You can’t reliably detect screen readers

When I hold workshops on accessibility I am often asked how to detect screen readers. The answer is that you can’t, at least not in a reliable way.

The main reason is that screen readers run alongside (or on top of, if you prefer) regular web browsers and do not have a user agent string of their own that you can sniff.

While it is possible to use Flash to detect whether some assistive technology is active, it is quite unreliable:

  • It obviously requires Flash
  • It doesn’t detect screen readers, it detects assistive technology that makes use of Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA)
  • It only works on Windows, and only with some screen readers

Steve Faulkner talks more about this in Developer Beware: Using Flash to Detect Screen Readers.

Posted on September 6, 2010 in Accessibility, Quick Tips

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