Tracking Accessibility Features Usage in Apps: Screenreader and Keyboard Events | Mixpanel Community

Tracking Accessibility Features Usage in Apps: Screenreader and Keyboard Events

Hey! For those of you working with apps, how do you track accessibility features usage? Is there a way to get events from users who are using screenreader and bluetooth keyboard?

7 comments

Eric N.
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Hi Marina! Great question - what information were you trying to get in your events?
Marina V.
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Hi! Well basically just some binary event, keyboard user = yes, screen reader user = yes, or similar
Eric N.
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Hmm, I have not run into that myself, but maybe someone in the community can answer that
Eric N.
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Are you looking how to send that data in or how to retrieve that data in your project?
Marina V.
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Just gauging how many users we have with assistive technologies
Marina V.
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Since we are doing accessibility improvements
Eric N.
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Mixpanel has no out of the box solution for this, but I just did a quick search online to find if there was a way to do this and it appears there is not. Excerpt from the Bureau of Internet Accessibility website:
Screen readers don’t provide user agent strings When web browsers access websites, they send User Agent (UA) strings when making requests. UA strings contain basic information about the user, which can help the website’s server deliver an appropriate version of the requested content. However, UA strings are limited to information perceptible to the browser such as the browser’s version and operating system. If the user’s screen reader is part of the browser application, this information could be theoretically included as part of the UA string — but currently, web browsers don’t include this information in their requests. Additionally, most screen reader programs run separately from web browser applications. According to a survey from WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind), the two most popular screen readers are NVDA and JAWS. About 80% of survey respondents identified one of these two programs as their primary desktop/laptop screen reader. If the user’s screen reader operates separately from the web browser, the browser can’t recognize whether the screen reader is running. Even if browsers suddenly began including screen reader usage in UA strings, they wouldn’t be able to report that information reliably.
Looking further online, I see more confirmation that it is not possible to track whether users use screen readers, high contrast settings, alternate pointer devices, using JAWS, and other accessibility settings/tools. Stack Exchange Post Stack Overflow Post I know this was not what you were hoping to hear. For that, you have my sincerest apologies, but I hope this addressed your question.
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