What This Template Is For

Screen readers convert visual interfaces into audio. The user hears the page content, navigates by headings and landmarks, and interacts with forms and controls through keyboard commands. A product that works well visually can be unusable with a screen reader if the underlying structure is wrong: missing headings, unlabeled buttons, images without alt text, dynamic content that changes silently, and reading order that does not match the visual layout.

This template provides a structured optimization guide for making your product work well with screen readers. It covers seven areas: document structure, headings, landmarks, link and button text, forms, dynamic content, and reading order. For each area, you get the requirements, common mistakes, and a verification checklist.

Use this template after the automated checks in the accessibility audit template have been completed. Automated tools catch missing alt text and contrast failures, but they cannot tell you whether the reading order makes sense or whether your headings create a coherent outline. The ARIA checklist template covers the ARIA attributes that make custom widgets accessible to screen readers. For testing the results of your optimization work, the assistive tech testing template provides structured protocols for VoiceOver, NVDA, and TalkBack.

How to Use This Template

1. Pick a page or user flow to optimize. Work through one page at a time rather than auditing the entire product at once.
2. For each of the seven areas below, review the page against the checklist criteria.
3. Open the page in a screen reader as you audit. VoiceOver on macOS (Cmd+F5) or NVDA on Windows (free download) are the most accessible starting points for teams new to screen reader testing.
4. Document findings with specific page locations and the expected versus actual screen reader behavior.
5. Fix issues in priority order: document structure and headings first (they affect every user on every page), then forms and dynamic content (they affect specific interactions), then fine-tuning reading order and announcements.
6. Retest with a screen reader after fixes. Screen reader behavior depends on the browser, so test in at least two browser and screen reader combinations (Safari+VoiceOver and Chrome+NVDA cover the majority of users).

The Template

Optimization Overview

Area 1: Document Structure

Why it matters: Screen reader users rely on document structure to understand the page's content hierarchy. Without proper structure, the page is a flat stream of text with no way to skip to relevant sections.