How do you navigate options in a select element using ChromeVox?

Question

When using the ChromeVox screen reader I find that it's possible to navigate to a select box and to select options, but I can't work out how to have the screen reader read out the options, which is what I would expect it to do. I unfortunately can't find an answer in the documentation.

Confront

May I ask why you're using ChromeVox rather than NVDA or JAWS screen readers? – Michaelis

Why shouldn't I use ChromeVox? – Confront

Well using ChromeVox depends on whether or not you are using it as the means of accessibly using ChromeBook. – Michaelis

For ChromeBook, ChromeVox is the means of screen reading for the device. – Michaelis

But if you are testing accessibility for web products that will be used on PC, Mac, iPhone, Android you would not want to rely on ChromeVox because it would not be used by blind/low-vision on those platforms. ChromeVox only runs on Chrome. But someone who is blind/low-vision requires a screen-reader from the moment they get onto their device/computer. They are already running a screenreader so they won't turn on ChromeVox just because they decide to use the Chrome browser. – Michaelis

Also, ChromeVox is known to give false positives and false negatives so you are really not getting a good representation of how a common screen-reader such as JAWS or NVDA would read the page. – Michaelis

So, bottom line is if you need to test web pages that would be viewed on PC/Mac, iOS, or Android your best bet is to test on a PC in NVDA on Firefox. (If you are using a Mac you will want to either get a PC for testing or partition your drive with Windows installed). That would be a good starting point since JAWS is quite expensive and NVDA is free. Then branch off to using VoiceOver on iOS (don't use VoiceOver on Mac) and TalkBack on Android devices. But you are going to catch most things on NVDA with Firefox. – Michaelis

(and don't forget to test without your mouse :-) ) – Michaelis

Thanks, I appreciate the information. – Confront

The ChromeVox extension for Chrome is the only working screen reader I could find for the Chrome browser under Linux. – Codon

Answer 1

There's no way in Chromevox to annouce the full listof options of a select box without selecting each different option.

You can navigate through options by using the up and down arrows.

Subfloor