Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Screen readers
Raised as a usability problem by 47 people on Hacker News over 19 years (2008–2026), in 46 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Repeated vague links like 'click here' lack context for screen readersUnreviewed
20082026- Screen reader users hear repeated vague links like 'click here' with no context2025-07-02
- Screen reader users can't tell what a "click here" link leads to2024-10-23
- Garbled, constantly changing text is read aloud to screen reader users2024-08-29
Forms in layout tables force screen reader users to switch modesUnreviewed
20082026- Screen reader users get confusing 2D cell navigation on tables used only for layout2024-04-20
- Screen reader use involves many hotkeys, jumping around the DOM, and switching input modes2022-08-22
- Flexbox grids used as tables break column navigation for screen reader users2019-06-08
Screen readers read dynamic content in wrong order or miss itUnreviewed
20082026- Screen reader speaks side-by-side labels in the wrong order, needing manual fixes2026-04-22
- Screen reader skips or slowly reads braces, making nesting levels hard to track2018-11-09
- Screen readers get confused by dynamic content, reading it in wrong order or missing it2014-07-08
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Using a screen reader makes it incredibly difficult to get anything done2026-08-29
- The author's own app was unusable with a screen reader, so it was not navigable2026-07-16
- Screen reader speech is too fast for the commenter to understand after 20 years2026-07-04
- Two modes for reading versus typing; keyboard shortcuts conflict, and interactions are slow2026-05-05
- Screen reader speaks side-by-side labels in the wrong order, needing manual fixes2026-04-22
- Built-in screen readers aren't intuitive to the commenter, making them hard to learn2026-03-14
- Screen readers make users tab through elements and build a mental model of the page2026-03-02
- Screen readers are unstandardized and buggy, making sites hard to make accessible2026-01-13
- Landmarks announced randomly, so users can't tell how the page's landmarks are structured2025-12-09
- Screen reader users hear repeated vague links like 'click here' with no context2025-07-02
- Link list gives no context, so users can't tell where links go2025-07-02
- Screen readers behave inconsistently with basic UI patterns, making sites hard for blind users2025-01-07
- Screen reader users can't tell what a "click here" link leads to2024-10-23
- Garbled, constantly changing text is read aloud to screen reader users2024-08-29
- Too many non-intuitive key combinations, hard to find or remember, accidental toggles break things with no recovery2024-08-24
- Screen reader fails to announce the current chart data point to VoiceOver users2024-07-13
- Audio restarts from the beginning, so the listener must guess where to skip to2024-06-19
- Screen reader users get confusing 2D cell navigation on tables used only for layout2024-04-20
- Screen reader use on work project proved very hard for visually impaired users2024-04-06
- Screen reader support for ARIA attributes is poor, so accessibility fixes don't work reliably2024-03-02
- Visually impaired users can't tell what buttons and workflows do without ARIA labels2022-11-02
- Screen readers read out file names when alt text is omitted, which is confusing for users2022-11-02
- Screen reader use involves many hotkeys, jumping around the DOM, and switching input modes2022-08-22
- Screen readers are hard for visual users; only Tab and arrow navigation available2022-01-25
- Too many brackets are hard to follow when read aloud2021-11-10
- Annotations cannot convey graphs or progress bars to screen-reader users2021-10-13
- Screen reader users must listen through tedious repeated elements and lack context for buttons2021-05-21
- OCR cannot tell which screen parts are buttons or edit boxes, and runs only on demand2021-01-21
- Screen reader users confused a plain button with an actual notification2021-01-07
- Blind users can't reliably turn on screen readers; shortcuts vary, often fail, and setup needs sighted help2020-11-09
- Link list shows only link text, lacking surrounding context for blind users2020-09-10
- Tab-key navigation of a page is slow and painful for screen reader users2020-08-31
- App structure exposed to screen readers differs greatly from what sighted users see2020-04-20
- Screen readers are believed to be horrific to use on most modern websites2019-10-08
- Screen readers read hidden, off-screen and zero-size text and skip text in images2019-10-07
- Screen readers are hard to get into for people not already power users2019-06-08
- Flexbox grids used as tables break column navigation for screen reader users2019-06-08
- Screen readers are hard to use and disrupt developers' testing workflow2019-05-11
- Casual screen reader users are overwhelmed by constant announcements of heading levels and structural elements2019-01-30
- Screen reader skips or slowly reads braces, making nesting levels hard to track2018-11-09
- Setting up a workable screen-reader programming environment is too hard to even start2018-03-08
- Sites read correctly in some screen readers but fail in others, forcing costly per-reader fixes2016-09-04
- Div-based clickable elements are inaccessible to screen reader users2016-03-02
- Screen readers are inefficient at turning 2D visual interfaces into one-dimensional audio, limiting usability2016-03-02
- Navigating the interface by listening is slow, and losing focus means getting totally lost2015-10-04
- Screen readers miss or mishandle content when the DOM is changed by JavaScript2015-07-02
- Screen readers get confused by dynamic content, reading it in wrong order or missing it2014-07-08
- Screen reader interfaces are not standardized, so switching between JAWS and VoiceOver is confusing2011-06-13
- Must listen to every menu entry, easy to get distracted and lose place2010-09-19
- Screen reader users must keep switching between forms and tables modes2008-06-17