FreedomScientific/standards-support

Can JAWS add < mark > element recognition?

Closed this issue · 1 comments

gretayharding commented

Summary

Highlighted text content that has been marked up with the < mark > element is not announced by JAWS.

Expected result

When using JAWS screenreader, the software should announce that the text is "marked."

Actual result

JAWS does not recognize < mark >

Example 1 – Simple Text

https://codepen.io/gretayharding/pen/PoVmzrP

Example 2 – Math

Math can be complex to parse. Google provides tools to help students understand complex equations using highlighted text (to be updated with < mark >). Type this prompt into Google Search to experience how highlighted text is used to help students grok information.

Copy and paste the following into Google Search
"If an object accelerates from rest, with a constant velocity 5.2m/s2, what will its velocity be at 28s"

Screen readers that detect < mark >

  • Chrome VOX
  • NVDA
  • Microsoft Narrator

Screen readers that don't detect < mark >

  • JAWS
  • VoiceOver

Browser and version:

not applicable

Additional Information

Currently screen reader users are unable to know if text is highlighted within Google Search results. As popularity of this text treatment expands among web content, the equitable experience gap widens, excluding users who are unable to perceive highlighted text.

Google's Search Accessibility team is proposing adding < mark > to highlighted text but there is one challenge – currently JAWS and VoiceOver do not recognize < mark >.

Would it be possible to add < mark > to JAWS?

stevefaulkner commented

@gretayharding when i tested this recently JAWS did announce <mark> Tested again tonight test case

further reading: Screen Readers support for text level HTML semantics