Software

• Audacity - multi-track audio editor and recorder
• VirtualBox - virtualization platform that can run Microsoft Windows as a virtual machine on macOS
• NVDA - screen reader for Windows
• JAWS - screen reader for Windows that provides speech and Braille output for computer applications
• Soundflower - record system audio output directly without sending it into the air to record
• QuickTime - play and record audio and video files on macOS

Hardware and platforms

• Macbook (macOS 10.15 and Windows 8.1 using VirtualBox) - while setting up Windows in VirtualBox is beyond the scope of these notes, be sure that audio from Windows is playing properly
• iPhone (iOS 13) - using the built-in screen recording function of iOS handles the capture on the iPhone

Configure macOS to pass audio to an application

These steps will show you how to use Soundflower to pass audio to QuickTime to create a recording.

Start by following the installation instructions from these (now several years old) Soundflower release notes:

1. Download and install the signed Soundflower 2.0b2 installer
2. Start playing music through the built-in audio
3. Open Applications > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup
4. Click ‘+’ to add a new ‘Create Multi Output Device’
5. Select both “Soundflower 2ch” and “Built-in Output”
6. Click gear button and select “use this device for sound output”

The music you started playing in step 2 should continue to play. Now the audio is going to your built-in audio and is being passed to Soundflower for recording elsewhere. With the music continuing to play:

1. Open up QuickTime
2. File > New Audio Recording
3. Click the down arrow (next to record button) and choose “Soundflower (2ch)” as the input
4. You should now see audio levels changing
5. Press record to capture the music output
6. Play back the recording for confirmation

Record audio from screen readers with Audacity

For heavier recording and editing capabilities, use Audacity. After confirming a working internal audio recording setup, install and launch Audacity. Choose Soundflower (2ch) as the microphone and your new Multi-Output Device as your speaker.

With audio playing, hit “Click to Start Monitoring” in Audacity. The visualizer should start to move.

Record VoiceOver on macOS

1. Begin recording in Audacity
2. Press ⌘ + F5 to start VoiceOver
3. Use VoiceOver to navigate
4. When finished, stop the recording in Audacity
5. Press ⌘ + F5 to stop VoiceOver

Record NVDA and JAWS on macOS

1. Open VirtualBox and launch Windows
2. Install NVDA (free) and install JAWS (40-minute demo mode) in Windows
3. Open NVDA or JAWS in Windows
4. Open Audacity on macOS
5. Confirm audio output from NVDA or JAWS is reflected in Audacity
6. Record the audio as you navigate

Record VoiceOver on iOS

1. General > Control Center > Add Screen Recording
2. Pull down Control Center > Start recording
3. General > Accessibility > VoiceOver > turn On
4. The screen recording will capture as you navigate
5. Stop the screen recording when finished
6. Move MP4 screen recording to macOS for editing

For quick editing you can re-record the audio using Audacity while playing back portions of the screen recording in QuickTime. Converting the MP4 screen recording to MP3 is doable, too.

Editing

Using Audacity, open the full screen reader recording and begin to add labels, using ⌘ + B. Marking and labeling the audio file makes the clip export process easier to manage.

With a marked audio timeline, highlight the section of the timeline to export. To export the highlighted audio: Export > Export Selected Audio > Save as MP3

Findings

In all screen readers tested, no audible distinction is present between unstyled text, <b>, <strong>, <i>, and <em>.

Test cases

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

View test case page

Related reading

• Bold and italics aren’t read by screen readers – tempertemper
• Bruce Lawson’s personal site: Screen reader support for text-level semantics

Findings

Emoji descriptions can vary between operating systems and software. This test case shows how spoken description of the emoji may not match visual intention.

VoiceOver on macOS and VoiceOver on iOS describes the emoji as angry — “looking, huffing with anger face”. JAWS describes the emoji as triumphant — “looking face with look of triumph”. NVDA describes the emoji more objectively — “looking face with steam from nose”.

Test cases

Runner at finish line, looking 😤

View test case page

Related reading

• short note on emoji text alternative variations – HTML Accessibility

Findings

In VoiceOver on macOS 10.15 and JAWS 2020, alt text ending with punctuation added a brief pause at the end, when read aloud. NVDA 2019.2.1 and VoiceOver on iOS 13 did not change pacing with or without punctuation.

Alt text ending in a question mark caused an audible inflection change, when read aloud in VoiceOver on macOS 10.15, VoiceOver on iOS 13, and JAWS 2020. NVDA 2019.2.1 adds a subtle inflection change when using an exclamation point.

A comma in alt text adds a brief pause in all screen readers.

JAWS announces most punctuation explicitly, including hyphen (dash), en dash, em dash, false ellipsis (three dots), colon, semicolon, dumb quotes, and smart quotes. The exception is ellipsis. In JAWS, an ellipsis adds a pause.

VoiceOver on macOS consistently adds a pause when encountering punctuation, but does not explicitly name the punctuation used.

VoiceOver on iOS adds a pause when encountering a hyphen, en dash, em dash, colon, or semicolon. Ellipsis, dumb quotes, and smart quotes do not cause a pause. One outlier is a false ellipsis, where VoiceOver on iOS announces it as an ellipsis, explicitly.

NVDA adds a pause when encountering an en dash, false ellipsis, ellipsis, colon, or semicolon. Hyphen, em dash, dumb quotes, and smart quotes do not cause a pause.

Test cases

A shape with eight sides

A shape with eight sides.

A shape with eight sides!

A shape with eight sides?

A shape, with eight sides

A shape - with eight sides

A shape – with eight sides

A shape — with eight sides

A shape... with eight sides

A shape… with eight sides

A shape: with eight sides

A shape; with eight sides

A shape "with eight sides"

A shape “with eight sides”

View test case page

Related reading

• Screen Readers: A Guide to Punctuation and Typographic Symbols