Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Creating a LinkedIn profile with screen reading software

Forms seem to be the bane of our existence.

Filling out forms as a sighted person can be aggravating. Try doing it blind folded and rely on what the software tells you. It takes a tsunami of training to get to the point where you can fill out online forms using Jaws, NVDA, or Narrator. Low-vision people can have a small advantage, but can miss buttons that the screen reading software would have found.

The desktop is best for completing the profile and posting, while the phone app is much better for building your network and searching for jobs.

I once got to show a Google programmer why website accessibility and user friendliness matters. Using Jaws software, I had him navigate and fill out a very accessible form and then had him navigate LinkedIn. He even got visually lost.

So, in teaching Internet with Jaws, my students start with some successes before tackling LinkedIn. Then they can say, "We came. We heard. We conquered."