Screen Reader Testing: Navigate UI Without Sight

Screen reader testing forces you to experience your interface as a stream of audio and keyboard commands, revealing gaps that visual checks completely miss. You run real tasks with only a keyboard and a screen reader such as NVDA or VoiceOver, verifying that headings, landmarks, button labels, and focus order create a coherent mental model. The common footgun is treating automated axe passes as equivalent to a human listening through a flow; automation catches missing alt text, but only a person can tell if a blind user gets lost in a modal.