You may remember (or not) that I posted a link to an article that I
was having trouble reading. Folks on the list reported back to me
about finding the same bug with Jaws and with their braille display. I
also contacted a friend who does web design for a living and she took
a look at the code for me. She explained about the issue and so I
wrote an inquiry.
Here it is, with the answer below:
*** HI: I have been an Email subscriber to Working, Rural, and In
These times. In all 3 cases, stories are difficulty to read for me.
Let me explain: I use software that turns text to speech (screen
reader) and that software is the way in which many blind, low vision
and dyslexic readers use the web. Of course, it also enables us to
write Emails, web content etc. Back a few months, something changed in
the design of your text on the sites. It has taken me a while to
determine exactly what the problem is, but the result is easy to
understand. Reading is choppy and the pronunciation of words is very
odd.
Upon investigation and with the assistance of a sighted web developer
I have found the cause. Your web designer is using something called a
"soft hyphen" that, as far as I can figure, is used to help the screen
wrap so it can be viewed on small screens. This soft hyphen, appearing
in the midst of words is the cause of choppy reading and odd
pronunciations; the screen reading software views it as a hyphen thus,
the choppiness and such. I now know that these soft hyphens are not
visible to most folks using your site; they appear to be a sort of alt
text (invisible to the eye but readable by screen readers); alt text
is used so that images and graphics can be described to screen reader
users and also for other functions. I am wondering if there is some
alternative method to create the screen wrapping that you (or your
designer) prefer. The soft hyphens make reading your content very
annoying and thus, make my experience on your site unpleasant.
Your web sites are and have been for some time, my connection to
quality progressive reading regarding labor, rural affairs, politics
and cultural issues. I appreciate your work, but unfortunately, have
not been able to enjoy it lately.
If you require more information, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Thanks for any assistance you may provide:
Steve
------****
Received this reply:
Wow. This is a phenomenal bug report. Thank you Steve!
I just disabled soft hyphens sitewide to put a stop to the problem
(may take a day for the cache to fully clear out the old ones). It’s a
non-essential feature, nice on small screens, but definitely not worth
hindering screen readers.
Not sure what software you use, but I found a number of complaints
from NVDA users encountering this exact problem. I had no idea.
Hopefully they’ll get a fix up soon for this since I know a lot of
sites use this same utility to automate hyphenation! In the meantime,
I hope the content is a lot easier to read now.
And thanks again for your report, I’ve got about 15 other sites to go
disable soft hyphens on now. Please don’t hesitate to reach out again
if you have any other issues or suggestions, this was invaluable
information.
All my best,
Seamus
--
Steve Hoad
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