What 1,780 Screen Reader Users Told WebAIM in 2026
Today
WebAIM has published the results of its Screen Reader User Survey #11. The survey ran in July and August 2026 and received 1,780 valid responses, and 94.8% of respondents use a screen reader because of a disability. It is the eleventh in a series of surveys that began in 2009.
WebAIM notes that the sample was not controlled and may not represent all screen reader users. Even so, the results line up closely with what we ask of University websites and documents, and several are worth knowing.
Key findings
- Headings come first. 67.8% of respondents navigate by headings first when they look for information on a long page, and 88.3% find heading levels (Heading 1, Heading 2 and so on) very or somewhat useful.
- PDFs remain a major barrier. 85.6% said PDF documents are very or somewhat likely to pose significant accessibility issues, up from 75.1% in 2019. For Word documents, the figure was 31.1%.
- Better websites matter most. 83.9% said more accessible websites would do more to improve web accessibility than better assistive technology.
- Progress feels slow. Asked about the past year, 32.2% said web content had become more accessible, 44.9% saw no change, and 22.9% said it had become less accessible.
- Most people use more than one screen reader. JAWS (55.0%), NVDA (32.9%) and VoiceOver (6.5%) were the most common primary desktop screen readers, and 70.3% of respondents use more than one.
- Mobile is everyday. 91.8% use a screen reader on a phone or tablet, and 73.3% use an iPhone or iPad as their main mobile device.
- Skip links get used. 37.7% use "skip to main content" links always or often, up from 31.2% in 2021.
- AI is now part of the toolkit. 60.1% use AI to generate image descriptions, and only 8.2% reported none of the AI uses the survey asked about.
What this means for University of Arizona content
- Use real headings, in order. Most screen reader users rely on them to find their way. See Heading Structure Fundamentals.
- Think twice before posting a PDF. If the information can be a web page, make it one. When a PDF is needed, make it accessible: see PDF Accessibility & Remediation and the Document Accessibility Overview.
- Test with more than one screen reader, and on mobile. Our Assistive Technology Deep Dive and Accessibility Testing Toolkit explain how, and the Mobile App Accessibility Roadmap covers apps.
- Keep a working skip link on every site: see the Skip Link Code Snippet.
- Write alt text even though AI can describe images. Many screen reader users now use AI for descriptions, but only the author knows why an image is there. Good alt text still matters.