008 |