Web Accessibility for Speech Recognition users... / Priti Rohra and Shashank Kapur

Speech recognition software is used by people with mobility impairments, and they have multiple options today across different operating systems to choose from. Dragon Naturally Speaking is one of the old players and still the preferred choice for many speech recognition users. Both Windows and Mac have in-built speech recognition and so do Android and iOS.

Keyboard support is the base for making web content accessible for speech recognition users. Apart from keyboard support, keyboard focus, logical tabbing order, descriptive names for links, form controls, buttons as well as custom controls need to be considered for making web content accessible for speech recognition users.

In this session, we’ll figure out how speech recognition supports different accessibility techniques and what coding practices we should avoid. Additionally, we’ll learn about best practices for enhancing user experiences for speech recognition users.

We shall take a deep dive to understand what amongst label or title attributes of user interface controls takes precedence as far as speech recognition goes. We shall also explore the level of support for ARIA attributes and the impact of focus visibility for users.

In our exploration, we shall see how different tools perform including Dragon, Windows Speech Recognition, Mac’s Voice Control, Voice Access on Android, and Voice Control on iOS.

Based on our exploration, we will learn what works and what practices to avoid as well as how to enhance the user experience for speech recognition users.

About the speaker
Priti Rohra
Chief Accessibility Officer at BarrierBreak

Priti Rohra IAAP CPWA is a veteran in the field of digital accessibility. A person with low vision who entered in the land of digital accessibility 19 years back with perspective of people with visual impairments and their technology needs. Soon she developed keen interest in finding out how people with other types of disabilities access digital content and what are the technology options available for them. This kick started her accessibility journey and helped her to become a keen student in the space of digital accessibility. From assistive technologies to accessibility standards and guidelines and applying

her expertise across software, web, mobile, documents and many more technologies.

Priti also worked with the team on drafting India’s National policy for Electronic and Information Communication Technology. She has been a mentor to many accessibility test engineers, developers and subject matter experts. She is passionate about accessibility and with each day, month or year passing by the love for Accessibility is growing!

Shashank Kapur
Director – Strategy & Growth at BarrierBreak

A person very passionate about the digital accessibility space, with 4+ years of experience. He has completed his BSc Honors in Financial Economics at University of London and worked at a reputed PE company as a financial analyst prior to this role.

He has a keen understanding of the various strategies that can be implemented to enable organizations with varying scale and business needs to meet global accessibility norms and be truly inclusive, while being mindful of budgets. He comes from a family background of working in the mental and physical disability space and took to the role very naturally. He is particularly excited about creating an equal playing field for all, working with the existing technologies out in the market. Looking at the Indian context, it really motivates him to keep nurturing people with disabilities as a part of employee group and add to the social benefits created by BarrierBreak and the services offered.

Driving the growth of BarrierBreak at a point in time when the whole accessibility space is growing multifold are very exciting times, and he looks to keep contributing to the cause positively! Coming of the back of a pandemic and the ever-changing technology landscape, the need to persevere and ensure equal opportunities are provided to all is paramount and he looks to encourage the BarrierBreak vision of creating a limitless future.

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