Sight Loss
Sarah’s perspective: What I wish people knew about blindness
Posted Jan 2025
You may have noticed a new feature on our website: a chatbot!
Our chatbot is a quick and easy way to get support on a variety of topics related to sight loss. Want some top tips for cooking? Ask our chatbot. Curious about the different types of canes? The chatbot’s got you covered. If the chatbot can’t help, it will guide you to our online contact form for further support.
The chatbot is powered by a third-party plugin, carefully chosen after testing several options. We found this one to be the most compatible with screen readers, making it an ideal choice for accessibility.
We understand that using a chatbot might be new to some of you, so we’ve put together a handy guide to help you use it efficiently with different screen readers. In this guide, we’ll focus on how to ask questions and review the chatbot’s responses with ease.
Jump to:
JAWS
JAWS is a screen reader commonly used to navigate Windows. It works seamlessly with popular web browsers like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox.
How do you access our chatbot with JAWS? Once you’re on our website, press the letter E to move through the edit fields until you reach one labelled ‘type here and press enter..’. Press Enter to activate Forms Mode, which allows you to start typing your question. Once you’ve finished, press Enter again to send your question to the chatbot.
To review the responses, you can use the letter G, which is the quick key for navigating through graphics. A graphic labelled ‘agent profile image’ indicates a response from the chatbot. To read the response, simply use the Down Arrow key to move through the text.
VoiceOver
VoiceOver is Apple’s screen reader, built into many Apple devices, including iPhones, iPads, Mac computers, and Apple Watches. It’s a powerful tool for navigating apps and websites.
How do you use VoiceOver with our chatbot? During our testing on an iPhone, we found that touching the centre of the screen when you visit our homepage should place you on the chatbot. VoiceOver will likely confirm this by announcing a phrase starting with ‘agent profile image.’ If this happens, simply swipe right with one finger to land on the edit field where you can type your question.
If this doesn’t work, tap the bottom of the screen with four fingers to navigate right to the bottom of the screen. Then swipe left with one finger until VoiceOver says ‘chat icon button’. Double tap that button. Then tap the centre of the screen to fully locate the chatbot. Then you can find the edit field.
Once you’ve located the edit field, using either method, double tap it. This will bring up the on-screen keyboard, so you can type your question that way, or use your preferred input method. Once you’ve finished, locate the return button in the bottom right corner of the keyboard and activate it to submit your question. If you’re using Braille Screen Input to type, swiping up with three fingers will submit your question once you’re done.
You can then swipe left with one finger until you come to the response. If for some reason this doesn’t work, explore the screen by touch and then swipe left and right around the screen, and you should land on the response.
Accessing the responses might take a bit trial and error, but using a combination of exploring by touch and/or swiping should get you to the information you’ve asked for.
TalkBack
TalkBack is the screen reader for Android devices. Although Talkback is built into many Android phones and tablets, if it is not on yours, you can install it by downloading the Android Accessibility Suite from the Play Store. Like VoiceOver, it is a powerful tool for navigating apps and websites.
The chatbot usually appears at the bottom right of the webpage and stays in the same position regardless of how much you scroll. Tapping on the bottom right or placing one finger on the screen and sliding towards the bottom right are good strategies for locating it.
Talkback will announce ‘Chat Attention Grabber’ when you have located the right item. Double tapping that will give you the response, ‘Webview’, bringing the chatbot front and centre on your screen. It will expand to fill most of the display, making it easy to access.
From there, you can use the same gestures you’d typically use to navigate and interact with any other web page. Locating the edit box is best done by sliding your finger around the middle of the screen, then double tapping to enter your question.
Get chatting!
We hope this guide gives you some top tips for using our chatbot with different screen readers. At Henshaws, we’re all about ensuring our content and resources are accessible to as many people as possible. Our chatbot is no different.
We want your experience of our chatbot to be as straightforward as possible, and this guide will hopefully help with that.
Why not put our chatbot through its paces, and let us know what you think! We wlecome any feedback, both positive and constructive, as we want it to be the best it can be for everyone.
