Screen Reader Easier Than Magnifiers

I had the pleasure of sitting with Rebecca Stallings of the Asheville Services for the Blind to gain her perspective of JAWS with Web 2.0 sites.  Rebecca gave me a tour of JAWS and we visited a few sites.  What I found interesting was her amazing proficiency with JAWS. I wondered aloud, “How could this be?  How could she be more proficient with JAWS than I am with a screen magnifier?”.  She gave me some great observations.

1. Screen readers keep everything within context.  Magnifiers lose context.  JAWS can provide the user with immediate lists of links, images, form fields and other web artifacts.  She can get that information instantly.  The screen magnifier user cannot.  
2. Jaws uses keyboard shortcuts for every access of the web page.  Magnifier users have to move the focus and hunt for things within a new context.
3. Magnifier users often are not aware they are missing information because they are only viewing a small part of the screen.  JAWS users can know all artifacts across a web page, (provided its is accessible).

There is the rub.  Not everyone values accessibility.  Rebecca and I depend upon it.  It would be great if others could design and implement web pages for accessibility.