# JAWS screen reader, Discourse and Shortcuts

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/jaws-screen-reader-discourse-and-shortcuts/404095
**Category:** Support
**Tags:** accessibility, ux
**Created:** [May 29, 2026, 5:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/jaws-screen-reader-discourse-and-shortcuts/404095 "2026-05-29T17:30:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 1

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### Author: ![happyhappy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/58f4c7/32.png) [@happyhappy](https://meta.discourse.org/u/happyhappy)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2026, 5:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/jaws-screen-reader-discourse-and-shortcuts/404095/1 "2026-05-29T17:30:53Z")

</div>

I am working with a user who must access Discourse using the JAWS screen reader. Our first attempt was slow as the JAWS shortcuts somehow interfered with those of Discourse.

Is there a tutorial or any advice on how to make this work smoothly? It looks like the Discourse shortcuts cover much of what a user will want to do.

Relatedly, categories in our instance are set up with subcategories. JAWS likes to read them all out in a string, making it impossible to ‘choose’ a sub-category from the list to go to. This may be an artifact of trying to use JAWS in a generic, non-Discourse way, but I welcome others’ thoughts about how to make this a better experience.

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