WAI-ARIA Landmarks and Screen Readers

Using Landmark Roles with JAWS

Landmark Dialog Box

In JAWS 10, a dialog box showing all the landmarks in a web page can be accessed by pressing:
CTRL + INS + ;

To move through the landmarks listing use the up and down arrow keys. If an item has another landmark nested within it it will announce the name of the landmark and the word 'closed'.

For example a banner which contains a search box will be read out as 'Banner closed'.

Clicking on the right arrow key will open the landmark. The contents of the landmark can then be examined using the up and down keys.

To close a landmark go to the parent landmark and press the left arrow key.

To move to a selected landmark press ENTER.

Quick Navigation Keys

Landmarks can also be accessed without opening up the landmark listing.

To move to the next landmark in the page press:
;

To move to the previous landmark press:
SHIFT + ;

When arriving at a landmark the screen reader will read out the landmark role together with the word 'landmark'. E.g. 'Heading landmark'.

To read out the contents of selected landmark press the down arrow key.

Using Landmark Roles with NVDA

Quick Navigation Keys

Landmarks can be accessed using shortcut keys.

To move to the next landmark in the page press:
d

To move to the previous landmark press:
SHIFT + d

When arriving at a landmark the screen reader will read out the landmark role together with the word 'landmark' and then the first piece of content. E.g. 'Main landmark. About Us. Heading Level 1'.

Using Landmark Roles with FireVox

Quick Navigation Keys

Landmarks can be accessed using shortcut keys.

To move to the next landmark in the page press:

• Windows: Control + N then ;
• Mac OS X: Control + Command + N then ;
• ChromeBook: Shift + Search + N then ;

Screen Reader Support for WAI-ARIA Landmark Roles

Steve Faulkner has tested support for WAI-ARIA Landmark roles in a number of common screen reader programs.